Time is too precious to waste.

Procrastination is the voluntary delay of an intended action despite the knowledge that this delay may harm the individual in terms of the task performance or even just how the individual feels about the task or him or herself. Procrastination is a needless voluntary delay.

There are many types of delay in our lives.

Delay is a necessary part of our lives. At any given moment, there are any number of things we could do. What will we choose to do? This choice is based partly on our earlier intentions, our plans for the day, but of course, our choice will also depend on the context of the moment. What is happening right now that has an effect on our choices? What is most important now? What is the wisest thing we can do given our goals, responsibilities roles, and desires.

Procrastination, in contrast to other forms of delay, is that voluntary and quite deliberate turning away from Why are we reluctant to act? Why is it we become our own worst enemy?

need to have strategies to overcome this reluctance.

towards changing our behavior.

are procrastination. These are to do something about. Knowing this difference is a good place to start.

The research score high on self-report measures of procrastination also

Procrastination seems to affect health in two ways. First, it causes stress, which is not a good thing for our health for many reasons. Second, chronic procrastinators needlessly delay health behaviors such as exercising, eating healthily, and getting enough sleep. This affects our health negatively, particularly over time.

Procrastination is a problem with not getting on with life itself. When we procrastinate on our goals, we are our worst enemy. These are our goals, our tasks, and we are needlessly putting them off. Our goals are the things that make up a good portion of our lives.

To author our own lives, we have to be an active agent in our lives, not a passive participant making excuses for what we are not doing. When we learn to stop needless, voluntary delay in our lives, we live more fully. It is one thing to know the cost of not acting; it is quite another to have a strong commitment to the goal itself. It is time to make a commitment to engaging in your life, achieving your goals and enjoying the journey.

第二篇：20xx春翻译练习1-12

练习1

London ends 2012 Olympic Games with a British-centric musical bang

By Anthony Faiola, Published: August 13

LONDON — The XXX Olympiad ended Sunday with a blowout of British pop and circumstance, a closing-ceremony-cum-after-party offering a final dose of eccentricity to 17 days that saw the rise of girl power in sports, the coupling of Olympic solemnity with English humor and a wave of euphoria in a host nation that seemed to rediscover the “great” in Great Britain.

Like the Who 谁人乐队 and the Spice Girls on Sunday, Britons reunited over the course of these Games, showing the kind of feverish patriotism infrequently seen on this side of the Atlantic.

Big Ben chimed to mark the beginning of the end inside the Olympic Stadium, where the wonderwall of music（音乐下载网站） included a virtual Freddie Mercury and a jolly postscript echoing Monty Python(英国六人戏剧团体): “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” Four years after the militant efficiency of Beijing 2008, George Michael crooned哼唱 “Freedom 90,” an impromptu anthem for the irreverent玩世不恭的 London Games. “We Will Rock You,” the British promised. And with surprisingly few major gaffes出丑, they did.

The group Madness sang “Our House,” and that’s what these Olympics were. Britain threw a party for the world, but, first and foremost, for itself.

The Games were strewn with references to Britishness, some obscure and some not — organizers crammed the world’s athletes onto a stage cut in the form of a Union Jack at the Closing Ceremonies. If we had a good time, it was because we were along for the ride.

Urged on by massive home crowds and a cheerleading press that defied predictions of Olympic cynicism, British athletes ran, cycled and rowed their way to their highest medal count since Britannia ruled the seas in 1908.

练习2

九月新生进校，我又看见了许多父母的脸。

送儿女来上学的以父亲居多，有些是父母同来。父母们本来千差万别的脸，个人化特征在此时得到淡化而呈现出相同的气质：劳碌，疲惫，初到异地的怯懦和谨慎，以及其情甚殷，惟恐儿女吃亏的心态。

那样长而累人的旅途，那样繁琐耗人的手续，太能够磨蚀人的锐气(élan)了。十八岁的孩子，少年得志的喜悦与轻狂，下车起就一点点没了。跟在父母身后，满校园地跑，每办一项手续都得走很多路，问很多人，父母到处陪着笑脸。

练习3

A Journey by Train: Making Tracks in Europe

Everyone is hurrying and straining to be somewhere else. But my wiry little organ grinder pours his heart into bringing this corner alive with his music. Old favorite songs dance gaily above our heads—“Can Can”, “Lara’s Theme”, “Funiculi-Funicula”---these popular songs from past decades have a European father than an American flavor.

