2023-05-10 14:56:27
Delivering Happiness
美国网络鞋店zappos创始人兼首席执行官谢家华的自传
一本教你如何挣钱的指南
In middle school, I ended up playing four different musical instruments: piano, violin, trumpet, and French horn. During the school year, I was supposed to practice each of them for thirty minutes every day if it was a weekday, and an hour per instrument on Saturdays and Sundays. During the summer, it was an hour per instrument per day, which I believe should be classified as a form of cruel and unusual punishment for kids who want to experience the vacation part of summer vacation.
笔记:
trumpet[ˈtrʌmpɪt]
(N-C)小号;喇叭
French horn[frentʃ hɔ:n]
(铜管乐器)法国号,圆号
During the summer, it was an hour per instrument per day, which I believe should be classified as a form of cruel and unusual punishment for kids...
Which这个关系代词既可以代替“物”,也可以代替“句子”
在这个句子中,which引导非限制性定语从句,先行词是“it was an hour per instrument per day”这一整个句子,而which又作I believe的宾语。
我在中学时代一直联系演奏四种不同的乐器,直到毕业:钢琴,小提琴,小号,法国号。在学校的一年里,爸妈让我在上课的日子用半小时练习其中的一门乐器,在周末就是每小时练习一门乐器。夏天的时候,就是每天每小时一门乐器。在我认为,对想要好好享受暑假的孩子们来说,这应该算是一种残酷而不可寻常的惩罚方式了。
So I figured out a way to still enjoy my weekends and summer vacations. I would wake up early at 6:00 AM ,while my parents were still sleeping, and go downstairs to where the piano was. Instead of actually playing the
piano, I would use a tape recorder and play back an hour-long session that I had recorded earlier. Then, at 7:00 AM ,I would go up to my room, lock the door, and replay an hour-long recording of me playing the violin. I spent the time reading a book or Boys’ Life magazine instead.
笔记:
play back
(录完后)播放,放送(磁带、电影等)
session [ˈseʃn]
a period of time that is spent doing a particular activity.一场;一节;一段时间
因此我还是找到了方法,去享受我的周末和暑假。在那时我通常六点就早早起床,而我爸妈都还在睡,接着我走到楼下放钢琴的那个地方。我用一个磁带录音机,播放在此之前我早已录音的大约一小时长的那一段旋律。接着到了七点,我就到楼上回到自己的房间,把门锁上,而后故技重施,重放一段我演奏一小时小提琴的录音。然而我会利用这些时间去看一本书或者《少男生活》杂志。
As you can imagine, my piano and violin teachers could not understand why I showed no improvement every time they saw me during my weekly lessons. I think they just thought I was a slow learner. From my perspective, I just couldn’t see how learning how to play all these musical instruments would result in any type of benefit that was scalable.
笔记:
perspective[pərˈspektɪv]
[N-C] ~ (on sth)a particular attitude towards sth; a way of thinking about sth.态度;观点;思考方法
scalable['skeɪləbəl]
(ADJ)capable of being scaled 可升级的,可扩展的
I just couldn’t see how learning how to play all these musical instruments would result in any type of benefit that was scalable.
疑问词+不定式=名词短语
句中的“how to play all these musical instruments ”是作名词使用的,类似的还有:
Where to go 去哪里
When to do it 何时做那件事
How to swim 如何游泳,etc
我们再来分解一下句子结构:
I 主语
couldn’t see 谓语
how learning how to play all these musical instruments would result in any type of benefit that was scalable. 以how引导的宾语从句,作see的宾语。
如你所想, 我的钢琴老师和小提琴老师都不能理解为什么在每周的一次课里,他们来看我的每一次我都没有取得进步。我想他们只是会觉得我学得慢而已。在我眼里,我就是没搞明白,学会所有的这些乐器会带来哪样可以称重的好处。
(Hopefully my mom won’t get too mad when she reads this. I should probably pay her back for all the money she spent on my piano and violin lessons.)
M y parents, especially my mom, had high hopes that I would eventually go to medical school or get a PhD. They believed that formalized education was the most important thing, but to me, having the first twenty-five years of my life already mapped out seemed too regimented and stifling.
笔记:
regimented [ˈredʒɪmentɪd]
(ADJ)involving strict discipline and/or organization 非常严格的;死板的
stifling[ˈstaɪflɪŋ]
(ADJ)If a situation is stifling, it makes you feel uncomfortable because you cannot do what you want.(情况)令人窒息的,令人感到压抑的
I was much more interested in running my own business and figuring out different ways to make money.When I was growing up, my parents always told me not to worry about about making money so that I could focus on my academics. They told me they would pay for all my education until I got my MD or PhD.They also told me they would buy whatever clothes I wanted. Luckily for them, I never had any fashion sense, so I never asked for much.
