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.

}       Pay:

   这里是薪水的意思。
take-home pay →

    是你能够拿回家的薪水，因为要交税。
(after taxes) net income

   （税后）也可以说是net income 纯收入    
(before taxes) gross income
   （税前）也可以说是gross income 毛收入

}       privilege: 小红帽

    这个词其实是指一种特权，一种特惠。比如说你去坐火车，有那种小红帽，如果你给小红帽5块钱，就可以先上车，那么，这就是你用5块钱买到的privilege。还有就是例如会员，加入会员是需要钱的，如果问我买了会员会得到什么好处呢？就是：
what is the privilege of buying the membership?

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.

}       Embarrass:

   窘迫，难堪
Am I the only one that this is embarrassing for?

   难道我是唯一一个使这件事情造成难堪的吗？

}       After jump-starting my car-
A: I don’t know how to thank you.
B: No problem. What are neighbors for?
 for 在句子最后由一种用法。有一次冬天，我的车打不着，一个老外挺热心的用一个叫做 cable的将两辆车连起来。英文中这种打车的方法叫做 jump-start。我当时说 I don’t know how to thank you. 他说没事，邻居嘛。邻居是用来干嘛的？就是可以用来帮忙的。提到“No problem”，当别人跟你说谢谢，你可以说No problem ；当别人跟你说对不起，你也可以说No problem 。上述的例子还可以这样替换——
What are friends for?
What are brothers for?

}       That was the most humiliating thing ever.

    那是前所未有的难堪。这里ever 放在最后，在口语里边是经常用的，表示从来没有过。humiliating 比 embarrassing 程度要深，带有一种耻辱的难堪。

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.

}       Suit：

   西装。我有一次上课，那门课叫做 business communication。老师说要做presentation，一般作 presentation 都要穿西装。这时有一个学生问不穿西装行不行，老师是这样说的：
You don’t have to wear suit, but you gotta be business-like.

   你可以不穿西装，但你要看起来像个做生意的。即是看起来比较正规，别拉里邋遢的。

A: What do you think of the suit? With this new job, I’ve got to start dressing more professionally.
B: Well, the style is fine. You might want to reconsider the choice of color.

   这是托福听力里的一段对话。A问，你觉得我的西装怎么样？因为换了新的工作，我想穿得更好看更专业一点。回答是，款式还可以，但是这个颜色你可能得考虑一下。

}       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.

}       Kept his secret :

   保守秘密
I am an excellent secret keeper.
 我这个人守口如瓶。secret keeper 即是保守秘密的人。

}       Married:
I’ve never been engaged. I’ve never really been married.

   我从来没有定过婚，我也没有结过婚。I’m not getting married! I’m not even engaged.

   我没有结婚，我连订婚都没有。

I’m never gonna be getting married!

   我不会结婚的。

}       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’.

}       Call:
You can call me Bill.
Just call me Bill.

  叫我Bill 就行了。
They are on a first-name basis.

   他们比较熟了。假如你的fist-name 是Bill,我的 fist-name 是Mark,那么两人见面直接喊fist-name 比较亲切，两人比较熟了才这样称呼。

}  Some time ago, and interesting discovery was made by archaeologists on the Aegean island of Kea. An American team explored a temple which stands in an ancient city on the promontory of Ayia Irini. The city at one time must have been prosperous, for it enjoyed a high level of civilization.

}  must have been:

   这里最重要的是最清楚must 和 have been 之间的关系。must 后面本来就是要跟动词原形，而have been本来就是完成时的原形。

must/should/could/would have done/been

    如果后面跟have done, 它本来也是完成时do 的原形。这些东西被人们讲复杂了。must have been , should have done这些东西理所当然。

    I should’ve  told you.

    我应该已经告诉过你了。这句话随着语境的不同，可能稍微会有些变化。它不见得非要表达责备的意思
I should’ve never gone to London.

    我应该从来没有去过伦敦。有时，只需要理解字面的意思就行了，没有那么复杂。

}  Houses — often three storeys high — were built of stone. They had large rooms with beautifully decorated walls. The city was equipped with a drainage system, for a great many clay pipes were found beneath the narrow streets.

}  decorated :

   装修
decorated body

   指的是国外的一门课，属于大众传媒这样的专业。这门课是讲如何装饰自己的身体。比如说纹身，戴耳环，舌头上穿洞，还有一些民族，部落的审美观这样的内容。

}  narrow :
The wedding caterer sent me this list of 12 appetizers. And I have to narrow it down to 6.

   这个 wedding caterer 给了我一张列表，上面有12个appetizer, 但是我要把它缩减到6个。

}  The temple which the archaeologists explored was used as a place of worship from the fifteenth century B.C. until Roman times. In the most sacred room of temple, clay fragments of fifteen statues were found.
 

