Sociologists (社会学家) tell us that we are heading for a society leisure. The trend is utakable. One hundred years ago, they point out a worker put in twelve or thir hours a day, six days a week, and week followed week without an annual vacation. But over the years the picture has changed. Today the typical work week has five eight-hour days, and workers enjoy about three weeks of paid vacation every year, with the result that today me spend less than as much time on the job as people did before.
In spite of this, today’s worker may not feel that he has a great deal of leisure time. This is because a lot of the non-work time is taken up with fulfilling family and social obligations. For example, he feels that he should spend some time with his children every day, and if a man does physical activity in his job, that too cuts into his free time.
Nevertheless, the final result is that we do have more leisure-more time free from the obligation of work or any other social requirement. Leisure is time not used to earn money or to do things around the house which save money. It is time spent only in seeking satisfaction, and we give up what we are doing when it no longer satisfies us. Leisure gives us the opportunity to recover from the physical and mental fatigue (疲倦) of work and it frees our creative talents from the pressure placed on us by the job.
Today’s leisure is time programmed for doing what you want to. It does not have to be made up the next day. This is something new. It really frees a person from the workshop to enjoy, for a time, things in which he is interested. Man is about to go out to the playground.
Leisure is the time used ______.