[中石油职称英语电子版]2017中石油职称英语新版选读文章系列(1)

The Value of Time 时间的价值

　　1."Time" says the proverb "is money". This means that every moment well-spent may put some money into our pockets. If our time is usefully employed, it will either produce some useful and important piece of work which will fetch its price in the market, or it will add to our experience and increase our capacities so as to enable us to earn money when the proper opportunity comes. There can thus be no doubt that time is convertible into money. Let those who think nothing of wasting time remember this; let them remember that an hour misspent is equivalent to the loss of a banknote; and that an hour utilized is tantamount to so much silver or gold; and then they will probably think twice before they give their consent to the loss of any part of their time.

　　翻译：谚语说：“时间就是金钱。”这句话的意思是，一时片刻只要用得有效， 都会让我们的口袋增添一些钱。如果我们的时间使用得当，就能生产出有用 的、重要的产品，在市场上卖得一定的价钱;就能充实经验，增长才干，等 到适当的时机来临时，我们就能挣得金钱。因此，毫无疑问，时间可以转化 为金钱。让那些对浪费时间满不在乎的人记住这一点。让他们记住，浪费一 小时等于损失一张钞票，而利用一小时就等于得到若干金银。这样，他们想 浪费时间时或许会三思而后行。

　　2.Moreover, our life is nothing more than our time. To kill time is therefore a form of suicide. We are shocked when we think of death, and we spare no pains, no trouble, and no expense to preserve life. But we are too often indifferent to loss of an hour or of a day, forgetting that our life is the sum total of the days and of the hours we live. A day or an hour wasted is therefore so much life forfeited. Let us bear this in mind, and waste of time will appear to us in the light of a crime as culpable as suicide itself.

　　翻译：再说，我们的生命无非就是我们活在人世的时间。因此，浪费时间也 就是一种自杀。我们想到死，便惊恐不已，因而不惜一切努力、麻烦和费用 来保全我们的生命。可是，我们对于损失一个小时或者一天的时间却往往漠 不关心、无动于衷，忘记了我们的生命原本就是我们生活的每一天、每一小 时的总和。因此，浪费一天或一小时也就是丧失一天或一小时的生命。让我 们记住这一点，这样就会把浪费时间看作一种罪过，跟自杀一样应该受到惩罚。

　　3.There is a third consideration which will also tend to warn us against loss of time. Our life is a brief span measuring some sixty or seventy years in all, but nearly one half of this has to be spent in sleep; some years have to be spent over our meals; some over dressing and undressing; some in making journeys on land and voyages by sea; some in merry-making, either on our own account or for the sake of others; some in celebrating religious and social festivities; some in watching over the sick-beds of our nearest and dearest relatives. Now if all these years were to be deducted from the term over which our life extends, we shall find about fifteen or twenty years at our disposal for active work. Whoever remembers this can never willingly waste a single moment of his life. "It is astonishing" says Lord Chesterfield, "that anyone can squander away in absolute idleness one single moment of that portion of time which is allotted to us in this world. Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it!"

　　翻译还有第三层考虑，也会提醒我们别浪费时间。人生短暂，总共不过六 七十年，可是将近一半时间必须用于睡眠;吃饭时间加起来也得花去一些年; 穿衣脱衣又是一些年;水陆、陆路旅行又是一些年;再加上一些年娱乐时间 (不论是为自己还是为别人);一些年宗教节日和社会节日的庆祝活动;还有 一些年在病床边照看至亲至爱。现在如果从我们的寿命中扣除所有这些岁月， 我们将会发现，能受我们支配的有效的工作时间大约仅十五或二十年而己。 谁能记住这一点，谁就不会心甘情愿地浪费他生命的分分秒秒和每时每刻。 查斯特菲尔德勋爵说过，“对于分配给我们这一生的时间，若有人游手好闲， 即使浪费片刻，也是令人吃惊的。要认识到时间的真正价值，要争分夺秒， 充分利用有限的时间。”

　　4.All time is precious; but the time of our childhood and of our youth is more precious than any other portion of our existence, for those are the periods when alone we can acquire knowledge and develop our faculties and capacities. If we allow these morning hours of life to slip away, unutilized, we shall never be able to recoup the loss. As we grow older, our power of acquisition gets blunted, so that the art or science which is not acquired in childhood or youth will never be acquired at all. Just as money laid out at interest doubles and trebles itself in time, so the precious hours of childhood and youth, if properly used, will yield us incalculable advantages. "Every moment you lose" says Lord Chesterfield "is so much character and advantage lost; as on the other hand, every moment you now employ usefully is so much time wisely laid out at prodigious interest."

　　翻译：所有的时间都是宝贵的，而我们童年和青年时期的光阴比一生中的其他阶段都更为宝贵，因为只有在这两个阶段我们才能获取知识、增长才干和发展各种才能。如果我们让这些生命的早晨时光悄悄溜走，这损失将永远也 无法弥补。等我们长大了，获得知识的能力就变得迟钝了，因此在童年和青年时期未能获得的知识和技能将永远不能获得了。储蓄金钱，产生利息，到 时候会翻两三倍;同样，童年和青年时期的宝贵时光，如果使用得当，必将带来不可估量的收益。查斯特菲尔德勋爵还说过，“丧失的每一时刻就等于丧失了与之相当的名和利。从另一方面看，你现在有效利用的每一时刻正是明 智地以这时间作为投资，将来定会获取巨额的利息。”

　　5.A proper employment of time is of great benefit to us from a moral point of view. Idleness is justly said to be the rust of the mind and an idle brain is said to be Satan's workshop. It is mostly when you do not know what to do with yourself that you do something ill or wrong. The mind of the idler preys upon itself. As Watts has said: In works of labor or of skill

　　Let me be busy too;

　　For Satan finds some mischief still

　　For idle hands to do.

　　翻译：从道德的观点来看，恰当地利用时间对我们也有很大的好处。懒惰是心灵上的锈迹，懒人的头脑是撒旦的作坊，这话说得很有理。犯错误大多数是由于无所事事、百无聊赖所致。懒人只会自寻烦恼和作茧自缚。正如艾萨克，瓦茨所说，“我要勤快地工作，不管是粗活还是细活;因为撒且还有些坏事，专借懒人的手去做。”

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