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The problem of leisure is new. Until very recent times people worked each day to the limit of their strength. Of course there were always a privileged few who had leisure; but most men had to work 12,14, or even 16 hours a day, six days a week. As late as 1840 the average factory worker labored 72 hours a week. “Sunup to sundown” was the farmer’s day, or as another phrase puts it,“from can to can’t.”

Today, working less than a 40-hour week, people enjoy more leisure time. Hence, the wise use of leisure time has become an important problem for everyone, young or old. It is a particularly difficult problem for the sick, the aged, and those who have retired from earning a living. Those people have so much leisure that it is hard for them to find interesting and worthwhile ways to use it .

However short the work week becomes, work is still the most important part of life. We do not work to get leisure and the pleasures leisure brings us; rather, we use leisure wisely so that work itself can become awarding and enjoyable. The feeling of success at doing one’s daily work—whether it is a job, maintaining a home, or going to school—depends largely on coming to it each day with fresh energy and active interest.

Leisure and recreation go together, though they are not necessarily the same thing.“Recreation” has an obvious meaning. It is the kind of leisure activity that brings "re-creation" of strength and spirit. When one speaks of making good use of leisure, he means choosing recreational activities which contribute to health, growth, and spirit.

The phrase “from can to can’t” in Line 5, Paragraph 1 means ______.