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1、新起点大学英语精读第四册 UnitBig Bucks the Easy WayUnit One:Big Bucks the Easy Way Two college-age boys, unaware that making moneyusually involves hard work, are tempted by anadvertisement that promises them an easy way toearn a lot of money. The boys soon learn that ifsomething seems to good to be true, it pro
2、bably is. BIG BUCKS THE EASY WAY John G. Hubbell You ought to look into this, I suggested to our twocollege-age sons. It might be a way to avoid the indignity of having to ask for money all thetime. I handed them some magazines in a plastic bag someone bad hung on our doorknob. Amessage printed on t
3、he bag offered leisurely, lucrative work (Big Bucks the Easy Way!) ofdelivering more such bags. I dont mind the indignity, the older one answered. I can live with it, his brother agreed. But it pains me, I said，to find that you both have been panhandling so long that it no longerembarrasses you. The
4、 boys said they would look into the magazine-delivery thing. Pleased, I left town on abusiness trip. By midnight I was comfortably settled in a hotel room far from home. The phonerang. It was my wife. She wanted to know how my day had gone. Great! I enthused. How was your day? I inquired. Super! She
5、 snapped. Just super! And its only getting started. Another truck just pulled upout front. Another truck? The third one this evening. The first delivered four thousand Montgomery Wards. The secondbrought four thousand Sears, Roebucks. I dont know what this one has, but Im sure it will befour thousan
6、d of something. Since you are responsible, I thought you might like to knowwhats happening. What I was being blamed for, it turned out, was a newspaper strike which made it necessary tohand-deliver the advertising inserts that normally are included with the Sunday paper. Thecompany had promised our
7、boys $600 for delivering these inserts to 4,000 houses by Sundaymorning. Piece of cake! our older college son had shouted. Six hundred bucks! His brother had echoed, And we can do the job in two hours! Both the Sears and Ward ads are four newspaper-size pages, my wife informed me. Thereare thirty-tw
8、o thousand pages of advertising on our porch. Even as we speak, two big guys arecarrying armloads of paper up the walk. What do we do about all this? Just tell the boys to get busy, I instructed. Theyre college men. Theyll do what they have todo. At noon the following day I returned to the hotel and
9、 found an urgent message to telephonemy wife. Her voice was unnaturally high and quavering. There had been several more truckloadsof ad inserts. Theyre for department stores, dime stores, drugstores, grocery stores, autostores and so on. Some are whole magazine sections. We have hundreds of thousand
10、s, maybemillions, of pages of advertising here! They are crammed wall-to-wall all through the house instacks taller than your oldest son. Theres only enough room for people to walk in, take oneeach of the eleven inserts, roll them together, slip a rubber band around them and slide theminto a plastic
11、 bag. We have enough plastic bags to supply every takeout restaurant inAmerica! Her voice kept rising, as if working its way out of the range of the human ear. Allthis must be delivered by seven oclock Sunday morning. Well, you had better get those guys banding and sliding as fast as they can, and I
12、ll talk to youlater. Got a lunch date. When I returned, there was another urgent call from my wife. Did you have a nice lunch? she asked sweetly. I had had a marvelous steak, but knew betterby now than to say so. Awful, I reported. Some sort of sour fish. Eel, I think. Good. Your college sons have h
13、ired their younger brothers and sisters and a couple ofneighborhood children to help for five dollars each. Assembly lines have been set up. In thelanguage of diplomacy, there is movement. Thats encouraging. No, its not, she corrected. Its very discouraging. Theyre been as it for hours. Plastic bags
14、have been filled and piled to the ceiling, but all this hasnt made a dent, not a dent, in thesituation! Its almost as if the inserts keep reproducing themselves! Another thing, she continued. Your college sons must learn that one does not get the bestout of employees by threatening them with bodily
15、harm. Obtaining an audience with son NO. 1, I snarled, Ill kill you if threaten one of those kids again!Idiot! You should be offering a bonus of a dollar every hour to the worker who fills the mostbags. But that would cut into our profit, he suggested. There wont be any profit unless those kids enab
16、le you to make all the deliveries on time. Ifthey dont, you two will have to remove all that paper by yourselves. And there will be noeating or sleeping until it is removed. There was a short, thoughtful silence. Then he said, Dad, you have just worked a profoundchange in my personality. Do it! Yes,
17、 sir! By the following evening, there was much for my wife to report. The bonus program hadworked until someone demanded to see the color of cash. Then some activist on the work forceclaimed that the workers had no business settling for $5 and a few competitive bonuses whilethe bossed collected hund
18、reds of dollars each. The organizer had declared that all the workerswere entitled to $5 per hour! They would not work another minute until the bosses agreed. The strike lasted less than two hours. In mediation, the parties agreed on $2 per hour.Gradually, the huge stacks began to shrink. As it turn
19、ed out, the job was completed three hours before Sundays 7 a.m. deadline. By thetime I arrived home, the boys had already settled their accounts: $150 in labor costs, $40 forgasoline, and a like amount for giftsboxes of candy for saintly neighbors who had volunteered station wagons and helpin delive