Amazingly, a furry cat is fast asleep on top of the music machine, ignoring everything around it as if this was some peaceful garden rather than a precarious perch that shakes with every turn of its owner’s arm. And in a basket by the organ’s pram wheels, a dog dreams peacefully while commuters pour out from an underground station.

My organ grinder has discovered the miracle of perpetual motion. Round and round goes his arm, his body rocking to the effort. Casually he transfers the handle from one hand to the other, catching it as it twirls, the music leaping around him as if it would whisk him and his machine over the rooftops and away past Notre Dame Cathedral or along the Champs Elysees.

Mind you, he’s not the only one presiding over this noisy corner. Two police officers are here as well, charged with maintaining order. One is male, youthful and confident. The other is…well, a police girl. Her gun is almost as big as she is. Her weapon belt sags on her hips. Maybe in a couple of years she’ll develop into a police-woman, but it’ll take at least that long to grow into her official-issue trousers.

But, petite as she is, this Parisienne carries with her all the authority of the French gendarmerie. The traffic at the corner is clogging up—as it does repeatedly during my half-hour here. Boldly she blows her whistle and strides out into the surge of traffic. Angry cars growl to a halt and sullenly crouch at her feet, snarling their annoyance, fretting to be away. But, cowed by her tiny arm they bite back their frustration and wait till this uniformed child waves them on.

练习4

近些年来，我们在环境保护和生态建设方面付出了前所未有的努力。“十一五”期间，国家大力推进节能减排，二氧化硫等空气污染物排放明显下降。但是这一成绩远不足以令人乐观。连日来浓雾重锁的城市污染再次警醒我们：随着经济发展的快速向前，工业化、城镇化还将持续，能源消耗不断增加，空气污染防治依然面临巨大挑战。

“牵着你的手，却看不见你”不是美丽中国，“厚德载雾，自强不吸”不是全面小康。经济发展再也不能走先污染后治理的老路，城市管理再也不能以“空气不好是小事”心态来应对突发情况，居民生活再也不能只图自己方便、不管环境负担。只有形成节约资源和保护环境的空间格局、产业结构、生产方式、生活方式，从源头上扭转生态环境恶化趋势，我们才可能拥有天蓝、地绿、水净、风清的美好家园。

练习5

Twins

E. B. White

On a warm, miserable morning last week we went up to the Bronx Zoo to see the moose calf (小麋鹿) and to break in a new pair of black shoes. We encountered better luck than we had bargained for. The cow moose and her young one were standing near the wall of the deer park below the monkey house, and in order to get a better view we strolled down to the lower end of the park, by the brook. The path there is not much travelled. As we approached the corner where the brook trickles under the wire fence, we noticed a red deer getting to her feet. Beside her, on legs that were just learning their business, was a spotted fawn, as small and perfect as a trinket seen through a reducing glass. They stood there, mother and child, under a gray beech whose trunk was engraved with dozens of hearts and initials. Stretched on the ground was another fawn, and we realized that the doe had just finished twinning. The second fawn was still wet, still un-risen. Here was a scene of rare sylvan splendor, in one of our five favorite boroughs, and we couldn’t have asked for more. Even our new shoes seemed to be working out all right and weren’t hurting much.

The doe was only a couple of feet from the wire, and we sat down on a rock at the edge of the footpath to see what sort of start young fawns get in the deep fastnesses of Mittel Bronx. The mother, mildly resentful of our presence and dazed from her labor, raised one forefoot and stamped primly. Then she lowered her head, picked up the afterbirth, and began dutifully to eat it, allowing it to swing crazily from her mouth, as though it were a bunch of dried grass. As we watched, the sun broke weakly through, brightened the rich red of the fawns, and kindled their white spots. Occasionally a sightseer would appear and wander aimlessly by, but of all who passed none was aware that anything extraordinary had occurred. “Looka the kangaroos!” a child cried. And he and his mother stared sullenly at the deer and then walked on.

