听播客学英语 256 如何花100万英镑

 　　Last week, my daughter came home from school. She told us that, as her homework, she had to spend a million pounds.

　　We told her that she didn’t have a million pounds. In fact in her money box she had precisely¹ ?12.47, and a book token². Then she explained that she had to imagine that she had a million pounds, and write down what she would spend it on.

　　She went on the internet to find things that she would like to buy, and to find out how much they cost. She started with a holiday in Rome, and a new mobile³ phone. A new watch would be nice, and lots and lots of jelly-beans. And a laptop computer and a printer. But then she ran out of ideas, and there was still about ?998,000 to spend.

　　How about a house, my wife said. So my daughter found a nice little house in a very posh area looking out over Poole harbour in the south of England. A stretch limo would be good, and one of those BMW Smart cars. And she could take the whole family to Disneyland for a holiday. How about a helicopter, I said. So she found a beautiful red helicopter, second hand, for ?114,000. The most expensive digital camera we could find cost ?4,800, and a rather small second hand sailing boat cost another ?4,000. She spent most of the rest of the money on a diamond necklace costing over ?250,000. There was still ?7.45 left to spend. So she typed ?7.45 into Google, and found a leather iPod case which cost exactly that amount.

　　But then, disaster! We added up her list of purchases and it came to more than a million pounds. What could she do? I am afraid she cancelled the family trip to Disneyland, and instead bought about a hundred pounds worth of sweets (that is, about 10,000 sweets!), and after that her list added up to one million pounds exactly. I am still very disappointed about not going to Disneyland, but maybe my daughter will let me have some of her sweets.

　　Here is Robin⁴ Sylar, and he is a Hollywood Millionaire.

1 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

2 token   

n.筹码，信物，纪念品，礼券；adj.象征性的

参考例句：

• This little gift is a token of our regard.这点礼物是我们大家的一点心意。
• Black is a token of mourning.黑色是沮丧的象征。

3 mobile   

adj.可移动的，易变的，机动的；n.运动物体

参考例句：

• The old lady sits on a mobile chair every morning.那位老妇人每天上午坐在一把可携带使用的椅子上。
• She's much more mobile now that she's bought a car.自从她买了汽车后，活动量就大多了。

4 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。