【英语时差8,16】女儿不肯分担家计

 Dear Annie:

My college graduate daughter, "Kay," has lived at home for over a year. She is presently working and continuing her education. I told her early on that she could live here for one year at no cost, but after that time, I would expect her to pay for her car, health insurance and cell phone bill.

Kay's salary is $400 a week after taxes, and I get $100 of it. Each month, I put aside $125 in savings¹ for her. Kay resents that I now expect her to pay her own bills. I decided² to write you so she could see in print how selfish this looks. －Taken Advantage Of

Dear Taken:

Kay is paying a reasonable amount of her salary on rent, and you are right that she should pay for her other expenses, particularly the cell phone bill.

You are already being quite magnanimous setting aside savings for her, although health insurance is costly³ and if you wish to be generous, you might want to help her with that instead. If Kay balks⁴, by all means encourage her to find her own place so she can be completely independent. It's time.

1 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

3 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

4 balks   

v.畏缩不前，犹豫( balk的第三人称单数 )；（指马）不肯跑

参考例句：

• They braced up the old house with balks of timber. 他们用梁木加固旧房子。 来自《简明英汉词典》