In a few moments the second twin gathered all his legs and all his ingenuity and arose, to stand for the first time sniffing the mysteries of a park for captive deer. The doe, in recognition of his achievement, quit her other work and began to dry him, running her tongue against the grain

and paying particular attention to the key points. Meanwhile the first fawn tiptoed toward the shallow brook, in little stops and goes, and started across. He paused midstream to make a slight contribution, as a child does in bathing. Then, while his mother watched, he continued across, gained the other side, selected a hiding place, and lay down under a skunk-cabbage leaf next to the fence, in perfect concealment, his legs folded neatly under him. Without actually going out of sight, he had managed to disappear completely in the shifting light and shade. From somewhere a long way off a twelve-o’clock whistle sounded. We hung around awhile, but he never budged. Before we left, we crossed the brook ourselves, just outside the fence, knelt, reached through the wire, and tested the truth of what we had once heard: that you can scratch a new fawn between the ears without starting him. You can indeed.

练习6

康熙七年六月十七日戌时，地大震。余适客稷下，方与表兄李笃之对烛饮。忽闻有声如雷，自东南来，向西北去。众骇异，不解其故。俄而几案摆簸，酒杯倾覆，屋梁椽柱，错折有声。相顾失色。久之，方知地震，各疾趋出。见楼阁房舍，仆而复起，墙倾屋塌之声，与儿啼女号，喧如鼎沸。人眩晕不能立，坐地上随地转侧。河水倾泼丈余，鸡鸣犬吠满城中。逾一时许始稍定。视街上，则男女裸体相聚，竞相告语，并忘其未衣也。后闻某处井倾侧不可汲，某家楼台南北易向，栖霞山裂，沂水陷袕，广数亩。此真非常之奇变也。

练习7

Who Needs Shareholders?

What good are shareholders? What value do they really provide? Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, took an end run around them in the company’s troubled IPO. Like other tech giants, Facebook issued insiders a parallel, more-powerful class of stock, which has 10 times the voting weight of the stock offered to the public. Zuckerberg’s shares give him control of nearly 57% of the company’s voting rights, ensuring that outside shareholders will have little say over how Facebook is run.

Most public companies haven’t gone that route. Yet across the board, shareholders rarely seem to be playing the oversight roles once expected of them.

In this month’s Big Idea feature, Justin Fox, HBR’s editorial director, and Jay Lorsch, a Harvard Business School professor, get to the core of the debate. They describe the functions that outside shareholders are supposed to perform in the modern corporation—providing money, information, and discipline—and demonstrate that these days they’re not doing any of them very well.

On the money front, a surge of short-term trading has led to volatility and impatient capital. As for information, there is so much “noise” in the market that it’s not clear what signals share prices actually send. And an increase in shareholder activism doesn’t seem to be preventing managers from engaging in value-destroying and pocket-lining behavior.

Once more: What good are shareholders?

Fox and Lorsch argue for a rethink(n) of shareholders’ role in the corporation. They call for other actors in the equation—boards, customers, employees, lenders, and regulators—to take on some of the burden of providing money, information, and, especially, discipline. Ultimately, the goal is to give more clout to the patient shareholders who are interested in the long-term health of the company, separating them from the short-termers who drive day-to-day stock price movements.

There’s no easy solution, but we hope the article—part of our continuing series on fixing global economic and financial systems—will stir debate and prompt action.

练习8

青春

青春奇妙无穷，充满魅力，充满痛楚。青春年少的时候根本不知青春为何物，直到青春一去不复返了才对青春有了真正的认识。谁都想让青春永驻，不忍青春离去；眼睁睁地看着青春流逝，心中会涌起无穷的忧伤和惋惜；青春的失去是人们永远感到悲哀的事；青春的失去是人们真正觉得悲喜交集的事；即便奇迹出现青春复苏，谁也不会心甘情愿重度青春的岁月。

为什么如此？因为在青春时代，生活充满了奇特而辛酸的不可思议的事。我们在青春年少时带着悲喜交集的心情、十分强烈而不可名状地感受到人生的奇特辛酸、不可思议的经历。其实质是什么呢？其实质是这样的：青春年少的时候，虽然殷实富足，却非常贫穷；虽然力气强大，却一无所有；世间的富贵荣华触目皆是，简直可以呼吸到，闻到嗅到，还可以品尝到，心中的自信按捺不住，深切地感受到整个被陶醉了的生活—人类迄今为止所知道的最幸运、最富有的美好幸福的生活，只要我们决定向前迈步、奋发努力，便立即归我们所有了，并将永远属于我们。然而，我们知道，我们真地永远不能抓到什么，永远不能获得什么，永远不能占有什么。一切都匆匆过去，荡然无存：我们一出手它就烟消云散，飘然而逝，一去不复返了。于是，心中泛起阵阵隐痛，看到了自己真实的面孔，看到了自己未来生活的必然走向。

