大学英语综合教程 第三册 7textB

[07:20.14]13 When I broke the news about what the paper was paying me,
[07:24.89]my father suggested I get a part-time job to supplement my income. “Maybe you could drive a cab.”
[07:32.68]Once, after I was chewed out by the city editor for something trivial,
[07:38.50]I made the mistake of telling my father during a visit home. “They pay you nothin’,
[07:45.63]and they push you around too much in that business,” he told me, the rage building.
[07:51.46]“Next time, you gotta grab the guy by the throat and tell him he’s a big jerk.”
[07:58.01]14 My father isn’t crazy about his life. He wanted to be a singer and actor when he was young,
[08:05.83]but his Italian family expected money to be coming in.
[08:10.71](3) My dad learned a trade, as he was supposed to , and settled into a life of pre-scripted routine.
[08:18.29]15 Although I see my dad in frequently, my brother, who lives at home, is with the old man every day.
[08:26.41]Chris has a lot more blue-collar in him than I do, despite his management-level career.
[08:33.62]Once in a while he’ll bag a lunch and, in a nice wool suit, meet my father at a construction site and share sandwiches.
[08:43.55]16 It was Chris who helped my dad most when my father tried to change his life several months ago.
[08:50.08]My dad wanted a civil-service bricklayer foreman’s job that wouldn’t be so physically demanding.
[08:57.57]There was a written test that included essay questions about construction work.My father hadn’t done anything like it in forty years.
[09:07.66]Every morning before sunrise, Chris would be ironing a shirt and my father would sit at the kitchen table
[09:15.65]and read aloud his practice essays on how to wash down a wall, or how to build a tricky corner.
[09:24.14]Chris would suggest words and approaches.
[09:27.82]17 It was so hard for my dad. He had to take a prep course in a junior high school
[09:34.88]three nights a week after work for six weeks. At class time, the outside men would come in,
[09:42.95]twenty-five construction workers squeezing themselves into little desks. Tough blue-collar guys armed with No.2 pencils
[09:53.48]leaning over and scratching out their practice essays, cement in their hair, tar on their pants,
[10:01.55]their work boots too big and clumsy to fit under the desks.
[10:06.46]18 “Is this what finals felt like?” my father would ask me on the phone. “Were you always this nervous?”
[10:15.00]I told him yes. I told him writing’s always difficult. He thanked Chris and me for the coaching,
[10:23.39]for putting him through school this time. My father thinks he did okay, but he’s still awaiting the test results.
[10:31.93](4)In the meantime, he takes life the-collar way, one brick at a time.
[10:38.07]19 When we see each other these days, my father still asks how the money is. Sometimes he reads my stories,
[10:47.05]usually he likes them, although he recently criticized one piece as being a bit sentimental.
[10:54.39]20 During one of my visits to Brooklyn not long ago, he and I were in the car,
[11:00.22]on your way to buy toiletries, one of my father’s weekly routines. “You know, you’re not as successful as you could be,”
[11:09.65]he began, blue-collar blunt as usual. “You paid your dues in school. You deserve better restaurants, better clothes.”
[11:19.42]Here we go, I thought, the same old stuff. I’m sure every family has five or six similar big issues
[11:28.04]that are replayed like well-worn videotapes. I wanted to fast-forward this thing when we stopped at a red light.
[11:36.74]21 Just then my father turned to me, solemn and intense. “I envy you,” he said quietly.
[11:46.22]“For a man to do something he likes and get paid for it—that’s fantastic.”
[11:52.41]He smiled at me before the light changed, and we drove on. To thank him for the understanding,
[12:00.35]I sprang for the deodorant and shampoo. For once, my father let me pay.
[12:03.97]直言不讳的      问题            极好的           就此一次