新起点大学英语精读第四册 Unit 1Big Bucks the Easy Way

Unit One:Big Bucks the Easy Way

Two college-age boys, unaware that making moneyusually involves hard wor k, 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 probably 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 theti me." I handed them some magazines in a plastic bag someone bad hung on our doorknob. Amessage printed on the bag offered leisurely, lucrative work ( "Big Bucks the Easy Way!") ofdelivering more such bags.

"I don't 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 longerembarr asses you."

The boys said they would look into the magazine-delivery thing. Pleased, I le ft town on abusiness trip. By midnight I was comfortably settled in a hotel ro om 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 snapped.

"Just super! And it's only getting started. Another truck just pulled upout fron t."

"Another truck?"

"The third one this evening. The first delivered four thousand Montgomery Wa rds. The secondbrought four thousand Sears, Roebucks. I don't know what thi s one has, but I'm sure it will befour thousand of something. Since you are re sponsible, I thought you might like to knowwhat's happening.

What I was being blamed for, it turned out, was a newspaper strike which m ade it necessary tohand-deliver the advertising inserts that normally are inclu ded with the Sunday paper. Thecompany had promised our boys $600 for deli vering 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 infor med me.

"Thereare thirty-two thousand pages of advertising on our porch. Even as we speak, two big guys arecarrying armloads of paper up the walk. What do we d o about all this?"

"Just tell the boys to get busy," I instructed.

"They're college men. They'll do what they have todo."

At noon the following day I returned to the hotel and found an urgent messag e to telephonemy wife. Her voice was unnaturally high and quavering. There had been several more truckloadsof ad inserts.

"They're for department stores, dime stores, drugstores, grocery stores, auto stores and so on. Some are whole magazine sections. We have hundreds of t housands, maybemillions, of pages of advertising here! They are crammed wa ll-to-wall all through the house instacks taller than your oldest son. There's on ly 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 plasti c bag. We have enough plastic bags to supply every takeout restaurant inA merica!" Her voice kept rising, as if working its way out of the range of the h uman ear. "Allthis must be delivered by seven o'clock Sunday morning." "Well, you had better get those guys banding and sliding as fast as they can, and I'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 stea k, but knew betterby now than to say so.

"Awful," I reported. "Some sort of sour fish. Eel, I think."

"Good. Your college sons have hired their younger brothers and sisters and a couple ofneighborhood children to help for five dollars each. Assembly lines h ave been set up. In thelanguage of diplomacy, there is 'movement.'" "That's encouraging."

"No, it's not," she corrected.

"It's very discouraging. They're been as it for hours. Plastic bagshave been f illed and piled to the ceiling, but all this hasn't made a dent, not a dent, in t hesituation! It's 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 harm.

Obtaining an audience with son NO. 1, I snarled,

"I'll 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 won't be any profit unless those kids enable you to make all the delive ries on time. Ifthey don't, you two will have to remove all that paper by your selves. 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 profound change in my personality."

"Do it!"

"Yes, sir!"

By the following evening, there was much for my wife to report. The bonus p rogram hadworked until someone demanded to see the color of cash. Then so me activist on the work forceclaimed that the workers had no business settlin g for $5 and a few competitive bonuses whilethe bossed collected hundreds 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 turned out, the job was completed three hours before Sunday's 7 a.m. d eadline. By thetime I arrived home, the boys had already settled their accou nts: $150 in labor costs, $40 for gasoline, and a like amount

for gifts—boxes of candy for saintly neighbors who had volunteered station wagons and helpin delivery 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 d rawn to the oddgoings-on of our two youngest sons. They kept carrying carto n 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 pick up. Then I overheard them discussing finances.

"Geez, we're going to make a lot of money!"

"We're going to be rich!"

Investigation revealed that they were offering " for sale or rent" our entire libr ary.

"No! No!" I cried. "You can't sell our books!"

"Geez, Dad, we thought you were done with them!"

"You're never 'done' with books," I tried to explain.

"Sure you are. You read them, and you're done with them. That's it. Then you might as wellmake a little money from them. We wanted to avoid the indig nity 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 conditions; 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 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

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, ma gazines, 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 subdivision of a piece of writing, book, newspaper, etc.; portion（文章等的）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（堆、垛等）

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. （餐馆）出售外卖菜的

range

n. the distance at which one can see or hear （听觉、视觉等）的范围

marvel(l)ous

a. wonderful; astonishing

steak

n. 牛排；大块肉（或鱼）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 one's 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 thought 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

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. the 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（或盒） curbside

n. the area of sidewalk at or near curb（curb: 人行道的镶边石）

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 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 （使）停下

a piece of cake

(informal) sth. very easy to do

even as

just at the same moment as

know 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 toward s 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

settle for

accept, although not altogether satisfactory （无可奈何地）满足于

settle one's 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