判断题
The American is wonderfully alive; and his vitality, not having often found a suitable outlet, makes him appear agitated on the surface; he is always letting of an unnecessarily loud blast of incidental steam. Yet his vitality is not superficial; it is inwardly prompted, and as sensitive and quick as a magnetic needle. He is inquisitive, and ready with an answer to any question that he may put to himself of his own accord; but if you try to pour instruction into him, on matters that do not touch his own spontaneous life, he shows the most extraordinary powers of resistance and forgetfulness; so that he often is remarkably expert in some directions and surprisingly slow in others. He seems to bear lightly the sorrowful burden of human knowledge. In a word, he is young.
What sense is there in this feeling, which we all have that the American is young? His country is blessed with as many elderly people as any other, and his descent from Adam, or form the Darwinian rival of Adam, cannot be shorter than that of his European cousins. Nor are his ideas always very fresh. Old conventions and rigid bits of morality and religion, with much seemly and antique political understanding, remain clear-cut in him, as in the mind of a child; he may carry all this about with an unquestioning familiarity which does not comport understanding. To keep traditional sentiments in this way untouched and uncriticised is itself a sign of youth. A good young man is naturally conservative and loyal on all those subjects which his experience has not brought to a test; advanced opinions on politics, marriage, or literature are comparatively rare in America; they are left for the ladies to discuss, and usually to condemn, while the men get on with their worked. In spite of what is 01d fashioned in his more general ideas, the American is unmistakably young; and this, I should say, for two reasons: one, that he is chiefly occupied with his immediate environment, and the other, that his reactions upon it are inwardly prompted, spontaneous, and full of vivacity and self-trust. His views are not yet lengthened; his will is not yet broken or transformed. The present moment, however in this, as in other things, may mark a great change in him; he is perhaps now reaching his majority, and all I say may hardly apply today, and may not apply at all tomorrow. I speak of him as I have known him; and whatever moral strength may occur to him later, I am not sorry to have known him in his youth. The charm of youth, even when it is a little boisterous, obvious obedience to that pure, seminal principle which, having formed the body and its organs, always directs their movement, unless it is forced by vice or necessity to make them crooked, or remains young, and, wherever it is able to break through, sprouts into something green and tender. We are all as young at heart as the most youthful American, but the seed in his case has fallen upon virgin soil, where it may spring up more bravely and with less respect for the giants of the wood. People seem older when their perennial natural youth is encumbered with more possessions and prepossessions, and they are mindful of the many things they have lost or missed. The American is not mindful to them.

判断题 Americans" vitality is fairly superficial because deep down in their heart, they are very young.

判断题 Americans tend be resistant to the things they are told to do and to the things they do not feel very strongly about.

判断题 Americans are young because in their country, there are not as many elderly people as those in any other European countries.

判断题 A good young man here is generally quite avant-garde, refuting all conventions and traditions.

判断题 We are all as young at heart as the most youthful Americans but our seed is growing upon virgin soil.

判断题 In general, the American character is ambiguous and mysterious.