20、ry and dozen roses for their mother. This left them with $185 each about two-thirds the minimum wage for the 91 hours they worked. Still, it was enough, as one of themput it, to enable them to avoid indignity for quite a while. All went well for some weeks. Then one Saturday morning my attention was
21、 drawn to the oddgoings-on of our two youngest sons. They kept carrying carton after carton from variouscorners of the house out the front door to curbside. I assumed their mother had enlisted themto remove junk for a trash pickup. Then I overheard them discussing finances. Geez, were going to make
22、a lot of money! Were going to be rich! Investigation revealed that they were offering for sale or rent our entire library. No! No! I cried. You cant sell our books! Geez, Dad, we thought you were done with them! Youre never done with books, I tried to explain. Sure you are. You read them, and youre
23、done with them. Thats it. Then you might as wellmake a little money from them. We wanted to avoid the indignity of having to ask you for New Words buck n. (sl.) U.S. dollar plastic a. 塑料的 n. (pl) 塑料 doorknob n. 门把手 leisurely a. unhurried 从容的，慢慢的 leisure n. free time 空闲时间，闲暇 lucrative a. profitable 有
24、利的；赚钱的 pain vt. cause pain to panhandle vi. (AmE) beg. esp. on the streets delivery n. delivering (of letters, goods, etc.)投递；送交 enthuse vi. show enthusiasm inquire vt. ask super a. (colloq.) wonderful, splendid; excellent snap vt. say(sth.) sharply 厉声说 insert n. 插页 normally ad. in the usual conditi
25、ons; ordinarily 通常 company n. 公司 echo vt. say or do what another person says or does; repeat 附和；重复 ad n. (short for) advertisement inform vt. tell; give information 告知 porch n. (AmE) veranda 门廊 armload n. as much as one arm or both arms can hold; armful walk n. a path specially arranged or paved for
26、 walking 人行道 unnaturally ad. in an unnatural way 不自然地 quaver vi. (of the voice or sound) shake; tremble 颤抖 truckload n. as much or as many as a truck can carry department store n. store selling many different kinds of goods in separate departments 百货公司 dime n. coin of U.S. and Canada worth ten cents
27、 dime store n. (AmE) a store selling a large variety of low-priced articles; variety store 廉价商品店；小商口店 drugstore n. (AmE) a store that sells not only medicine, but also beauty products, film, magazines, andfood 药店，杂货店 grocery n. a store that sells food and household supplies 食品杂货店 section n. part of
28、subdivision of a piece of writing, book, newspaper, etc.; portion 段落；节；部分 cram vt. fill too full; force or press into a small space 把塞满；把塞进 stack n. an orderly; heap or group of things 一叠 band n. flat, thin piece of material 带；带状物 vt. tie up with a band 捆扎 rubber band n. 橡皮筋 takeout a. 出售外卖菜的 range
29、n. the distance at which one can see or hear 的范围 marvel(l)ous a. wonderful; astonishing steak n. 牛排；大块肉片 sour a. 酸的 eel n. 鳗鲡 diplomacy n. 外交 encouraging a. 鼓舞人心的 dent n. a hollow in a hard surface made by a blow or pressure; initial progress凹痕，凹坑，初步进展 reproduce vt. produce the young of (oneself or
30、ones own kind) 生殖，繁殖 bodily a. of the human body; physical harm n. damage or wrong 伤害 audience n. the people gathered in a place to hear or see; a chance to be heard 观众；听众；陈述意见的机会 snarl vt. speak in a harsh voice 咆哮着说 bonus n. an extra payment to workers 奖金 thoughtful a. give to or indicating though
31、t 沉思的，思考的 cash n. money in coins or notes 现金 activist n. a person taking an active part esp. in a political movement 激进分子 work force n. total number of workers employed in a particular factory, industry or area 工人总数；劳动人口 competitive a. 竞争的 organizer n. person who organizes things 组织者 mediation n. 调解
32、 party n. one of the people or sides in an agreement or argument 一方；当事人 gradually ad. slowly and by degrees. gradual a. shrink (shrank, shrunk) vi. become less or smaller 减少；变小 deadline n. fixed limit of finishing a piece of work 最后期限 station wagon n. 小型客车，客货两用车 minimum (pl. minima or minimums) n. t
33、he smallest possible amount, number, etc. 最低限度的量、数等 minimum wage n. the lowest wage permitted by law or by agreement for certain work 法定最工资 odd a. strange; unusual goings-on n. activities, usu. of an undesirable kind carton n. a cardboard box for holding goods 纸板箱 curbside n. the area of sidewalk at
34、 or near curb enlist vt. obtain the support and help of; cause to join the armed forces 取得的支持和帮助；征募 trash n. waste material to be thrown away; rubbish 垃圾 pickup n. a small light truck with an open back used for light deliveries 小卡车；轻型货车 overhear vt. hear by chance; hear without the knowledge of the
35、speaker(s)无意中听到；偷听到 finance n. money matters; (used in pl.) money; (science of ) the management of funds 财政；钱财；金融 geez int.哎呀，呀 sale n. the act of selling sth. Phrases Expressions pull up bring or come to a stop 停下 a piece of cake (informal) sth. very easy to do even as just at the same moment as kn
36、ow better than be wise or experienced enough not (to do sth.) 明事理而不至于 be at be occupied with, be doing make a dent (in) make less by a very small amount; reduce slightly; make a first step towards success(in)减少一点；取得初步进展 cut into reduce; decrease 减少 have no business have no right or reason 无权，没有理由 se
37、ttle for accept, although not altogether satisfactory 满足于 settle ones account pay what one owes 结帐 quite a while a fairly long time draw(sb.s) attention to make sb. notice, or be aware of for sale intended to be sold for rent available to be rented be done with stop doing or using; finish 做完，不再使用 may/might/could as well with equal or better effect 不妨，还不如，最好 Proper Names Montgomery Ward 蒙哥马利沃德百货公司 Sears, Roebuck 西尔斯罗百克百货公司
