美国人的时间观

There are two elements in life that Americans dosave carefully: time and labor."Americans are slaves to nothing but theclock, "it has been said. Time is treated as if it were an almost tangible entry. In their language, there are words associated with it: time can be budgeted, saved, wasted, stolen, killed, and cut. Americans also charge for time. It is a precious commodity to them. Many people have a rather acute sense of the shortness of each lifetime. Once the sands have run out of a person' s hourglass, they can not be replaced. They want every minute to count.