美国习惯用语 915 worth one's while

我有个朋友的女儿喜欢弹钢琴，小小年纪就表现出非凡的天分。这个朋友要给她找个出色的钢琴老师，找了快半年终于找到了，我们都觉得她太挑剔。

可前几天我去她家听了她女儿弹琴，简直可以说是有本质上的飞跃! 看来，辛苦找老师是没错的! 就像我们今天要说到的这个习惯用语：worth one's while. Worth one's while, 意思是在某人或某事上花的钱、时间或努力是值得的。我朋友的故事告诉我，为了孩子，耐心细致地挑老师是绝对值得的! It was totally worth its while!

钢琴老师是努力找到的，可有时候，能改变你未来命运的人可能会是碰巧遇到的。我们来听听下面这段话：

例句-1：Maggie was just hired as the VP of marketing. She got the position after meeting the company's CEO at a party a few months ago. Although she hadn't planned on going at all, it turned out to be worth her while. She couldn't be happier with how that casual encounter resulted in making an important business contact.

这段话是说：麦琪得到了这家公司营销部副经理的职位，这要归功于她几个月前在一次聚会上遇到了该公司的首席执行官。她本来根本没打算去参加那个聚会，可事实证明，她去对了，太值了!那次巧遇让她建立了一条重要的事业人脉，她高兴极了。

这真是遇到贵人了! 我们一般人很难有这种运气，所以要靠勤找机会，努力工作，自我提升来获得事业上的发展，不过这些努力当然也是worth their while， 很值得做的。

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在下面这段话中，一个人正在考虑是不是要自己给汽车换机油，咱们来听听：

例句-2：If I wanted to, I could change the oil in my car. But I'd have to go to an auto supply store and buy the oil, an oil filter, a special wrench and a bucket to drain the oil. Then, I'd need to find a place to dispose of the oil. When I consider all the money, time and effort I'd be spending, I realize doing the job myself wouldn't be wroth my while. I'd rather pay a mechanic to do the work for me at a garage.

这段话的意思是：如果我愿意，我可以自己给车换油。可要是这样，我就得到汽配商店去买机油、过滤器、专用钳子和沥油的桶，然后还得找个地方把废油处理掉。想想我要花多少钱、时间和精力去做这些事，我意识到，自己换油不值得。我情愿付钱请机械师在修车行里给车换油。

请机械师固然省事，但美国有许多人是do it yourself， 也就是自己动手，DIY一族。他们图的就是不省事，要享受亲自上阵的乐趣。