WHEN yu are twenty yearsld， what d yu think yu will be ding？ Will yu be attending cllege？
Will yu be wrking，r what？
When Alexander was twenty， he was kingf bth Macednia and Greece. But Macednia and Greece were entirely t small fr this wnderful yung man. He wanted t rule a much bigger cuntry； in fact， he thught he wuld like t rule the whle wrld； that was all-nthing mre.
S Alexander went right ahead with his father"s plan t cnquer Persia. The time had cme t pay back Persia fr that last invasinne hundred and fifty years befre.
He gt tgether an army and crssed the Hellespnt int Asia and wn battleafter battle against the first Persian armies that wentut t stp him.
He kept mvingn， fr Persia was a vast empire.
Sn he came t a twn where in a temple there was kept a rpe tied int a very farfamed and puzzling knt. It was called the Grdian Knt， and it was very famus because theracle had said that whever shuld und this knt wuld cnquer Persia. Nne had ever been able t untie it.
When Alexander heard the stry， he went t the temple and tk a lk at the knt. He saw atnce that it wuld be impssible t untie it， s， insteadf even trying， asthers had dne， he drew his swrd and withne strke cut the knt in tw.
Nw when a persn settles smething difficult， nt by fussing with it asne untangles a snarl， but at a single strke， cutting thrugh all difficulties， we say he "cuts the Grdian Knt."Frm that timen， Alexander cnqueredne city after anther and never lst any battlef imprtance until he had cnquered the whlef Persia.
He then went int Egypt， which belnged t Persia at that time， and cnquered that cuntry， t. T celebrate this victry， he funded a twn near the muthf the Nile and named it after himself， Alexandria. He started there a great library that later grew t be s big that there were said t be five hundred thusand bks in it-that is， half a millin-and was the largest libraryfancient times. The bks were nt like thse in the libraryf Ashurbanipal nr the kind we have nw，f curse， because printing had nt been invented. They were everynef them written by hand， and ntn pages， butn lng sheets which were rlled upn sticks t frm a scrll.
In the harbrf Alexandria was a little island called Phars， andn this island sme years later was built a remarkable lighthuse named fr the island， the Phars. It was really a building mre like a mdern skyscraper with a twer. It wasA scrll， pens， and ink（卷轴、笔和墨水）ver thirty stries high， which seemed mst remarkable at that time when mstbuildings werenlyner tw stries high， and its light culd be seen fr many miles. The Pharsf Alexandria was callednef the Seven Wndersf the Wrld. Yu have already heardf threethers， s this makes the furth.
Alexandria grew， in the cursef time， t be the largest and mst imprtant seaprtf the ancient wrld. Nw， hwever， the Phars and the library and all theld buildings have lng since disappeared.
Alexander did nt stay very lng in anyne place. He was restless. He wanted t keepn the mve. He wanted t see new places and t cnquer new peple. He almst frgt hiswn little cuntryf Macednia and Greece. Insteadf being hmesick， hwever， as almst anyne wuld have been， he kept ging farther and farther away frm hme all the time. We shuld call such a man an adventurerr an explrer， as well as a great general. Alexander keptn cnquering and didn"t stp cnquering until he had reached far-ff India.
There in India his army， which had stayedn with him all the way， became hmesick and wanted t g back. They had been away frm hme fr mre than ten years and were s farff that they were afraid they wuld never get back.
Alexander was nwnly thirty yearsld， but he was called Alexander the Great， fr he was rulerf the whle wrld-at least， mstf it that was then knwn t mst Greeks， except Italy， which was stillnly a cllectinf little， unimprtant twns at that time. When Alexander fund there were n mre cuntries left fr him t cnquer， he was s disappinted that he wept！
At last， when there was nthing mre t cnquer， he agreed t d what his army begged him and started slwly back tward Greece.
He gt as far as Babyln， the citynce s large and s magnificent. There he celebrated with a feast， but while feasting and drinking he suddenly died. He never reached Greece.
