红色表示重点词汇
蓝色表示句子主干
带着问题听讲解
Q1: “走上人生巅峰”用英文怎么说？
Q2: “nigh on”是什么意思？almost
Q3: 作者认为年轻人不需要太气馁的原因是什么？
Becoming a young tycoon? I can only dream...
What distinguishes extremely successful millennials from the miserable, broke masses? According to those who made it on to the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 list, it’s good old “passion”, “vision” and, most importantly, “grit”.
Of course, there are ways to make it to the top these days without having a small loan of $1m from your father, as Donald Trump did. The richest entrepreneurs on the Forbes list, for example, secured funding from investors.
But privilege goes beyond having extreme sums of cash. With social mobility in the UK stagnating amid years of austerity, taking risky career moves is even further beyond the grasp of those who weren’t born into hotshot families.
It’s not just that it’s nigh on impossible for young people to achieve extreme success – the process of trying to do that can be problematic too. Recent studies show that many young adults are spending over six hours a day feeling stressed about their futures, and that 60% of 18- to 24-year-olds are struggling to cope with the pressure to succeed.
On the flipside, young people needn’t be too demoralised. Stricken as we may be by economic factors, most of us will live longer. The UK already has the worst work/life balance in western Europe, and as we’re in it for the long game, maybe we should rethink our priorities.
Grit, vision and hidden privileges may work for the overachieving few, but the odds are stacked against the rest of us. We should not be made to feel bad about failing to set up multimillion-dollar tech companies, or becoming floppy-haired indie film heartthrobs (like those on the Forbes list) by our 30th birthdays.
成为年轻的人生赢家？我只能做梦了……
是什么将千禧一代中极为成功的那群人，和又惨又穷的普罗大众区分开来？登上 2019 年《福布斯》“30 位 30 岁以下精英”榜单的人表示，关键在于颠扑不破、历久弥新的三个词：“激情”，“远见”，还有最重要的，“坚定”。
对年轻人而言，他们不仅几乎无法获得巨大成功，为了获得成功而努力的过程可能也是有问题的。最近有研究表明，许多年轻人每天有超过 6 个小时为他们的未来感到紧张，18 到 24 岁的年轻人中，有 60% 的人疲于应对想要成功而产生的压力。
另一方面，年轻人不需要太气馁。尽管我们因为经济因素而受到了打击，但我们中的大多数会更长寿。英国已经是西欧地区工作和生活之间最不平衡的国家了，既然我们玩的是一局长盘游戏，也许我们应该重新思考事物的优先级。
当然，如今这时代你就算不像唐纳德·川普那样问父亲贷款 100 万美金，也还是有办法走上巅峰的。比如，《福布斯》榜单上最富有的企业家们，就从投资者手中获得了资金。
但特权不仅仅是拥有数目庞大的财产，在连年经济紧缩的英国，社会流动性处于停滞状态，在职业生涯中做出冒风险的决定，对那些没能出身名门的人来说，更是难以企及。
坚定，远见，还有一些看不见的特权，这些对于一心想要出人头地的少数人或许有用，但对我们当中剩下的那群人来说，获得这种成功的概率并不高。到我们 30 岁生日的时候，就算没能打造数百万美金的科技公司，或是成为独立电影中头发蓬松的美男子（就像《福布斯》榜单上的那些人一样），也不该使我们感到难过。