}  Decade: a period of 10 years
Century :a period of 100 years
Millennium: a period of 1000 years

   这几个词说明了时间的长度不同。

}  Archaeologist:

   考古学家，下面是两个比较生僻的词：
anthropologist/paleontologist

      人类学家             古生物学家

}  Each of these represented a goddess and had, at one time, been painted. The body of one statue was found among remains dating from the fifteenth century B.C. It’s missing head happened to be among remains of the fifth century B.C. This head must have been found in Classical times and carefully preserved. It was very old and precious even then.

}  Represent:
representative

   名词，是指人。假如你是我在这个城市的代表，那么你就是我的 representative。
this is not about the room, this is about what the room represents!

   这句话是有语境的。假如有两个男女朋友在吵架，他们在讨论这间房间该做什么用途，是应该作客厅还是作厨房。说了这样一句话意思是咱们不该争论这房间用来做什么，而是这房间谁说了算！

}  When the archaeologists reconstructed the fragments, they were amazed to find that the goddess turned out to be a very modern-looking woman. She stood three feet high and her hands rested on her hips. She was wearing a full-length skirt which swept the ground. Despite her great age, she was very graceful indeed, but, so far, the archaeologists have been unable to discover her identity.

}  turned out to be:

   最后结果怎么样
I was engaged to a guy who turned out to be gay.
我曾今跟一个男的订婚了，但是结果发现他是同性恋。

}  Identity:

   身份。常说的ID 就是从这个词来的。
ID → photo ID → photo ID required

   photo ID 是带有照片的，可以辨认你身份这样的东西。像军官证，护照，身份证都可以算photo ID 。在国外的机场，当你登机的时候，会看到photo ID required,就是说你不但要出示你的登机牌，还要出示带有照片的证件才能上飞机。

}  Pumas are large, cat-like animals which are found in America. When reports came into London Zoo that a wild puma had been spotted forty-five miles south of London, they were not taken seriously. However, as the evidence began to accumulate, experts from the Zoo felt obliged to investigate, for the descriptions given by people who claimed to have seen the puma were extraordinarily similar.

}  Take…seriously:

    很多人把它讲作是固定结构，其实不是。让我们来看一下例子：take it pretty well.

I told Mum and Dad last night, they seemed to

    我昨天告诉爸爸妈妈了，他们好像对这个事情也不是很吃惊。take this the wrong way.

Please don’t

     这两句话，一个用的是pretty well, 一个用 the wrong way, 不同的副词而已。take 后面跟了不同的副词，意思就不一样了，所以它不是固定搭配。Please don’t take this the wrong way. 意思是我现在要说点什么，希望你不要介意。首先告诉你，你不要误解。那么下面两句话是同样的表达方式：
Please don’t get me wrong.
Please don’t misunderstand me.

}  Accumulate:

     累积
accumulated  depreciation    
accumulated  amortization

   这两个指的金融会计上的值，它是指累积折旧。在做帐的时候，假如说公司的房子价值是100万，一年是10万，那么第二年累积的折旧就是20万。累积的折旧即算在花销里边，就是accumulated depreciation或者说 amortization.

}  The hunt for the puma began in a small village where a woman picking blackberries saw ‘a large cat’ only five yards away from her. It immediately ran away when she saw it, and experts confirmed that a puma will not attack a human being unless it is cornered. The search proved difficult, for the puma was often observed at one place in the morning and at another place twenty miles away in the evening. Wherever it went, it left behind it a trail of dead deer and small animals like rabbits.

}  Hunt:
job-hunt /job search    

     找工作
Peter’s job search was unsuccessful.

}  Confirmed :

    可以用这个词替代，比较口语化的一个词 Double-check 意思是再次确认。

}  Cornered:

   本课的unless it is cornered 是说，puma 一般不会伤人，除非被逼得没有办法。电视剧上也有见过这个词在口语中被运用：有一个问她说，你为什么要说实话呢？这时那个女生说：
She cornered me!

    意思是我被逼得没办法了，只能这样说了。可见，corner有把人逼到墙角里面这样的意思
The winter is around the corner.
The bus is around the corner.

     around the corner在口语中，是 coming 的意思。

}  Paw prints were seen in a number of places and puma fur was found clinging to bushes. Several people complained of “cat-like noises’ at night and a businessman on a fishing trip saw the puma up a tree. The experts were now fully convinced that the animal was a puma, but where had it come from?As no pumas had been reported missing from any zoo in the country, this one must have been in the possession of a private collector and somehow managed to escape. The hunt went on for several weeks, but the puma was not caught. It is disturbing to think that a dangerous wild animal is still at large in the quiet countryside.