青年人非常坚强，狂热自信，但容易迷惘混沌；虽然机缘无数，却把握不住；虽然身强体壮，试图冲破重重虚幻的屏障，却如同一个波浪，最终还是无力地消失在旷远浩渺的大海中央；他伸出手想要抓住斑斓的云烟；他想得到世间的万物，渴望主宰一切，最终却是一无所获。最后，他被自己的力量所毁没，被自己的饥饿所吞食，被自己的财富弄得贫穷潦倒。他对金钱或财富的积累不以为意漫不经心，然而最终还是被自己的贪欲所吞噬。

青春消逝，蓦然回首，无论是谁，心中都会充满无尽的忧伤，充满无穷的懊悔：曾经才智卓越，却白白浪费了；曾经财宝富足，却一无所有；曾经本事高强，却从未利用。一个认识到自己的失落的青春的人回忆起来总是充满悲伤和懊悔。

练习9

The “energy crisis” of the 1970’s appeared to sound the death knell for incandescent lighting. It has long been recognized that incandescent lighting is much less efficient than fluorescent and HID lighting, and that it suffers from short service life. In recent years, further improvements in the efficiency and color characteristics of fluorescent and HID lighting have increased their advantage over incandescent lighting. All this makes it fair to say that eliminating incandescent lighting is a leading goal of energy conservation.

At the same time, recognize the advantages that have kept incandescent lighting popular. The color rendering of incandescent lamps is still the best available, although fluorescent and HID lamps have achieved radical color improvements in recent years. Incandescent lighting does not need ballasts, so it is free of the problems associated with them, including audible noise, electromagnetic interference, low power factor, and harmonic distortion of the power system. The small filaments of incandescent lamps allow tight focussing, which is important in some applications. Lamp and fixture costs are much lower than for other types. The lamps themselves are much less expensive, and they do not require the expensive auxiliary equipment of ballasts, capacitors, and ignitors that other light sources need.

The Measures of this Subsection improve the efficiency of incandescent lighting, in some cases by eliminating it. The Subsection starts with the Measures that are least expensive and most broadly applicable, and progresses to Measures that are more expensive or more narrowly applicable. Within this general sequence, similar Measures are grouped together.

Many of the Measures are defined broadly. The variety of possible lighting configurations is unlimited, so it is not practical for Measures to deal with each possible configuration. Combine the Measures in this Subsection and the following Subsections to create a lighting configuration that is optimum for each activity area.

练习

10

练习11

生存在功利社会，奔波劳顿，勾心斗角，若想做到从心所欲，难矣哉！人自孩提时代起，求学、谋职、恋爱、成家、立业、功名、财富……几乎无时不在追求，而且总也不能满足。当然事业上的进取与物欲上的贪婪，是两种截然不同的人生观，或可说是两种内涵迥异的苦乐观。但有一点是共同的，即人生的道路并非平坦的康庄大道，事物的发展往往不以人的意志为转移。与其陶醉在“梦想成真”的幻觉中，莫若在实践中多多磨砺自己，有道是“苍天不负有心人”嘛！即或如此，也未必事事天遂人愿。总之，有追求必有烦恼，这就是生活的实际。

练习12

矿产资源是自然资源的重要组成部分，是人类社会发展的重要物质基础。中国是世界上最早开发利用矿产资源的国家之一。过去50年，中国在矿产资源勘探开发方面取得巨大成就。这为中国经济的持续、快速、健康发展提供了重要保障。

中国政府高度重视可持续发展和矿产资源的合理利用，把可持续发展确定为国家战略，把保护资源作为可持续发展战略的重要内容。

中国是一个人口众多、资源相对不足的发展中国家。中国主要依靠本国的矿产资源来保障现代化建设的需要。同时，中国又积极引进国外资本和技术开发中国矿产资源，利用国外市场与国外矿产资源，并努力推动中国矿山企业和矿产品进入国际市场。