托福备考过程中，良好的时间管理可以让我们的学习更加高效。那么通过对下面这篇文章的阅读，让我们了解时间管理的重要性。大家在阅读过程中可以积累词汇和一些句型，并且准备起来开启你的时间管理模式，让我们的学习更有效率。

　　The idea of time management can call forth images of restriction and control. You mightvisualize a prunefaced Scrooge hunched over your shoulder, stopwatch in hand, telling you what to do every minute. In truth, however, time management is a blessing.

　　时间管理这个概念会使人产生各种关于约束和控制的联想。你也许会想象一个老得满脸皱纹的斯克鲁奇俯身在你的肩上，手里拿着秒表，告诉你每分钟该做什么。事实上，时间管理是一件幸事。

　　Time is an unusual commodity. It cannot be saved.You can’t stockpile time like wood for your stove or food for the winter.

　　时间是一种独特的商品。它无法被保留，你无法像给炉子储木柴、为冬天存粮食那样储存时间。

　　Time is a commodity that can’t be seen, felt, touched, tasted, or smelled. You can’t sense it directly.Even brilliant scientists and philosophers aren’t sure how to describe it.

　　时间是一种看不见、摸不着、触不到、尝不了、闻不出的商品。你无法直接感觉到它。就连才华横溢的科学家和哲学家也不知道如何描述它。

　　Because time is so elusive, it is an easy commodity to ignore. That doesn’t bother time at all. Time is perfectly content to remain hidden until you are nearly out of it. And when you are out of it, you are out of it.

　　正因为时间难以捉摸，所以它是一种很容易被人们忽略的商品。这对时间丝毫没有影响，时间会一直心满意足地躲在背后，直到你差不多把时间用光。而一旦你把时间用光，你就真的用光了。

　　Time is a resource that you cannot renew. If you are out of wood, you can chop some more. If you’re out of money, you can earn a little extra. If you’re out of love, there is still hope. If you’re out of health, sometimes it can be restored.But when you’re out of time, that’s it. When this minute is gone, it’s gone.

　　时间是一种你无法补充的资源。如果木柴没有了，你可以再砍一些来;如果钱用完了，你可以再赚一点;如果爱没有了，希望还是存在的;如果身体垮了，有时还可以康复;但如果时间没有了，那就真的没有了。你失去一分钟，它就永远离去了。

　　Time is an equal opportunity resource. All people, regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin have exactly the same number of hours in a week. No matter how important you are, no matter how rich or poor, you get 168 hours to spend each week (no more, no less).

　　时间是一种机会均等的资源。所有人，无论种族、信仰、肤色或者国籍，一周拥有的时间完全是一样的。无论你多么重要，无论你多么富有或者贫穷，你每周可花的时间都是 168 小时(不多也不少)。

　　Time is an unpredictable commodity. There will come a week when you’ll have fewer than 168 hours to spend, and you don’t know which week that will be.

　　时间是一种无法预测的商品。说不定哪个星期你能花的时间就不足 168 小时了，而该星期会出现在什么时候你却不得而知。

　　Time seems to be used up at varying speeds. Sometimes it’s slow and sometimes faster than a speeding bullet. On Friday afternoons, classroom clocks can creep. After a hard day at work, the last few pages of an economics assignment can turn minutes into hours. A year in school canstretch out to an eternity. At the other end of the time spectrum, time flies. These are magic times when we are so absorbed by what we’re doing that hours disappear in minutes.

　　时间似乎会以不同的速度用完，有时候它会很慢，有时候却比子弹还快。在星期五下午，教室里的钟可能会走得很慢。辛苦一天之后，经济学作业的最后几页能把几分钟变成几个小时。一年的上学时间可能会长得永无止境。从时间范围的另一头来看，时间又过得飞快。只要做事很专心，几个小时就跟几分钟一样一下就消失了，这种时候真是神奇。

　　You can manage this commodity so you won’t waste it or feel regretful about it.

　　你可以管理这种商品，这样你就不会造成浪费，也不会感到后悔。

　　Approach time as if you are in control—even though it often seems you are not. Sure, sometimes it seems that a spouse controls your time; your boss controls your time; your teachers or your parents or your kids or somebody else controls your time. Maybe that is true. But maybe it isn’t. When you say you don’t have enough time, you may really be saying that you are not spending the time you do have in the way that you want.

　　对待时间时要显得你是主宰——尽管你常常看上去没有控制权。的确，有时候似乎是你的配偶控制着你的时间，你的老板控制着你的时间，你的老师或者你的父母或者你的孩子或者其他什么人控制着你的时间，这也许是真的，但也许不是真的。当你说你的时间不够时，你可能真正想说的是，你没有把你真正拥有的时间花在你想花的地方。

　　Vocabulary

　　call forth 引起

　　visualize v. 想象

　　prune-faced a. 老得满脸皱纹的

　　Scrooge 吝啬鬼; 斯克鲁奇

　　hunch v. 弯成弓状

　　stopwatch n. 秒表

　　blessing n. 幸事

　　stockpile v. 储备

　　elusive a. 难捉摸的

　　content a. 满足的

　　equal opportunity 均等机会

　　creed n. 信念

　　creep v. 徐行

　　stretch out 延续

　　eternity n. 漫长的时间

　　spectrum n. 范围

　　time flies 时光飞逝