不去讀書就沒有真正的教養，同時也不可能有什麼鑑別力。以下是小編為大家搜尋整理的2017年中石油職稱英語選讀文章，希望能給大家帶來幫助!更多精彩內容請及時關注我們應屆畢業生考試網!
The Value of Time 時間的價值
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.
翻譯：諺語說：“時間就是金錢。”這句話的意思是，一時片刻只要用得有效， 都會讓我們的口袋增添一些錢。如果我們的時間使用得當，就能生產出有用 的、重要的產品，在市場上賣得一定的價錢;就能充實經驗，增長才幹，等 到適當的時機來臨時，我們就能掙得金錢。因此，毫無疑問，時間可以轉化 為金錢。讓那些對浪費時間滿不在乎的人記住這一點。讓他們記住，浪費一 小時等於損失一張鈔票，而利用一小時就等於得到若干金銀。這樣，他們想 浪費時間時或許會三思而後行。
over, 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.
翻譯：再說，我們的生命無非就是我們活在人世的時間。因此，浪費時間也 就是一種自殺。我們想到死，便驚恐不已，因而不惜一切努力、麻煩和費用 來保全我們的生命。可是，我們對於損失一個小時或者一天的時間卻往往漠 不關心、無動於衷，忘記了我們的生命原本就是我們生活的每一天、每一小 時的總和。因此，浪費一天或一小時也就是喪失一天或一小時的生命。讓我 們記住這一點，這樣就會把浪費時間看作一種罪過，跟自殺一樣應該受到懲罰。
e 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!"
翻譯還有第三層考慮，也會提醒我們別浪費時間。人生短暫，總共不過六 七十年，可是將近一半時間必須用於睡眠;吃飯時間加起來也得花去一些年; 穿衣脫衣又是一些年;水陸、陸路旅行又是一些年;再加上一些年娛樂時間 (不論是為自己還是為別人);一些年宗教節日和社會節日的慶祝活動;還有 一些年在病床邊照看至親至愛。現在如果從我們的壽命中扣除所有這些歲月， 我們將會發現，能受我們支配的有效的工作時間大約僅十五或二十年而己。 誰能記住這一點，誰就不會心甘情願地浪費他生命的分分秒秒和每時每刻。 查斯特菲爾德勳爵說過，“對於分配給我們這一生的時間，若有人遊手好閒， 即使浪費片刻，也是令人吃驚的。要認識到時間的真正價值，要爭分奪秒， 充分利用有限的時間。”
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."
翻譯：所有的時間都是寶貴的.，而我們童年和青年時期的光陰比一生中的其他階段都更為寶貴，因為只有在這兩個階段我們才能獲取知識、增長才乾和發展各種才能。如果我們讓這些生命的早晨時光悄悄溜走，這損失將永遠也 無法彌補。等我們長大了，獲得知識的能力就變得遲鈍了，因此在童年和青年時期未能獲得的知識和技能將永遠不能獲得了。儲蓄金錢，產生利息，到 時候會翻兩三倍;同樣，童年和青年時期的寶貴時光，如果使用得當，必將帶來不可估量的收益。查斯特菲爾德勳爵還說過，“喪失的每一時刻就等於喪失了與之相當的名和利。從另一方面看，你現在有效利用的每一時刻正是明 智地以這時間作為投資，將來定會獲取鉅額的利息。”
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.
翻譯：從道德的觀點來看，恰當地利用時間對我們也有很大的好處。懶惰是心靈上的鏽跡，懶人的頭腦是撒旦的作坊，這話說得很有理。犯錯誤大多數是由於無所事事、百無聊賴所致。懶人只會自尋煩惱和作繭自縛。正如艾薩克，瓦茨所說，“我要勤快地工作，不管是粗活還是細活;因為撒且還有些壞事，專借懶人的手去做。”
English is a Crazy Language 英語是一門瘋狂的語言
's face it-English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England nor French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads,which aren't sweet,are meat.