笔记:
so that 连词,以至于
MD 医学博士(全写为Doctor of Medicine)
我对经营自己的生意和想出不同的方式赚钱更感兴趣。在我逐渐长大的日子里,爸妈常常告诉我不要担心赚钱,为了让我能够在学业上专心致志。他们跟我说,他们会一直支付我上学的所有费用,知道我得到医学博士或博士学位。他们还告诉我,他们会给我买我想要的衣服。对他们而言比较幸运的是,我从没有什么时尚感,所以我要求的不多。
I always fantasized about making money, because to me, money meant that later on in life I would have the freedom to do whatever I wanted. The idea of one day running my own company also meant that I could be creative and eventually live life on my own terms.
笔记:
Whatever=anything which
on my own terms 以我自己的方式
我常常幻想着赚钱,因为对我来说,金钱意味着在往后的日子里我将拥有自由,去做我想去做的事。若有一天我运营着自己的公司,这也意味着我变得富有创造力,而最终的我生活,一切由我做主。
I did a lot of garage sales during my elementary school years. When I ran out of junk from my parents’ garage to sell, I asked a friend if we could hold a garage sale at her house. We put all of the junk from her parents’
house on display out in the driveway, made some lemonade, and then dressed her in a little girl’s outfit that made her look five years younger. The idea was that even if people didn’t buy anything, we could at least sell
them some lemonade. We ended up making more money selling lemonade than anything else from the garage sale.
笔记:
elementary school (美国)小学
lemonade[ˌleməˈneɪd]
(N-U)柠檬水
We ended up making more money selling lemonade than anything else from the garage sale.
一个句子中有两个动词时,一定要有连词连接;若无连词连接时,而且这两个动词是同时发生时,第二个动词一定要变成现在分词,若该动词是be动词,变成现在分词being后要省略。
He sat in the corner and read a newspaper.
→He sat in the corner reading a newspaper.
He came home and was tired.
→He came home tired.
我在小学的时候就把车库里的旧货卖出去。当我把爸妈车库里的废品卖完之后,我请求了我的一个朋友,看我们能不能从她家里的车库卖一次旧货。我们把她爸妈家里所有的废品都陈列展出在外面的车道上,做点柠檬水,然后让她穿上一身女孩的衣裳,让她看起来像年轻了五岁。我们的方案就是:尽管人们不会来买东西,但我们至少可以卖一点柠檬水。果不其然,我们卖出的柠檬水赚到的钱比卖车库里的其它任何东西的都要多。
In middle school,I looked for other ways to make money.I had a newspaper route, but I soon discovered that being an independent contractor delivering newspapers on my bike was really just a way for the local
newspaper to get around child labor laws. After doing the math, I figured out that my pay worked out to about $2 per hour.
笔记:
contractor [kənˈtræktə(r)]
(N-C)承包人;承包商;承包公司
get around 规避,避开(法律或规章)
在读中学时,我就想到了好几个方法来赚钱。我有一份送报的工作,但我很快就发现,当一个骑车送报的独立承包人只是报社的一个避开同宫保护法的方式而已。在做过计算之后,我算出来,我的时薪大约是两美元。
I quit my paper route and decided to make my own newsletter instead. Each issue contained about twenty pages of stories I wrote, word puzzles, and jokes. I printed my newsletter on bright orange paper, named it The Gobbler, and priced it at $5 each. I sold four copies to my friends in middle school. I figured I either needed to make more friends who could afford to buy my newsletter, or needed to figure out another revenue stream. So when I got my next haircut, I showed my barber a copy of The Gobbler and asked him if he wanted to buy a full-page ad in the next issue for $20.
笔记:
issue[ˈɪʃu]
[N-C](报刊的)期,号,版次
revenue stream [经] 收益源
我辞去了我送报的工作,决定去做自己的简报。每一期都含有我写的二十冶的故事,猜字谜还有一些笑话。我把我的简报打印在明亮显眼的成色纸上,将其称为《雄鸡》,并标价为五美元一份。我在中学里卖了四份出去。我想我也需要跟更多买得起我简报的人交朋友,或是去想出另外的收益来源。所以当我下次去理发的时候,我给理发师看我的一份《雄鸡》,问他想不想以二十美元买下下一期的整版广告。
(The end)
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