新概念美音版第三冊 Lesson 4 The double life of Alfred Bloggs

 
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，然後回答以下問題。
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'.

New words and expressions 生詞和短語

     manual
adj. 體力的

    collar
n.  衣領

    sacrifice
v.  犧牲，獻出

    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

參考譯文

    如今，從事體力勞動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“白領工人”，就是因為他們通常是穿著硬領白襯衫，係著領帶去上班。許多人常常情願放棄較高的薪水以換取做白領工人的殊榮，此乃人之常情。而這常常會引起種種奇怪的現象，在埃爾斯米爾公司當清潔工的艾爾弗雷德.布洛斯就是一個例子。
    艾爾弗結婚時，感到非常難為情，而沒有將自己的職業告訴妻子。他隻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，然後換上工作服，當8個小時清潔工。晚上回家前，他洗個淋浴，重新換上那身黑色西服。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清潔工，而且她永遠也不會知道了，因為艾爾弗已找到薪職，不久就要坐辦公室裏工作了。他將來掙的錢隻有他現在的一半。不過他覺得，地位升高了，損失點兒錢也值得。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。