新视野大学英语读写教程听力 第二册 unit8c_new

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[00:00.00]喜欢hxen.net，就把hxen.net复制到QQ个人资料中！What Life Is like When Out of Work
[00:05.00](Fortunately, Jan Halvorsen was unemployed only four months.
[00:12.46]She is now assistant editor of the Twin Cities Courier
[00:18.43]in St. Paul, Minnesota.
[00:22.50]The following essay appeared as Newsweek's
[00:28.48]"My Turn" article in September of 1980.)
[00:34.34]Being laid off from work, job loss and recession
[00:40.61]have always affected Walter Cronkite's tone of voice
[00:47.45]and the editor's page.
[00:50.90]And maybe they affected a neighborhood business or a friend's uncle
[00:58.07]But these terms have always been just words,
[01:04.22]affecting someone else's world, like a passing ambulance.
[01:10.38]At least they were until a few weeks ago, when the ambulance came for me
[01:19.02]Even as I sat staring blankly at my boss, hearing,
[01:25.57]"I've got bad news: we're going to have to let you go,"
[01:31.55]it still seemed no more related to my daily life
[01:38.32]than a "60 Minutes" program.
[01:42.28]I kept waiting for the alternative
[01:47.32]"but you can come back after a couple of months,"
[01:52.75]or "you could take a salary cut, a different position,"
[01:59.63]or even, "April fool." But none of these came. This was final.
[02:09.49]There was no mistake and no alternative.
[02:15.25]How it all echoes through your evenings and wakes you up in the morning
[02:21.80]The mornings are probably the worst
[02:27.35]waking up with the shock, for the first two weeks, thinking
[02:33.79]"I'm late!" Late for what?
[02:39.23]The dull ache in your lower stomach reminds you: late for nothing
[02:44.70]Again, you face the terms: "Loss of self-worth and security,
[02:52.15]fear of the future, stress, depression
[02:57.84]You wonder if eating a dozen chocolate-chip cookies,
[03:04.00]wearing a house coat until 4, combing your hair at 5,
[03:10.55]cleaning behind the stove (twice)
[03:14.90]and crying in a job-agency parking lot qualify as symptoms of stress
[03:22.46]or maybe loss of self-worth.
[03:26.32]Fighting with your spouse/boyfriend?
[03:30.89]Aha — tension in personal relationships.
[03:36.76]The loss of a job is rejection,
[03:42.52]resulting in the same hurt feelings as if a friend had told you to "bug off"
[03:50.29]Only this "friend" filled up 40 to 60 (or more) hours of your week
[03:59.54]Repeated references to the staff as "family"
[04:05.81]only emphasize the feeling of being left alone
[04:11.89]and having been told a lie.
[04:15.85]You picture yourself going home to your parents or spouse
[04:23.41]and being informed, "Your services as our daughter / my wife
[04:30.65]are no longer required. Pick up your baby pictures as you leave
[04:36.80]Each new act that confirms your job loss starts the pain again:
[04:44.47]the first trip to the employment agency,
[04:50.12]the first friend you tell, the first interview and,
[04:56.39]most fearful of all, the first trip to the unemployment office
[05:02.83]You do eventually become accustomed to being unemployed,
[05:09.38]in the way you might accept a bad limp
[05:14.03]And you eventually quit beating yourself
[05:19.57]for not having been somehow indispensable
[05:25.04]or for not having become an accountant
[05:29.29]You tire of straining your memory for possible mistakes.
[05:35.34]You recover some of the confidence
[05:40.42]that always told you how good you were at your job
[05:45.78]and accept what the boss said:
[05:50.03]"This doesn't reflect on your job performance;
[05:55.18]sales are down 30 per cent this month."
[05:59.82]But each time you recover that valued self-worth,
[06:05.36]you renew  a fight to keep it.
[06:09.50]Each time you go to a job interview and give them your best
[06:16.34]and they hire someone else, you go another round with yourself
[06:23.18]and your self-worth.
[06:27.94]Your unemployment seems to drag on beyond all reason.
[06:34.02]You start to see a stranger in your rearview mirror.
[06:39.67]The stranger suddenly looks like a bum
[06:44.53]You look at her with clinical curiosity.