大学英语精读文本第4册Unit 1(3)

minimum wage for the 91 hours they worked. Still, it was "enough", as one of them put it, to enable them to "avoid indignity" for quite a while.

All went well for some weeks. Then one Saturday morning my attention was drawn to the odd goings-on of our two youngest sons. They kept carrying carton after carton from various corners of the house out the front door to curbside. I assumed their mother had enlisted them to remove junk for a trash pickup. 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 library. "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 well make 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