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Unit 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 probably is.
BIG BUCKS THE EASY WAY John G. Hubbell
\\avoid the indignity of having to ask for money all thetime.\plastic bag someone bad hung on our doorknob. Amessage printed on the bag offered leisurely, lucrative work (\\indignity,\\\，
\asses you.\
The 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.
\\
\t.\
\
\rds. The secondbrought four thousand Sears, Roebucks. I don"t know what this one has, but I"m sure it will befour thousand of something. Since you are responsible, I thought you might like to knowwhat"s 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 boys $600 for delivering these inserts to 4,000 houses by Sundaymorning. \
\\
\informed me.
\speak, two big guys arecarrying armloads of paper up the walk. What do we do about all this?\
\
\
At noon the following day I returned to the hotel and found an urgent message to telephonemy wife. Her voice was unnaturally high and quavering. There had been several more truckloadsof ad inserts.
\stores and so on. Some are whole magazine sections. We have hundreds of thousands, maybemillions, of pages of advertising here! They are crammed wall-to-wall all through the house instacks taller than your oldest son. There"s 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 bag. We have enough plastic bags to supply every takeout restaurant inAmerica!\range of the human ear. \\and I"ll talk to youlater. Got a lunch date.
When I returned, there was another urgent call from my wife.
\marvelous steak, but knew betterby now than to say so.
\
\couple ofneighborhood children to help for five dollars each. Assembly lines have been set up. In thelanguage of diplomacy, there is "movement."\\\
\discouraging. They"re been as it for hours. Plastic bagshave been filled and piled to the ceiling, but all this hasn"t made a dent, not a dent, in thesituation! It"s almost as if the inserts keep reproducing themselves!\\
\ by threatening them with bodily harm. Obtaining an audience with son NO. 1, I snarled,
\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. \
\ries on time. Ifthey don"t, 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,
\profoundchange in my personality.\\\
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 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. deadline. By thetime I arrived home, the boys had already settled their accounts: $150 in labor costs, $40 forgasoline, 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 \avoid indignity\
All went well for some weeks. Then one Saturday morning my attention was 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. \\
Investigation revealed that they were offering \ary.
\\\
\ 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 plastica. 塑料的 n. (pl) 塑料 doorknobn. 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 inquirevt. ask super
a. (colloq.) wonderful, splendid; excellent snap
vt. say(sth.) sharply 厉声说
insertn. 插页 normally
ad. in the usual conditions; ordinarily 通常 companyn. 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.
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