在大多数美国人的心目中，马克•吐温是位伟大作家，他描写了哈克•费恩永恒的童年时代中充满诗情画意的旅程和汤姆•索亚在漫长的夏日里自由自在历险探奇的故事。的确，这位美国最受人喜爱的作家的探索精神、爱国热情、浪漫气质及幽默笔调都达到了登峰造极的程度。但通过对马克吐温自传的阅读，我却发现了另一个不同的马克•吐温——一个由于深受人生悲剧的打击而变得愤世嫉俗、尖酸刻薄的马克•吐温，一个为人类品质上的弱点而忧心忡忡、明显地看到前途是一片黑暗的人。

Being told I would be expected to talk here, I inquired what sort of talk I ought to make. They said it should be something suitable to youth-something didactic, instructive, or something in the nature of good advice. Very well. I have a few things in my mind which I have often longed to say for the instruction of the young; for it is in one’s tender early years that such things will best take root and be most enduring and most valuable. First, then. I will say to you my young friends—and I say it beseechingly, urgingly—
Always obey your parents, when they are present. This is the best policy in the long run, because if you don’t, they will make you. Most parents think they know better than you do, and you can generally make more by humoring that superstition than you can by acting on your own better judgment.
Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any, also to strangers, and sometimes to others. If a person offend you, and you are in doubt as to whether it was intentional or not, do not resort to extreme measures; simply watch your chance and hit him with a brick. That will be sufficient. If you shall find that he had not intended any offense, come out frankly and confess yourself in the wrong when you struck him; acknowledge it like a man and say you didn’t mean to. Yes, always avoid violence; in this age of charity and kindliness, the time has gone by for such things. Leave dynamite to the low and unrefined.
Go to bed early, get up early- this is wise. Some authorities say get up with the sun; some say get up with one thing, others with another. But a lark is really the best thing to get up with. It gives you a splendid reputation with everybody to know that you get up with the lark; and if you get the right kind of lark, and work at him right, you can easily train him to get up at half past nine, every time—it’s no trick at all.
Now as to the matter of lying. You want to be very careful about lying; otherwise you are nearly sure to get caught. Once caught, you can never again be in the eyes to the good and the pure, what you were before. Many a young person has injured himself permanently through a single clumsy and ill finished lie, the result of carelessness born of incomplete training. Some authorities hold that the young out not to lie at all. That of course, is putting it rather stronger than necessary; still while I cannot go quite so far as that, I do maintain , and I believe I am right, that the young ought to be temperate in the use of this great art until practice and experience shall give them that confidence, elegance, and precision which alone can make the accomplishment graceful and profitable. Patience, diligence, painstaking attention to detail—these are requirements; these in time, will make the student perfect; upon these only, may he rely as the sure foundation for future eminence. Think what tedious years of study, thought, practice, experience, went to the equipment of that peerless old master who was able to impose upon the whole world the lofty and sounding maxim that “Truth is mighty and will prevail”—the most majestic compound fracture of fact which any of woman born has yet achieved. For the history of our race, and each individual’s experience, are sewn thick with evidences that a truth is not hard to kill, and that a lie well told is immortal. There is in Boston a monument of the man who discovered anesthesia; many people are aware, in these latter days, that that man didn’t discover it at all, but stole the discovery from another man. Is this truth mighty, and will it prevail? Ah no, my hearers, the monument is made of hardy material, but the lie it tells will outlast it a million years. An awkward, feeble, leaky lie is a thing which you ought to make it your unceasing study to avoid; such a lie as that has no more real permanence than an average truth. Why, you might as well tell the truth at once and be done with it. A feeble, stupid, preposterous lie will not live two years—except it be a slander upon somebody. It is indestructible, then of course, but that is no merit of yours. A final word: begin your practice of this gracious and beautiful art early—begin now. If I had begun earlier, I could have learned how.
Never handle firearms carelessly. The sorrow and suffering that have been caused through the innocent but heedless handling of firearms by the young! Only four days ago, right in the next farm house to the one where I am spending the summer, a grandmother, old and gray and sweet, one of the loveliest spirits in the land, was sitting at her work, when her young grandson crept in and got down an old, battered, rusty gun which had not been touched for many years and was supposed not to be loaded, and pointed it at her, laughing and threatening to shoot. In her fright she ran screaming and pleading toward the door on the other side of the room; but as she passed him he placed the gun almost against her very breast and pulled the trigger! He had supposed it was not loaded. And he was right—it wasn’t. So there wasn’t any harm done. It is the only case of that kind I ever heard of. Therefore, just the same, don’t you meddle with old unloaded firearms; they are the most deadly and unerring hings that have ever been created by man. You don’t have to take any pains at all with them; you don’t have to have a rest, you don’t have to have any sights on the gun, you don’t have to take aim, even. No, you just pick out a relative and bang away, and you are sure to get him. A youth who can’t hit a cathedral at thirty yards with a Gatling gun in three quarters of an hour, can take up an old empty musket and bag his grandmother every time, at a hundred. Think what Waterloo would have been if one of the armies had been boys armed with old muskets supposed not to be loaded, and the other army had been composed of their female relations. The very thought of it make one shudder.
