英文精读 |Delivering Happiness第二章(2)

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。

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 

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。

(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）

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

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.

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）

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

（The end）