Time was introduced to us when we were just kids and only knew the playing hours; but when we grew up we got our own senses about how important “The Time” is. There is a story on time management which can give you some guidance.

A philosophy professor, once, decided to teach the students a valuable lesson about Time Management, so he stood before his class with some items on the table. When the class began, wordlessly he picked up a big and empty jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks, about 2 inches in size. He then looked towards the class and asked the students if the jar was full. They all agreed that it was full. Therefore, the professor then moved to pick up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar gently. The pebbles, of course, rolled through the gaps between the rocks.

He then again looked up to the students and asked if the jar was full. They all again nodded their heads. For the last time, he turned towards the jar, this time, picked up a box of sand, poured it into the jar and shook it lightly. Of course, the sand moved into the gap s and filled up everything else. He then asked students for the last time if the jar was full or not. The students were surprised but gave a unanimous response “Yes.”

“Now,” said the professor, “I want you to realize that this jar actually is your life. The rocks are the important things — like your family, your children, your health, your partner. If nothing remained but only these. your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter — like your job; your career, your house. The sand is everything else, the unimportant stuff.”

“If you put the sand into the jar first.” he continued, “there is no space for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you keep on filling the jar with the sand, it means that you keep on spending all your time and energy on the pity things and you will never have room for the things that are crucial for you. First and foremost, focus on-the rocks — the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”

When I was a child, my father bought me a new toy every other week when he received his pay check. I loved to take the toys apart to learn their basic principles, and then put them back together.

Most of the time, the toys still worked, but I clearly remember getting a toy robot that would walk either forwards or backwards. I took the robot apart, but when I put it back together, it couldn’t walk any more. I figured out what was wrong with it but was not able to fix it. It was especially disappointing because I really liked the robot.

By the time I was ten or so, my parents allowed me to play outdoors alone. During the summer, on the junk day, I would check out what people were throwing away. People did not use garbage bags then, so all waste was in metal cans, which made it easy to check out what was in the waste. I took home some equipment, radios, and televisions. I took them apart and learned how they were built.

Through learning by myself, I built a telephone. I made my own microphone (扩音器) by taking apart old dry batteries and taking the carbon rods (碳棒) out of them. I then broke the rods into powder and used the carbon powder to make the microphone. I used the microphone in my home-made telephone. Later, I made another carbon microphone, which I connected in series with a speaker I took from an old radio. I put the speaker in a bush by the sidewalk and ran wires around the side of the house where the batteries and my home-made microphone were. I had much fun playing jokes on people walking by with that device (装置).

Switzerland(瑞士)is famous for its watches. However, this country didn’t invent the watch. It was the British who did it. Here is a story of how the watch was brought to Switzerland.

Many years ago, an Englishman was traveling to Italy. On his way he stopped in a small town in South Switzerland. This Englishman traveled in a carriage (马车) inside which there was a carriage watch. This was the earliest kind of watch. A native (本地的) shop assistant happened to see the watch. He wondered what it was and asked the Englishman about it, “It is a carriage watch,” said the man. “This machine tells the time but now it isn’t working.”

At once the shop assistant offered to try to repair it. So the traveler handed him the watch. The assistant was a very wise man. So it was not surprising that he managed to repair it. He even remembered how it was made. As soon as the traveler had gone on his journey, he made a watch exactly of the same kind.

Thus the watch-making was started in Switzerland. Today Swiss (瑞士的) watches are sold in stores all over the world.