This was in 323 B.C. when he was but 33 yearsld. Yu can remember these figures easily， fr they are all 3"s except the middle figure in the date， which isne less than 3.
Alexander the Great had cnquered the largest cuntry that had ever been under the rulefne man， and yet this was nt thenly reasn we call him the Great.
He was ntnly a great ruler and a great general， but-this may surprise yu-he was als a great teacher. Aristtle had taught him t be that.
Alexander taught the Greek language t the peple he cnquered s that they culd read Greek bks. He taught them abut Greek sculpture and painting. He taught them the wise sayingsf the Greek philsphers， Scrates and Plat and hiswn teacher， Aristtle. He trained the peple in athletics as the Greeks did fr theirlympic Games.
Alexander had married a beautiful Persian wman named Rxana， but theirnly child was still a baby， nt brn until after his father"s death； s when the great king died there was nne t rule after him. He had tld his generals befre he died that the strngestnef them shuld be the next ruler； they must fight itut amng themselves.
His generals did fight t see wh shuld win， and finally furf them whwere victrius decided t divide up this great empire and each have a share.
nef his generals was named Ptlemy I， and he tk Egypt as his share and ruled well； but thethers did nt amunt t much， and after a while their shares became unimprtant and went t pieces. Like a ty balln which stretches and stretches as yu blw it up， Alexander"s empire grew bigger and bigger until- allf a sudden-pp-nthing was left but the pieces.
【中文阅读】
你觉得你到了 20 岁，你会在干什么？ 是在上大学吗？ 是在工作吗？还是在干别的什么？
亚历山大 20 岁的时候，已经是马其顿和希腊的国王了。但是对这个杰出的年轻 人来说，马其顿和希腊实在是太小了。他想统治一个更大的国家，甚至他觉得他要 统治整个世界，也就是说--地球上所有的地方。
因此，亚历山大马上开始实行他父亲征服波斯的计划，现在到了惩罚波斯、让 它为上次一百五十年前的入侵付出代价的时候了。
他集合了一支军队，穿过达达尼尔海峡进入亚洲，与到前线阻止他们进犯的波 斯先遣部队展开了战斗，并连连获胜。
他继续行进，因为波斯是个庞大的帝国。 很快，他来到一个镇子，那里有座庙，庙里有根绳子，绳子因为打了个奇怪的结而闻名遐迩，这个绳结叫"戈耳迪之节"，它之所以非常有名是因为神谕说过谁能 解开它，谁就将征服波斯。一直没有人能解开它。
