①People are always talking about 'the problem of youth'. If there is one--which I take leave to doubt -- then it is older people who create it, not the young themselves. Let us get down to fundamentals and agree that the young are after all human beings--people just like their elders. There is only one difference between an old man and a young one: the young man has a glorious future before him and the old one has a splendid future behind him: and maybe that is where the rub is.
(1) take leave to do sth.是“擅自做”、“冒昧去做 leave 允许
= presume to do sth
(2)get down to，专注做某事
例句：He got down to his work after the holidays. 度假之后他开始专心工作。
(3) fundamentals 基本原理
(4) it is older people who create it 强调句
(5)maybe that is where the rub is. 表语从句，where引导表语从句，作表语
(6)human beings--people just like their elders. like their elders介词短语做定语修饰people
②When I was a teenager, I felt that I was just young and uncertain--that I was a new boy in a huge school, and I would have been very pleased to be regarded as something so interesting as a problem. For one thing, being a problem gives you a certain identity, and that is one of the things the young are busily engaged in seeking.
(1)I would have been very pleased to be regarded as something so interesting as a problem.
would have been done --过去本应该做某事 ，虚拟语气
please to do sth --乐意做某事
regarded as --被认为是
(2) identity --认同，身份
(3)be engaged in doing sth. 忙于做某事（正在做）
be engaged to do sth. 忙于做某事
③I find young people exciting. They have an air of freedom, and they have not a dreary commitment to mean ambitions or love of comfort. They are not anxious social climbers, and they have no devotion to material things. All this seems to me to link them with life, and the origins of things. It's as if they were, in some sense, cosmic beings in violent and lovely contrast with us suburban creatures. All that is in my mind when I meet a young person. He may be conceited, ill-mannered, presumptuous or fatuous, but I do not turn for protection to dreary cliches about respect for elders -- as if mere age were a reason for respect. I accept that we are equals, and I will argue with him, as an equal, if I think he is wrong.
(1)air of freedom 无拘无束
(2)they have not a dreary commitment to mean ambitions or love of comfort.
have no +n.
have not a +adj.
dreary commitment 乏味地追逐
mean ambitions 卑鄙的名利
love of comfort 贪图安逸
(3)anxious social climbers 急不可待的攀岩者
devotion 献身， 追求
(4)All this seems (to me) to link them with life, and the origins of things.
life 活力
(5)It's as if they were, in some sense, cosmic beings in violent and lovely contrast with us suburban creatures.
it's +表语从句
as if 要接虚拟语气
in some sense 某种意义上说
cosmic 宇宙的 suburban 郊区的
suburban creatures是us的同位语 suburban creatures 凡夫俗子
in contrast with 和...做对比
violent and lovely 强烈而鲜明地
(6)a young person a表示一类人
(7)conceited 极其自负的
ill-mannered 行为不端的
presumptuous高傲
fatuous 愚笨的
(8)I do not turn （for protection） to dreary cliches about respect for elders做宾语，避免头重脚轻
turn to ... for.. 为...求助
cliche 陈词滥调
all this seems to me 在我看来