【英语趣味课堂】奇怪的工作-Odd Job

Todd: OK, now Jeff, I've know you for along time. You are a very resourceful person. You always have these crazy jobs, and recently you had at a hospital, but you weren't a doctor. Could you please describe your job?

 

Jeff: Todd, it was a pharmaceutical¹ company clinic that I was working at and it was, I was a guinea pig, a medical guinea pig which means that a new drug that is being introduced into a foreign country must be tested on an individual before it can be sold on the open market so I'm a guinea pig. It's tested on me, and once the results come back and everything is OK then it is sold to the public.

 

Todd: So when you say you were a guinea pig, like what did they do to you everyday, or what was your routine?

 

Jeff: Well let me qualify² that it's not good work. You can't really make a living at it and bring up children but it pays very well,..., very very well. It's very lucrative³ so that's one of the enticements for doing this kind of work but it's just, your day is you get up are administered⁴ the drug, for example a flu medicine and then you remain in the clinic all day long and you read and write. You have the freedom to do whatever you like, but it's very monitored so you can't leave the clinic but you can do whatever you like to do in the clinic.

 

Todd: OK, so you're in the clinic and what would a daily routine be? What do you do? Do you get up and exercise or what?

 

Jeff: A daily routine varies between individuals, so with me there were twelve on the study, twelve young men, and some of the guys would get up late and sleep until noon. Well, they would get up for breakfast. You have to have breakfast at seven a.m. and what you eat is monitored and then you eat lunch at noon and you eat your dinner at six. In between a lot of the guys read or watched movies or played video games. I used my time by doing yoga or reading, doing work, studying Japanese. I tried to use my time a little bit constructively⁵, whereas⁶ some of the other guys sort of just used it as a vacation.

 

Todd: OK, so you're in this clinic for a week or whatever. So when you get out from being sequestered⁷ in there, what is the first thing you do?

 

Jeff: The first thing that I did when I got out was..no, OK, no....I can't say that. The second thing I did when I got out of the clinic was have a nice meal because the food in the clinic wasn't very good so, the second thing was that I had a really good meal, a nice meal of food.

 

Todd: Alright, Jeff. Thank you for sharing that. 

1 pharmaceutical   

adj.药学的，药物的；药用的，药剂师的

参考例句：

• She has donated money to establish a pharmaceutical laboratory.她捐款成立了一个药剂实验室。
• We are engaged in a legal tussle with a large pharmaceutical company.我们正同一家大制药公司闹法律纠纷。

2 qualify   

vt.取得资格，有资格，限定，描述；vi.取得资格，有资格

参考例句：

• I won't qualify until next year.我明年才具备资格。
• You must qualify yourself for the post.你必须使自己具备担任这一工作的资格。

3 lucrative   

adj.赚钱的，可获利的

参考例句：

• He decided to turn his hobby into a lucrative sideline.他决定把自己的爱好变成赚钱的副业。
• It was not a lucrative profession.那是一个没有多少油水的职业。

4 administered   

管理( administer的过去式和过去分词 )； 治理（国家）； 给予； 执行

参考例句：

• An oath was administered to the newly elected President. 新当选的总统执行了宣誓手续。
• In summary, all government departments are administered rather differently. 概括地说，各政府部门的管理方式是很不相同的。

5 constructively   

ad.有益的，积极的

参考例句：

• Collecting, by occupying spare time so constructively, makes a person contented, with no time for boredom. 如此富有意义地利用业余时间来进行收藏，会使人怡然自得，无暇烦恼。
• The HKSAR will continue to participate constructively in these activities. 香港会继续积极参与这些活动。

6 whereas   

conj.而，却，反之

参考例句：

• They want a house,whereas we would rather live in a flat.他们想要一座房子，而我们宁愿住在一套房间里。
• Some praise him,whereas others condemn him.有些人赞扬他，而有些人谴责他。

7 sequestered   

adj.扣押的；隐退的；幽静的；偏僻的v.使隔绝，使隔离( sequester的过去式和过去分词 )；扣押

参考例句：

• The jury is expected to be sequestered for at least two months. 陪审团渴望被隔离至少两个月。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Everything he owned was sequestered. 他的一切都被扣押了。 来自《简明英汉词典》