亚历山大听说了这个故事，就来到这座庙，看了看这个结，一眼就看出这个结 根本就不可能解开，于是，与别人不同，他连试都不试，抽出利剑，向下用力一挥， 把结斩成了两段。
现在，有人解决某个难题时，不是像解开一团乱麻那样，纠缠于各个细节，而 是快刀斩乱麻，干脆利落地一下子就克服了所有困难，我们就说他"斩断了戈耳迪 之节"。
从此以后，亚历山大征服了一座又一座城市，从未在任何重要战役中失过手， 直至征服了整个波斯。
随后，他进入了埃及，埃及当时是属于波斯的，他也征服了这个国家。为了庆 祝这次胜利，他在尼罗河河口附近创建了一个城镇，并以自己的名字命名为亚历山 大。他在那里还开设了一座很大的图书馆，后来这座图书馆变得非常庞大，据说那 里有五十万册藏书--那就是一百万的一半--它是古代最大的图书馆。当然，这 些书和亚述巴尼拔图书馆中的书不同，当然也和我们今天的书不一样，因为当时还 没发明印刷术。每本书都是手写的，但不是写在一页一页的纸上，而是写在很长的 纸上，这些纸卷在木棍上，形成卷轴。
亚历山大城的港湾里有个叫法罗斯的小岛，几年后岛上建了一座著名的灯塔， 后来以小岛的名字命名为"法罗斯岛灯塔"。它真的更像一座现代的带塔楼的摩天 大楼。它有三十多层楼那么高，当时看起来非常不同寻常，因为那时大多数建筑只 有一两层楼那么高，而且灯塔上的亮光可以在很多英里以外都能看见。亚历山大的 法罗斯岛灯塔被称为世界七大奇迹之一。你已经听过其中三个了，因此，这是第四 个了。
亚历山大城逐渐发展，最终成了古代世界最大、最重要的海港城市。但是，到 了现在，法罗斯岛灯塔、图书馆和所有这些古代建筑早已不复存在了。
亚历山大没有在任何一个地方久留。他闲不下来，总想继续不断前行。他想看 到新的地方，想征服新的民族。他几乎忘记了自己的马其顿小国和希腊。然而，和 别人不一样，他一点也不思乡，总是不停地前进，离家越来越远。我们应该把这样 一个人不仅称为伟大的将领，而且还要称作冒险家或探险家。亚历山大不断地征服 了一个又一个地方，直到他来到遥远的印度。
进入印度后，一直跟随他征战的军队，犯起了思乡病，想回家了。他们已经离 家十多年了，此刻离家那么远，他们担心再也回不去了。
亚历山大这时只有 30 岁，但是已被称为"亚历山大大帝"了，因为他是整个世 界的主宰--至少，对大多数希腊人来说，他们所知道的世界的大部分都已被他征 服了，除了意大利，那时候的意大利只不过是一些微不足道的小城镇罢了。当亚历 山大发现再没有什么国家剩下来可以让他征服的时候，他竟然失望得哭泣起来！
最后，当再没有地方可以征服的时候，他终于同意了战士们的请求，开始缓缓 地撤回希腊。
他最远到了巴比伦，那个曾经一度无比辉煌而庞大的城市。在那儿，他举行了 一次庆祝盛宴，但是就在纵酒狂欢的时候，他突然死去了。他再没有回到希腊。
他死于公元前 323 年，当时他只有 33 岁。你能很容易记住这些数字，因为除了 日期当中的那个数字是 2，全都是 3。
亚历山大征服的土地最多，这些领土都归于他一人的统治之下，但这并不是我 们称他为"大帝"的唯一原因。
他不仅是个伟大的统治者、伟大的将领 ， 而且--这可能会让你吃惊--还是一 个了不起的教师。亚里士多德教育他成为一名教师。亚历山大把希腊语教给了他所 征服的人，这样他们就能读希腊的书籍。他教给他们关于希腊的雕刻和绘画方面的 技巧，他还把希腊哲学家们所说过的名言警句教给他们，这些哲学家就是苏格拉底、 柏拉图，还有他自己的老师亚里士多德。他还对他们进行体育训练，就和希腊人为 参加奥林匹克运动会所做的一样。
亚历山大娶了一个美丽的波斯女子，她的名字叫罗克珊娜。但是，他们唯一的 孩子还只是一个小小的婴儿，是在亚历山大死后才出生的。因此，这位伟大的国王 死后，没有人能继承他的大业。在他死前曾对众多将领说，他们中最强大的人将会 成为下一位统治者，而他们之间必须通过打斗决出人选。
他的将领们真的互相决斗，看谁能获胜，最后有四个人获得了胜利，这四个人 决定把这个庞大的帝国分为四份，每个人分得一块地盘。
其中一个将领名叫托勒密一世，他得到的地盘是埃及，并且还把埃及治理得很 好。但其他三个人就没什么成就，过了一段时期之后，他们的领土都逐渐衰落下去， 并且四分五裂了。这就像吹气球一样，你不断地吹气，气球就变得越来越大，亚历 山大的帝国也是这样越来越大，直到--突然--"啪"的一声--什么都没了， 只剩下了一堆碎片。