Lesson 4 The double life of Alfred Bloggs 阿爾弗雷德.布洛格斯的雙重生活
Listen to the tape then answer the question below.聽錄音,然后回答以下問題。
Why did Alf want a white-collar job?
These days, people who do manual work often receive far more money than people who work in offices. People who work in offices are frequently referred to as "white-collar workers' for the simple reason that they usually wear a collar and tie to go to work. Such is human nature, that a great many people are often willing to sacrifice higher pay for the privilege of becoming white-collar workers. This can give rise to curious situations, as it did in the case of Alfred Bloggs who worked as a dustman for the Ellesmere Corporation.
When he got married, Alf was too embarrassed to say anything to his wife about his job. He simply told her that he worked for the Corporation. Every morning, he left home dressed in a smart black suit. He then changed into overalls and spent the next eight hours as a dustman. Before returning home at night. He took a shower and changed back into his suit. Alf did this for over two years and his fellow dustmen kept his secret Alf's wife has never discovered that she married a dustman and she never will, for Alf has just found another job. He will soon be working in an office. He will be earning only half as much as he used to, but he feels that his rise in status is well worth the loss of money. From now on, he will wear a suit all day and others will call him 'Mr. Bloggs', not 'Alf'.
參考譯文
如今,從事體力勞動(dòng)的人的收入一般要比坐辦公室的人高出許多。坐辦公室的之所以常常被稱作“白領(lǐng)工人”,就是因?yàn)樗麄兺ǔJ谴┲差I(lǐng)白襯衫,系著領(lǐng)帶去上 班。許多人常常情愿放棄較高的薪水以換取做白領(lǐng)工人的殊榮,此乃人之常情。而這常常會(huì)引起種.種奇怪的現(xiàn)象,在埃爾斯米爾公司當(dāng)清潔工的艾爾弗雷德.布洛斯 就是一個(gè)例子。
艾爾弗結(jié)婚時(shí),感到非常難為情,而沒有將自己的職業(yè)告訴妻子。他只說在埃爾斯米爾公司上班。每天早晨,他穿上一身漂亮的黑色西裝離家上班,然后換上工作 服,當(dāng)8個(gè)小時(shí)清潔工。晚上回家前,他洗個(gè)淋浴,重新?lián)Q上那身黑色西服。兩年多以來,艾爾弗一直這樣,他的同事也為他保守秘密。艾爾弗的妻子一直不知道她 嫁給了一個(gè)清潔工,而且她永遠(yuǎn)也不會(huì)知道了,因?yàn)榘瑺柛ヒ颜业叫铰?,不久就要坐辦公室里工作了。他將來掙的錢只有他現(xiàn)在的一半。不過他覺得,地位升高了, 損失點(diǎn)兒錢也值得。從此,艾爾弗可以一天到晚穿西服了。別人將稱呼他為“布洛格斯先生”,而不再叫他“艾爾弗”了。
New words and expressions 生詞和短語
manual
adj. 體力的
collar
n. 衣領(lǐng)
sacrifice
v. 犧牲,獻(xiàn)出
privilege
n. 好處
dustman
n. 清潔工
corporation
n. 公司
overalls
n. 工作服
shower
n. 淋浴
secret
n. 秘密
status
n. 地位
Notes on the text課文注釋
1 People who work in offices are frequently referred to as "white-collar workers",那些坐在辦公室的人,往往被稱“白領(lǐng)工人”。 white-collar workers往往指腦力勞動(dòng)者,而體力勞動(dòng)者則被稱為blue-collar worker.藍(lán)領(lǐng)工人。
2 for the simple reason that... 這里that引導(dǎo)的從句是the reason的同位語。
3 Such is human nature, that..
such位于句首,起強(qiáng)調(diào)作用,后面要用倒裝語序、that引導(dǎo)的是such的同位語從句。
4 as it did in the case of Alfred Bloggs who…worked as a dustman for the Ellesmere Corporation.正如給埃爾斯米爾公司當(dāng)清潔工的艾爾弗雷德·布洛格斯的情況所造成的怪現(xiàn)象那樣。as it did中的it是指上一句中that
從句所指的情況,而did是替代give rise to curious situations。
5 half as much as he used to,只相當(dāng)于過去的一半。
Lesson 4 課后練習(xí)和答案Exercises and Answer
![](http://uploads.117.119.65.11:40003/allimg/1612/1439531R6-0.jpg)
![](http://uploads.117.119.65.11:40003/allimg/1612/1439532918-1.jpg)
![](http://uploads.117.119.65.11:40003/allimg/1612/143953K91-2.jpg)
![](http://uploads.117.119.65.11:40003/allimg/1612/1439534232-3.jpg)