i heard that in ancient greece there lived a people called spartus. the spartus were famous for their bravery and simple life. as they lived in laconia, they were also called lacons. the lacons had a lot of strange rules. one of them was that they should speak briefly and never use more words than needed.

　　this story made me think of a junior middle school classmate of mine. once he told me that their leagus secretary often put them to the trouble of long meetings, at which she would made long, long speeches, all empty words. everybody suffered. such meetings achieve little and waste precious time. but she herself did not realize it. if anyone dared to prevent her from speaking or get in some words to cut her short, she would get angry and criticize him severely.①my friend said regretfully②, “i would rather be regarded as a bad student. only in this way could i make free use of my precious time.”such a remark sounds discouraging. but such things not only happen in my friend's school, but also in many offices and units. everyone must always bear in mind③that time is money, time means life. today, if one still enjoys a two-hour meeting over a cup of tea and a cigarette, he is wasting his life, and the lives of others as well.

　　in fact people had taken measures to cut the meetings short before. a japanese tycoon once suggested that his officials keep standing during the meetings. it was reported as “getting rid of chairs”. in the united states, there was once a kind of two-minute meetings. and in my class the monitor once had us stand during a class meeting, just as the tycoon did. although it seemed funny, it showed that we were all fed up with④ unnecessary long meetings.

　　time is money; time is life. we must all treat time as a treasure, especially in our modern world.

　　laconic meetings, or no meetings at all.