准时是文明社会中进行一切社交活动时必须养成的习惯。不准时将一事无成，事事都会陷入混乱不堪的境地。只有在人口稀少的农村，才可以忽视准时的习惯。在日 常生活中人们可以容忍一定程度的不准时。一个专心钻研某个复杂问题的知识分子，为了搞好手头的研究，要把一切都协调一致、组织周密。因此，他要是赴宴迟到 了会得到谅解。但有些人不准时常常是因为掐钟点所致，他们常常会受到责备。精力充沛、头脑敏捷的人极不愿意浪费时间，因此他们常想做完一件事后再去赴约。 要是路上没有发生如爆胎、改道、突然起雾等意外事故，他们是决不会迟到的。他们与那些从不迟到的人相比，常常是更勤奋有用的公民。早到的人同迟到的人一样 令人讨厌。客人提前半小时到达是最令人讨厌的。我家有几个朋友就有这种令人恼火的习惯。唯一的办法就是请他们比别的客人晚来半小时。这样，他们可以恰好在 我们要求的时间到达。In modern society, punctuality is a must-have habit for attending all social activities. Nothing can be done and everything will be utter chaos if people are not on time. Only in some scarcely populated countryside can punctuality be ignored. In everyday life, people can tolerate unpunctuality to some extent. An intellectual who has been focused on a complicated research issue at hand, need to coordinate and arrange everything very well. Therefore, he would be forgiven(understood?) if he was late for dinner. But some people were late often because they procrastinate and were therefore reprimanded. An energetic and smart person doesn’t want to waste his time and always goes to an appointment after they finish something. If not for accidents like flat tire, detour or foggy weather, they would never be late. Comparing with those who are never late, they are often more diligent and capable (useful?) citizen. Being early is just as annoying as being late. The most annoying kind is being there half an hour early, which several friends of ours tend to do. The only solution is to tell them to come half an hour later than other guests. This way, they will be here just at the time we wanted.　　如果赶火车，早到总比晚到好，哪怕早到一会儿也好。虽然早到可能意味着浪费一点时间，但这比误了火车等上一个多 小时坐下一班车浪费的时间要少，而且可以避免那种正好在火车驶出站时赶到车站，因上不去车而感到的沮丧。更难堪的情况是虽然及时赶到站台上，却眼睁睁地看 着那趟火车启动，把你抛下。一个小姑娘第一次单独出门就碰到了这种情况。To catch a train, it’s better to be early, even by a little bit, than late. Although to be early might mean to waste some time, it is much less waste than to miss the train and wait more than an hour for the next one. In addition, 太困了，先翻到这里。　
　在火车进站20分钟前她就进了车站。因为她的父母再三跟 她说，如果误了这趟车，她的东道主朋友就得接她两趟，这是不应该的。她把行李交给搬运工并给他看了车票。搬运工说她早到了两个小时，她听后大吃一惊。她从 钱包里摸出一张纸条，那上面有她父亲对这次旅行的详细说明，她把这张纸条交给了搬运工。搬运说，正如纸条上所说，确有一趟火车在那个时刻到站，但它只停站 装邮件，不载旅客。姑娘要求看时刻表，因为她相信父亲不能把这么大的事给弄错。搬运工跑回去取时刻表，同时请来了站长。站长拿着时刻表一挥手，指着那趟列 车到站时刻旁边的一个很小的圆圆标记。这个标记表示列车是为装邮件而停车。正在这时，火车进站了。女孩泪流满面，央求让她不声不响地到押车员车厢里去算 了。但站长态度坚决，规章制度不能破坏，姑娘只得眼看着那趟火车消逝在她要去的方向而撇下了她