保姆日记 1-Track03

　　The following Monday on my way to meet Mrs. X, I make a quick stop at my favorite stationery¹ store to stock up on Post-its. Today my Filofax only has two Post-its: a tiny pink one imploring² me to "BUY MORE POST-ITS" and a green one reminding me that I have "Coffee, Mrs. X, 11:15." I pull off the pink one and toss it in the trash as I continue heading south to La Patisserie Gout du Mois, our meeting place. As I cut across to Park avenue I pass women in fall suits, all holding sheets of monogrammed stationery in their hands. Each one walks in tandem³ with a shorter, dark-skinned woman, who nods emphatically back at them.
"Ballet? Do you understand?" the woman next to me shouts to her nodding companion as we wait for the light to change. "On Mondays Josephina has Ballet!"I smile sympathetically at the uniformed woman to show solidarity⁴. No bones about it, training just plain sucks. And it sucks significantly more, depending on who you're working for.
"The agency said you can cook. Can you cook?" a Pucci-clad mother interrogates⁵ on the corner.
I push open the heavy glass door of the patisserie and see Mrs. X already seated, going over her own list. She stands, revealing a lavender knee-length skirt, which perfectly⁶ matches the cardigan tied around her shoulders. No longer in her youthful white shift, she looks older than she did in the park. Despite her girlish ponytail I'm guessing she's in her early forties. "Hi, Nanny, thanks so much for meeting me early. Would you like some Coffee?""That sounds perfect, thank you," I say, taking a seat with my back to the wood-paneled wall and smoothing the damask napkin onto my lap.
"Waiter, another cafe au lait and could you bring us a breadbasket?""Oh, you don't need to do that," I say.
"Oh, no, it's the best. That way you can pick what you want." The waiter brings over a Pierre Deux basket brimming with breads and little jars of jam. I help myself to a brioche.
"They have the best pastry⁷ here," she says, taking a croissant. "Which reminds me, I prefer that Grayer stay away from refined flour.""Of course," I mumble⁸, mouth full.
"Did you have a nice weekend?"I quickly swallow. "Sarah-my best friend from Chapin had a little farewell party last night before everyone goes back to school. Now it's just me and the California people who have off till October! Tell Grayer to go to Stanford," I laugh.
She smiles.
"So, why'd you transfer from Brown?" she asks, pulling one claw off her croissant.
"They had a stronger child development program at NYU," I reply, trying to tread lightly here, in case I'm talking to a Brown alum.
"I really wanted to go to Brown," she says.
"But I won a scholarship to UConn." She drops the croissant to play with the diamond heart dangling⁹ from her necklace.
"That's great," I say, trying to imagine a time when she would have needed a scholarship to do anything.
She glances down at her plate. "After graduation I moved here to run Gagosian, the art gallery." She smiles again.
"Wow, that must have been amazing.""It was a lot of fun," she says, nodding, "but you can't really do it when you have a child, it's a full-time¹⁰ life, parties, trips, a lot of shmoozing, a lot of late nights.""Well, let's just go over the week. I've typed this all up for you, so you can review it later. We'll walk over to school now, so Grayer can see us together and get the sense that I'm trusting you with him. That should relax him. He has a play date at one thirty, so that'll give you just enough time to have lunch in the park and not overwhelm him. Then tomorrow you and Caitlin can both spend the afternoon with him, so you can get a sense of his routine and he can see the authority being shared between you. I'd appreciate it if you didn't discuss the transition with her at this point.""Of course," I say, trying to absorb it all, "Thank you for breakfast.""Oh, don't mention it." She stands, pulling a blue folder¹¹ that says "Nanny" out of her Hermes bag and sliding it across the table. "I'm so glad Tuesdays and Thursdays fit into your class schedule. I think it'll be great for Grayer to have someone young and fun to play with. I'm sure he gets tired of boring old Mom!""Grayer seems great," I say, recalling his giggles¹² in the park.
"Well, he has his little things, like any kid, I suppose."I gather my bag, glancing down and noticing her lavender silk heels for the first time. "God, those are beautiful! Are they Prada?" I ask, recognizing the silver buckle¹³.
"Oh, thank you." She turns her ankle. "Yes, they are. You really like them?" I nod. "You don't think they're too ... loud?""Oh, no," I say, following her out of the cafe.
"My best friend just had a baby and her feet went up a whole size. She let me pick out what I wanted, but I... I don't know." She glances down at her shoes in consternation¹⁴ as we wait for the light. "I guess I've just gotten used to wearing flats.""No, they're great. You should definitely keep them."She smiles, delighted, as she slides on her sunglasses.

