“Do you know the time?”
Time is a very complex thing. We’re surrounded by it, yet all too often we feel like we don’t have enough of it.
Sometimes, we take it for granted. At other times, we wish we had more.
When we’re busy or having fun, time seems to pass quickly. When we’re bored, or moving slowly — for example, driving at constant speed across a monotonous landscape — it seems to pass at glacial speed.
The average tempo of daily life and work has been dramatically sped up by advances in IT, communications, transportation, and productivity. Apart from objective changes in the pace of life, our perspectives change as we grow older.
Young people never say: “Wow. This year went by so quickly.” Older people say this kind of thing frequently.
Our individual perceptions about the passage of time are influenced by a variety of internal and external factors. As a result, our feelings about the passage of time vary considerably, despite the fact that time’s passage on a clock is a very consistent, measurable phenomenon.
Various types of instruments to accurately measure the passage of time were invented in ancient China, Greece, and other civilizations thousands of years ago.
There is no ongoing scientific debate about the fact that one day in solar time is comprised of 24 hours, or that one year is 365 days in length. On the other hand, for most of us, our individual perceptions about time are a curious mix of science-based knowledge and subjective experience.
The last time I said that the past year had gone by too quickly, for example, I did not conclude that the calendar, or the clocks, must be inaccurate as a result.
It is a huge blessing that among the things that people around the world still disagree about (which are many), the accuracy of standard clocks and calendars is not one of them. Otherwise, we’d be in even bigger trouble than we are now.
For one thing, the list of common excuses for missed deadlines would be exponentially expanded. This would be a headache for leaders in government, managers in business, sports coaches, editors, teachers and so on.
Example:
“Mr. Minister, the new bridge project will be completed right on time according to our calendar. Unfortunately it will be 10 months behind schedule on that calendar your people have been using. These damn regional calendars! So many choices available in the market….”
Although humankind has been able to accurately measure the passage of solar time for many centuries, international agreement on a framework to coordinate and standardize time zones around the globe is a relatively recent development, dating from the late 19th century.
翻译：
“你知道时间吗？”
时间是个非常复杂的东西，它无处不在，又常常让我们感觉不够用。
有时候，我们没把时间当回事儿，但另外一些时候，我们又希望时间能再多一点儿。
繁忙或开心的时候，时间总是过得很快。无聊或移动缓慢的时候，比如开车匀速驶过一片单调乏味的景致时，时间似乎又像冰川挪动速度一样慢。
IT、通讯、交通和生产力的发展大大提高了日常生活和工作的一般节奏。除了生活节拍的客观变化以外，我们的视角也随着年龄的增长而发生了改变。
年轻人从来不会说：“哇，今年过得好快！”只有上了岁数的人才常把这种话挂在嘴边。
我们对时间流逝的认知受到很多内部和外部因素的影响，因此，时间的推移尽管在钟表上是一件非常统一而且可以衡量的事情，但它带给我们的感受却大相径庭。
早在数千年前，古代中国、希腊和其它很多古代文明就发明了各种各样的精确计时仪器。
现在，对于太阳时的一天包括24个小时、一年有365天这样的事实已经不再存在科学上的争论。但另一方面，对大多数人来说，个人对时间的感知却是科学知识和主观经验的奇妙结合。
例如，我上次说去年过得真快的时候，并没有将它归结为日历或钟表的不准确。
非常幸运的是，在全世界人们仍在争论不休的（很多）事情中，并不包括关于标准时钟和日历准确性的讨论。否则我们的麻烦会比现在更大。
如果那样的话，经常用来解释错过最后期限的借口将会呈几何级增长，让政府领导、企业经理、运动教练、编辑和教师叫苦不迭。
例如：
“部长先生，新桥会按我们的日历准时完工。但遗憾的是，如果按您部下使用的日历，就是延期10个月完工。这些该死的地方日历！市场上的产品也太多了……”
尽管人类从很多世纪前就能准确地度量日历时的推移，但全世界为协调和规范时区的框架而达成国际一致还是最近的事，大约就在19世纪晚期。
