All I had to do for the two dollars was clean her house for a few hours after school. It was a beautiful house, too, with a plastic-covered sofa and chairs, wall-to-wall blue-and-white carpeting, a white enamel stove, a washing machine and a dryer — things that were common in her neighborhood, absent in mine. In the middle of the war, she had butter, sugar, steaks, and seam-up-the-back stockings.
我所做的一切，为了那两美元，就是放学后花几个小时打扫她的房子。那是一个美丽的房子，有塑料覆盖的沙发和椅子，满铺的蓝白相间的地毯，一个白色的搪瓷炉子，一个洗衣机和一个烘干机——这些东西在她的社区很常见，但在我家却没有。在战争期间，她有黄油、糖、牛排和后缝的长袜。

I knew how to scrub floors on my knees and how to wash clothes in our zinc tub, but I had never seen a Hoover vacuum cleaner or an iron that wasn’t heated by fire.
我知道如何跪着擦洗地板，也知道如何在锌制的洗衣盆里洗衣服，但我从未见过胡佛吸尘器或者不是用火加热的熨斗。

Part of my pride in working for her was earning money I could squander(浪费):on movies, candy, paddleballs, jacks, ice-cream cones. But a larger part of my pride was based on the fact that I gave half my wages to my mother, which meant that some of my earnings were used for real things — an insurance-policy payment or what was owed to the milkman or the iceman. The pleasure of being necessary to my parents was profound. I was not like the children in folktales: burdenso me mouths to feed, nuisances to be corrected, problems so severe that they were abandoned to the forest. I had a status that doing routine chores in my house did not provide —and it earned me a slow smile, an approving nod from an adult. Confirmations that I was adultlike, not childlike.
我为她工作的一部分自豪感来自于我能赚到可以挥霍的钱：看电影、买糖果、球拍球、插销、冰淇淋锥。但我更大的自豪感来自于我将一半的工资给了我的母亲，这意味着我的一些收入被用于真正的东西——保险费或者欠牛奶工或冰工的钱。对父母来说，我是必不可少的，这种快乐是深刻的。我不像童话中的孩子：只是需要喂养的嘴巴，需要纠正的麻烦，问题如此严重以至于被遗弃在森林中。我在做家务时没有的地位——它给了我一个慢慢的笑容，一个成年人的认可。确认我是成年人，而不是孩子。

In those days, the forties, children were not just loved or liked;they were needed. They could earn money;they could care for children younger than themselves; they could work the farm, take care of the herd, run errands(差事), and much more. I suspect that children aren’t needed in that way now. They are loved, doted on, protected, and helped. Fine, and yet…
在那些日子里，四十年代，孩子们不仅仅是被爱或喜欢；他们是需要的。他们可以赚钱；他们可以照顾比自己小的孩子；他们可以工作农场，照顾畜群，跑腿等等。我怀疑现在的孩子不需要以那种方式被需要。他们被爱，被宠爱，被保护，被帮助。很好，然而…

Little by little, I got better at cleaning her house — good enough to be given more to do, much more. I was ordered to carry bookcases upstairs and, once, to move a piano from one side of a room to the other. I fell carrying the bookcases. And after pushing the piano my arms and legs hurt so badly. I wanted to refuse, or at least to complain, but I was afraid she would fire me, and I would lose the freedom the dollar gave me, as well as the standing I had at home—although both were slowly being eroded. She began to offer me her clothes, for a price. Impressed by these worn things, which looked simply gorgeous to a little girl who had only two dresses to wear to school,I bought a few. Until my mother asked me if I really wanted to work for castoffs. So I learned to say “No, thank you” to a faded sweater offered for a quarter of a week’s pay.
渐渐地，我打扫她的房子变得越来越熟练——足够好以至于被给予更多的任务。我被命令把书架搬到楼上，有一次，把钢琴从一个房间的一边搬到另一边。我搬书架时摔倒了。推钢琴后，我的手臂和腿疼得厉害。我想拒绝，或者至少抱怨，但我害怕她会解雇我，我会失去那一美元给我的自由，以及我在家里的地位——尽管这两者都在慢慢被侵蚀。她开始向我提供她的衣服，要价。对于这些破旧的东西，我印象深刻，对于一个只有两套衣服上学的小女孩来说，它们看起来简直太美了，我买了一些。直到我母亲问我是否真的想为这些破旧的东西工作。所以我学会了对一件褪色的毛衣说“不，谢谢”，它要价是一周工资的四分之一。

Still, I had trouble summoning (鼓起) the courage to discuss or object to the increasing demands she made. And I knew that if I told my mother how unhappy I was she would tell me to quit. Then one day, alone in the kitchen with my father, I let drop a few whines about the job. I gave him details, examples of what troubled me, yet although he listened intently, I saw no sympathy in his eyes. No “Oh, you poor little thing.” Perhaps he understood that what I wanted was a solution to the job, not an escape from it. In any case, he put down his cup of coffee and said,“Listen. You don’t live there. You live here. With your people. Go to work. Get your money. And come on home.”
尽管如此，我仍然很难鼓起勇气去讨论或反对她日益增长的要求。我知道如果我告诉我的母亲我有多不开心，她会告诉我辞职。然后有一天，我和我的父亲单独在厨房里，我抱怨了一些工作上的事情。我给了他细节，举例说明了什么让我困扰，尽管他聚精会神地听着，但我没有看到他眼中的同情。没有“哦，你这个可怜的小家伙。”也许他明白我想要的是解决工作的方法，而不是逃避工作。无论如何，他放下了他的咖啡杯，说：“听着。你不住在那里。你住在这里。和你的人们在一起。去工作。拿你的钱。然后回家。”

That was what he said. This was what I heard:
这就是他所说的。

Whatever the work is, do it well —not for the boss but for yourself.
不管工作是什么，都要做好——不是为了老板，而是为了你自己。

You make the job; it doesn’t make you.
你创造工作；工作并不塑造你。

Your real life is with us, your family.
你真正的生活是和我们在一起，你的家人。

You are not the work you do; you are the person you are.
你不是你所做的工作；你是你这个人。

I have worked for all sorts of people since then, geniuses and morons, quick-witted and dull, big-hearted and narrow. I’ve had many kinds of jobs, but since that conversation with my father I have never considered the level of labor to be the measure of myself, and I have never placed the security of a job above the value of home.
从那以后，我为各种人工作过，天才和笨蛋，机智和迟钝，心胸宽广和心胸狭窄。我有过各种各样的工作，但自从和父亲的那次谈话以来，我从未将劳动的水平视为衡量自己的标准，也从未将工作的安全感置于家庭价值之上。

1. What can we learn about the author is different from other children?
   A. She needs to be supported like others. B. She made a mistake and needed to be corrected.
   C. She often does daily chores at home. D. She’s too childish for comparison.
   答案：C

2. According to the article, which of the following is correct about children in the 1940s like the author?
   A. They just want to be popular, loved and liked.
   B. They only take great pains to earn more money.
   C. They can do all kinds of daily work, such as caring for children and so on.
   D. They are no longer needed except for being spoiled by adults.
   答案：C

3. What did the author’s father make her understand?
   A. Don’t escape from difficulties at work. B. Whatever decision she made, her father would support her.
   C. Convey her dissatisfaction with her work. D. Make a distinction between work and life.
   答案：D

4. Which of the following corresponds to the author’s views on work?
   A. Don’t regard work achievement as a criterion for evaluating oneself.
   B. Hard work is a struggle for a better future in your limited life.
   C. Work is to follow the footsteps of the boss.
   D. Work safety should be more important than family value.
   答案：A