英语励志美文：时间的价值

　　"Time," says the proverb, "is money". This means that every moment well-spent may put some money into our pockets.

　　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。

　　If our time is usefully employed, it will either turn out 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. Let those, who think nothing of wasting time, remember this.

　　如果我们的时间使用得当，就能生产出有用的和重要的产品，在市场上卖得一定的价钱；或者充实我们的.经验，增长我们的才干，待到适当时机我们就能挣得金钱。那些对浪费时间毫不在意的人该记住这一点。

　　Our life is nothing more than our time. To kill time is therefore a form of s u i c i d e. We are shocked when we think of death, and we spare no pains, no trouble, and no expense to preserve life.

　　再说，我们的生命无非就是我们的时间，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。

　　But we are too often indifferent to the 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 lifeforfeited.Our life is a brief span measuring some seventy or eighty years in all.

　　可是我们对于损失一个小时或一天的时间无动于衷，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。因此浪费一天或一个小时就是丧失一天或一个小时的生命。人生短暂，总共不过七八十年。

　　But nearly one third of this has to be spent in sleep; some years have to be spent over our meals; some in making journeys on land and voyages by sea; some in merry-making; some in watching over the sick-beds of our nearest and dearest relatives.

　　可是将近三分之一的时间必须用睡眠；吃饭也得花去好几年；陆路海上旅游又是几年；再加上娱乐活动的几年，在病床边照看至亲至爱的几年。

　　Now if all these years were to bededucted from the term over which our life extends, we shall find about twenty or thirty years at our disposal for active work. Whoever remembers this can never willingly wastea single moment of his life.

　　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二三十年而已。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。

　　All time is precious; but the time of our childhood and of our youth is more precious than any otherportionof our existence. For those are the periods when alone we can acquire knowledge and develop our capacities.

　　所有的时间都是宝贵的，而我们的童年和青年时期的光阴比一生中其他阶段更为宝贵。因为只有在这两个阶段我们才能获取知识，增长才干。

　　If we allow these morning hours of life to slip away, we shall never be able to recoup the loss. 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.

　　如果我们让这些生命的早晨时光悄悄溜走，这损失永远也无法弥补。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利益。