}  he caught me smoking.

他逮到我抽烟了
catch me if you can .

    汤姆汉克斯演的电影一句台词，挺好看的。

}  Is your finger caught in that chair?

     catch 在美国口语里边还有这样的一个用法，如上例句。指的是，你的手是不是被椅子夹到了？

}  Our vicar is always raising money for one cause or another, but he has never managed to get enough money to have the church clock repaired. The big clock which used to strike the hours day and night was damaged many years ago and has been silent ever since.

}  Our vicar is always raising money for one cause or another

   意思是我们的vicar总是找理由跟大家要钱。

}  one cause or another :

   这样或那样的理由，原因。
One way or another,

    这种方式不行用另一种方式。
One thing led to another,

   描述或陈述一件事情时的插入语。例如，你见到一个人在说话，过一会越说越激烈，开始争执，这种情况下，就是 one thing led to another。

}  … has been silent ever since :
Hans settled down in a village fifty miles away where he had remained ever since.(lesson36)

   ever since,36课也有出现。这样的句子一般都是完成时。有了相同的东西，就会出现规律，有了这种规律，规则，你才真正有信心去延伸，创造一些东西，因为在规则之下创造的东西才有可能是正确的。

}  One night, however, our vicar woke up with a start: the clock was striking the hours! Looking at his watch, he saw that it was one o’clock, but the bell struck thirteen times before it stopped. Armed with a torch, the vicar went up into the clock tower to see what was going on. In the torchlight, he caught sight of a figure whom he immediately recognized as Bill Wilkins, our local grocer.

}  Looking at his watch, he saw that it was one o’clock

     他看了看表，1点钟。

    这里，分词作状语。不是解释成关联关系。分词作状语的精神主要表示伴随，美国人在说话的时候，脑子里绝对没有这种关联关系。脑子里不可能还在想“条件状语”“原因状语”“让步状语”…….如果你非要那样理解，那么，你是不可能领会其真正的使用方法。

}  Armed with a torch, the vicar went up into the clock tower to see what was going on.

     这个 vicar 拿着手电筒去看看发生了什么事情。

     如果把这个armed 前面看作省略了being，它还是现在分词作状语。所以不管是现在分词还是过去分词，实际上都是现在分词表伴随。

}   Looking at his watch 现在分词伴随
 (Being) Armed with a torch过去分词伴随

    统称分词伴随

}  （实质都是现在分词伴随）

}  ‘Whatever are you doing up here Bill?’ asked the vicar in surprise.
 ‘I’m trying to repair the bell,’ answered Bill. ‘I’ve been coming up here night after night for weeks now. You see, I was hoping to give you a surprise.‘
‘You certainly did give me a surprise!’ said the vicar. ‘You’ve probably woken up everyone in the village as well. Still, I’m glad the bell is working again.‘

}  Wake-up call:

   叫醒服务电话

   Give me a wake-up call at 7, please.
请在早上7点钟打电话叫我。
This is a wake-up call for you.
 这里是叫醒服务，您该起床了。

}  Still:

    在口语里面有一种比较特别的用法，当时挺常用的，通常放在句末。其表达的还是 still 的意思。

Actually, yesterday I was smoking again. Today, I’m smoking still.
如果你说你要戒烟，然后被别人看到你又抽烟了，这时你可以说：其实我昨天yesterday I was smoking again 昨天我是又抽烟了，today, I’m smoking still 今天我是还在抽烟。

I loved her, and I love her still.

    挺好听的一句话。这句话其实是电影《秋日传奇》里边的一句台词

}  That’s the trouble, vicar,’ answered Bill. ‘It’s working all right, but I’m afraid that at one o’clock it will strike thirteen times and there’s nothing I can do about it.“
    We’ll get used to that, Bill,’ said the vicar. “Thirteen is not as good as one, but it’s better than nothing. Now let’s go downstairs and have a cup of tea.‘

}  Trouble:
That’s where we have the trouble!
That’s where the trouble is!
That’s what the trouble is!
That’s the problem!
 

    这几个句子表达的东西是一样的，即这就是我们要找的trouble，这就是问题的所在。只不过它显示了从句的灵活运用。

}  Afraid:
I’m afraid

not.afraid so.

    这两句话就和 I don’t think so; I think so 性质是一样的。只是 I think so 是我觉得是这样的；I’m afraid so 恐怕是这样的。I’m afraid not 指恐怕不是这样；I’m don’t think so 是我不这样认为。

     I’m not afraid.

     这个跟前面两个的意思就样了，是指我不害怕，我不怕。