中国石油职称英语考试2013新版教材.doc

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. 1.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. 2.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