Learning: a Lifelong Career
As food is to the body, so is learning to the mind.①Our bodies grow and muscles develop with the intake of adequate nutritious food. Likewise, we should keep learning day by day to maintain our keen mental power and expand our intellectual capacity. Constant learning supplies us with inexhaustible fuel for driving us to sharpen our power of reasoning, analysis, and judgment.② Learning incessantly is the surest way to keep pace with the times in the information age, and reliable warrant of success in times of uncertainty.
Once learning stops, vegetation sets in. It is a common fallacy to regard school as the only workshop for the acquisition of knowledge. On the contrary, learning should be a never ending process, from the cradle to the grave. With the world changing so fast, to cease learning for just a few days will make a person lag behind. What’ s worse, the animal instinct dormant deep in our sub-conscious will come to life, weakening our will to pursue our noble ideas, undermining our determination to sweep away obstacles to our success and strangling our desire for the refinement of our character. Lack of learning will inevitably lead to the stagnation of the mind, or even worse, its fossilization.③ Therefore, to stay mentally young, we have to take learning as a lifelong career.
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作文点评
本文首先从正面论证主题，首句点题，并通过对首句的解释进一步说明终生学习的意义。之后作者结合时代变化的特征，用the surest way以及reliable warrant说明了持续学习的现实意义。第二段作者从反面来论证自己的观点，说明停止学习会导致的严重后果。最后用therefore引出全文的结束语，再次重申观点，并与文章题目相呼应。
本文开篇引用As...is to..., so is... to... 的经典句型开门见山，将学习对心智的重要性比作食物对身体的重要性，生动形象。行文流畅，并能结合时代特征;首尾呼应，画龙点睛。
好文妙译
学习：一生的事业
学习之于心智，就像食物之于身体一样。摄取了适量的营养食物，我们的身体得以生长而肌肉得以发达。同样地，我们应该日复一日不断地学习以保持我们心智的敏锐，并增长我们的智力。不断的学习像是为我们的前进提供了用之不尽的能量，驱使我们磨砺自身推理、分析和判断的能力。持续的学习是在信息时代中与时俱进的最稳妥的方法，也是在无常变化的时代中求得成功的可靠保证。
一旦学习停止，单调贫乏的生活就开始了。视学校为汲取知识的惟一场所是种常见的谬误。相反，从生到死，学习应该是一种无终止的历程。由于世界变化日新月异，学习过程停顿几天，就会使人落后。而更为糟糕的是，蛰伏在我们潜意识深处的动物本能就会复活，削弱我们追求高尚理想的意志，弱化我们扫除成功障碍的决心，并且扼杀我们净化自身人格的追求。缺少学习将不可避免地导致心智的停滞，甚至更糟，使其僵化。因此，为了保持青春永驻，我们必须将学习当作一生的事业。
词汇斟酌
inexhaustible a. 无穷无尽的
incessantly ad. 不断地，不停地英语作文
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