There are many sorts of books; but good ones are the sort for the young to read. remember that. They are a great, an inestimable, and unspeakable means of improvement. Therefore be careful in your selection, my young friends; be very careful; confine yourselves exclusively to Robertson’s Sermons, Baxter’s Saint’s Rest, The Innocents Abroad, and works of that kind.
But I have said enough. I hope you will treasure up the instructions which I have given you, and make them a guide to your feet and a light to your understanding. Build your character thoughtfully and painstakingly upon these precepts, and by and by, when you have got it built, you will be surprised and gratified to see how nicely and sharply it resembles everybody else’s
什么是读后感？ 在读过一篇文章或一本书之后，把获得的感受、体会以及受到的教育、启迪等写下来，写成的文章就叫“读后感”。读后感怎么写？读后感的基本思路如下：
(1)简述原文有关内容。如所读书、文的篇名、作者、写作年代，以及原书或原文的内容概要。写这部分内容是为了交代感想从何而来，并为后文的议论作好铺垫。这部分一定要突出一个“简”字，决不能大段大段地叙述所读书、文的具体内容，而是要简述与感想有直接关系的部分，略去与感想无关的东西。
(2)亮明基本观点。选择感受最深的一点，用一个简洁的句子明确表述出来。这样的句子可称为“观点句”。这个观点句表述的，就是这篇文章的中心论点。“观点句”在文中的位置是可以灵活的，可以在篇首，也可以在篇末或篇中。初学写作的同学，最好采用开门见山的方法，把观点写在篇首。
(3)围绕基本观点摆事实讲道理。这部分就是议论文的本论部分，是对基本观点（即中心论点）的阐述，通过摆事实讲道理证明观点的正确性，使论点更加突出、更有说服力。这个过程应注意的是，所摆事实、所讲道理都必须紧紧围绕基本观点，为基本观点服务。
(4)围绕基本观点联系实际。一篇好的读后感应当有时代气息，有真情实感。要做到这一点，必须善于联系实际。这“实际”可以是个人的思想、言行、经历，也可以是某种社会现象。联系实际时也应当注意紧紧围绕基本观点，为观点服务，而不能盲目联系、前后脱节。以上四点是写读后感的基本思路，但是这思路不是一成不变的，要善于灵活掌握。比如，“简述原文”一般在“亮明观点”前，但二者先后次序互换也是可以的。再者，如果在第三个步骤摆事实讲道理时所摆的事实就是社会现象或个人经历，就不必再写第四个部分了。写读后感应注意以下问题：
一是要重视“读”在“读”与“感”的关系中，“读”是“感”的前提、基础；“感”是“读”
的延伸或者说结果。必须先“读”而后“感”，不“读”则无“感”。因此，要写读后感首先要读懂原文，要准确把握原文的基本内容，正确理解原文的中心思想和关键语句的含义，深入体会作者的写作目的和文中表达的思想感情。
二是要准确选择感受点读完一本书或一篇文章，会有许多感想和体会；对同样一本书或一篇文章，不同的人从不同的角度思考问题，更是会产生不同的看法、受到不同的启迪。以大家熟知的“滥竽充数”成语故事为例，从讽刺南郭先生的角度去思考，可以领悟到没有真本领蒙混过日子的人早晚要“露馅”，认识到掌握真才实学的重要性；若是考虑在齐宣王时南郭先生能混下去的原因，就可以想到领导者要有实事求是的领导作风，不能搞华而不实，否则会给混水摸鱼的人留下空子可钻；再要从管理体制的角度去思考，就可进一步认识到齐宣王的“大锅饭”缺少必要的考评机制，为南郭先生一类的人提供了饱食终日混日子的客观条件，从而联想到改革开放以来,打破“铁饭碗”，废除大锅饭的必要性。一篇读后感，不能写出诸多的感想或体会，这就要加以选择。作为初学者，就要选择自己感受最深又觉得有话可说的一点来写。要注意把握分析问题的角度，注意联系自己的实际情况，从众多的头绪中选择最恰当的感受点，作为全文议论的中心。