1 stationery   

n.文具；(配套的)信笺信封

参考例句：

• She works in the stationery department of a big store.她在一家大商店的文具部工作。
• There was something very comfortable in having plenty of stationery.文具一多，心里自会觉得踏实。

2 imploring   

恳求的，哀求的

参考例句：

• Those calm, strange eyes could see her imploring face. 那平静的，没有表情的眼睛还能看得到她的乞怜求情的面容。
• She gave him an imploring look. 她以哀求的眼神看着他。

3 tandem   

n.同时发生；配合；adv.一个跟着一个地；纵排地；adj.（两匹马）前后纵列的

参考例句：

• Malcolm's contract will run in tandem with his existing one.马尔科姆的合同将与他手头的合同同时生效。
• He is working in tandem with officials of the Serious Fraud Office.他正配合欺诈重案办公室的官员工作。

4 solidarity   

n.团结；休戚相关

参考例句：

• They must preserve their solidarity.他们必须维护他们的团结。
• The solidarity among China's various nationalities is as firm as a rock.中国各族人民之间的团结坚如磐石。

5 interrogates   

n.询问( interrogate的名词复数 )；审问；（在计算机或其他机器上）查询v.询问( interrogate的第三人称单数 )；审问；（在计算机或其他机器上）查询

参考例句：

• Blade interrogates Danny then kills him after he directs him to Boone. 刀锋审问了Danny然后在Danny带他去找Boone之后杀了他。 来自互联网
• The cop who made the drug arrest at Rick's place interrogates Kimberly. 在里克的屋子里将他们逮捕的警察对金伯利进行审讯。 来自互联网

6 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

7 pastry   

n.油酥面团，酥皮糕点

参考例句：

• The cook pricked a few holes in the pastry.厨师在馅饼上戳了几个洞。
• The pastry crust was always underdone.馅饼的壳皮常常烤得不透。

8 mumble   

n./v.喃喃而语，咕哝

参考例句：

• Her grandmother mumbled in her sleep.她祖母含混不清地说着梦话。
• He could hear the low mumble of Navarro's voice.他能听到纳瓦罗在小声咕哝。

9 dangling   

悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口

参考例句：

• The tooth hung dangling by the bedpost, now. 结果，那颗牙就晃来晃去吊在床柱上了。
• The children sat on the high wall,their legs dangling. 孩子们坐在一堵高墙上，摇晃着他们的双腿。

10 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

11 folder   

n.纸夹，文件夹

参考例句：

• Peter returned the plan and charts to their folder.彼得把这份计划和表格放回文件夹中。
• He draws the document from its folder.他把文件从硬纸夹里抽出来。

12 giggles   

n.咯咯的笑( giggle的名词复数 )；傻笑；玩笑；the giggles 止不住的格格笑v.咯咯地笑( giggle的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Her nervous giggles annoyed me. 她神经质的傻笑把我惹火了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I had to rush to the loo to avoid an attack of hysterical giggles. 我不得不冲向卫生间，以免遭到别人的疯狂嘲笑。 来自辞典例句

13 buckle   

n.扣子，带扣；v.把...扣住，由于压力而弯曲

参考例句：

• The two ends buckle at the back.带子两端在背后扣起来。
• She found it hard to buckle down.她很难专心做一件事情。

14 consternation   

n.大为吃惊，惊骇

参考例句：

• He was filled with consternation to hear that his friend was so ill.他听说朋友病得那么厉害，感到非常震惊。
• Sam stared at him in consternation.萨姆惊恐不安地注视着他。