翻譯：讓我們接受現實吧--英語是一種瘋狂的語言。茄子(eggplant，字面意為雞蛋植物)裡並沒有雞蛋，漢堡包(hamburger，字面意為火腿夾餅)裡也沒有火腿。同樣，菠蘿(pineapple，字面意為松樹蘋果)裡既沒有松樹也沒有蘋果。鬆餅(English muffin，字面意為英式鬆餅)並不是英國人發明的，而炸薯條(French fries，字面意為法式油炸食品)也不是法國人的發明。“甜肉”(sweetmeat)指的是蜜餞，而“甜麵包”(sweetbread)不是甜的，它指的是牛雜碎。
take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes,we find that quicksand can work slowly,boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why it is that writers write but fingers don't fing,grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth,why isn't the plural of booth beeth? If you have one goose,two geese,why not one moose,two meese,or one index,two indices?
翻譯：我們理所當然地接受了英語的一切，但是如果我們分析一下英語中似是而非的情況，我們馬上就會發現“快的沙子”(quicksand，流沙，也指陷阱，困境)往往走得很慢，“拳擊的圓圈”(boxing rings，拳擊場)是方的，“幾內亞豬”(guinea pig，天竺鼠)既不是來自幾內亞，也不是豬。還有，既然名詞作家(writers)去掉詞尾的rs 就可以成為動詞“寫作(write)”，那為什麼名詞“手指”(fingers)、雜貨店(grocers)、錘子(hammers)去掉rs就不能成為各自相應的動詞呢?如果牙齒的複數是teeth，那為什麼售貨亭的複數不是beeth?一隻鵝我們用goose，兩隻鵝用geese，那麼，一隻駝鹿用moose(單複數同形)，兩隻駝鹿就應該是meese了?為什麼一條索引是index，兩條索引卻成了indices?
n't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend,or that you can comb through the annals of history but not a single annal? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them,what do you call it?
翻譯：如果你賠償時只能賠償複數不能賠償單數，這是不是很莫名其妙?你可以梳理歷史的編年史，為什麼卻不能複習某一個單個的編年史?如果你有一堆麻煩，那麼在你把其他的都解決了只剩下一個的時候該怎麼說呢?
teachers taught,why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables,what does a humanitarian eat?
翻譯：如果教師教學是taught，那為什麼傳教士不是praught?如果素食主義者(vegetarian)吃蔬菜(vegetable)，那人道主義者(humanitarian)吃什麼?
times I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital; ship by truck and send cargo by ship; have noses that run and feet that smell; park on driveways and drive on parkways?
翻譯：有時候我覺得根據英國人說話時瘋狂的用詞可以將他們送進精神病院。哪一種語言人們可以在一齣戲中朗誦，在朗誦中玩(分別指演戲和開獨唱會)?用卡車運船，用船運貨(分別只用卡車運輸和用船運輸)?鼻子可以跑而腳可以聞味道(分別指流鼻涕和腳有臭味)?車可以停在駕駛路上，而且在停車路上駕駛(driveway從字面上理解是駕駛路，parkway從字面上理解是停車路)。
can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,while a wise man and wise guy are opposites,and quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another?
翻譯：為什麼一個苗條的機會(slim chance，指沒機會)和一個肥胖的機會(fat chant，也指沒機會)意思是一樣的，而一個聰明的人(wise man，聰明人)和一個聰明的傢伙(wise guy，自作聰明的人)卻意思相反?為什麼相當多(quite a lot)和相當少(quite a few)意思一樣?(實際上quite a lot和quite a few都是相當多的意思。)為什麼天氣可以熱的像地獄也可以冷得像地獄?(as hell字面意思像地獄一樣，指非常)
have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down,in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm clock goes off by going on.
翻譯：你不得不對這種精神病一樣的語言表示驚奇，在這種語言中，你的房子在被燒下去(burn down，意為燒為平地)的同時又被燒上去(burn up，意為燒起來，燒掉)。你用填出來(fill out，意為填寫)的方法填進去(fill in,意思也是填寫)一個表格。鬧鐘在走(go on)的時候響(go off)了。
ish was invented by people,not computers,and it reflects the creativity of the human race. That is why,when the stars are out,they are visible,but when the lights are out,they are invisible. And why,when I wind up my watch,I start it,but when I wind up this essay,I end it?
翻譯：英語是人而不是機器創造出來的語言，它反映了人類的創造性。這也是為什麼當星星出來的時候，我們是看得見的，當陽光出來(out)的時候是看不見的。同理，我“處理”我的手錶之後，它就開始(走)了;而我“處理”完這篇文章後，它卻結束了。
