新视野大学英语读写教程听力 第三册 te-unit04-c

[-1:10.00]For the $3.99 they earned each minute for the company,
[-1:11.00]they kept only 25 cents in base pay — with no other benefits.
[-1:12.00]Each week a computer totals the average length of your calls;
[-1:13.00]if it is under 14 minutes, you're in trouble.
[-1:14.00]11  You learn to cultivate the callers who increase your average
[-1:15.00]as they take you through long stories of crisis and loneliness.
[-1:16.00]One woman lived eight miles from town,
[-1:17.00]had a drinking problem and thought she was pregnant.
[-1:18.00]She couldn't figure out what to do .
[-1:19.00]I asked if she'd been to the doctor to see if she really was pregnant.
[-1:20.00]No, She'd rather have the cards tell her.
[-1:21.00]"Well," I said, "the cards show you'll be going to a store
[-1:22.00]and buying a pregnancy test."
[-1:23.00]12  Then I got my first call from Teneecia
[-1:24.00]— suicidal with a recently dead boyfriend.
[-1:25.00]Hers was the most extreme crisis I'd ever confronted,
[-1:26.00]and at first I was terribly afraid.
[-1:27.00]Then, without thinking rationally, I leapt into action.
[-1:28.00]"Teneecia," I said. "Your boyfriend knows how much you love him.
[-1:29.00]But he wants you to stay where you are,
[-1:30.00]alive, and be a mother to his baby.
[-1:31.00]And I want you to call me any time.
[-1:32.00]Here's my home phone.
[-1:33.00]Forget the psychic network — it's way too expensive."
[-1:34.00]13  "Really?" Teneecia responded.
[-1:35.00]"Oh, thank you. You're my psychic friend."
[-1:36.00]I hung up and wept.
[-1:37.00]14  Before long, I dialed Psychic Readers Network
[-1:38.00]to discuss their business and people like Teneecia.
[-1:39.00]But nobody got back to me.
[-1:40.00]I sent a note informing them I was leaving.
[-1:41.00]15  Since then, I've heard that the psychic-talk business is doing poorly
[-1:42.00]and that phone psychics have been considering another form of telephone work:
[-1:43.00]phone sex. Same money, slightly different dialog.
[-1:44.00]And the work, it's said, is much easier.