26-Ballad of the Bottom Dollar 最后一美元

Ballad¹ of the Bottom Dollar 最后一美元

Cameron , Mounger and I have been friends since we were teenagers. Both of us liked rock'n'roll, and several years after we left high schooll, Cam became a disc jockey.

Recently he told me the story about the day he was down to his last dollar. It was the day his luck -and his life -changed.

In the early 1970s, Cam was an announcer and disc jockey at KYAL in McKinney, Texas, and had attained² celebrity³ status. He met many country-music stars, and he enjoyed flying to Nashville in the company plane with the owner.

One night Cam was in Nashville for an evening at the Grand Ole Opry. After the show an acquaintance invited him backstage with all the Opry stars, "I didn't have any paper for autographs, so I took out a dollar bill," Cam told me ,"Before the night ended, I had virtually every Opry personality's autograph, I guarded that dollar bill and carried it with me always, I knew I would treasure it forever."

The station KYAL was put up for sale, and many employees found themselves without a job, Cam landed part_time work at VBAP in Fort Worth and planned to hang on to This job long enough for a full_time position to open up.

The winter of 1976-77 was extremely cold. The heater in Cam's old Volkswagen emitted only a hint of warm air; the windshield defroster didn't work at all. Life was hard, and Cam was broke. With the help of a friend who worked at a local supermarket, he occasionally intercepted⁴ outdated⁵, dumpster-bound TV dinners. "This kept my wife and me eating, but we still had no cash,"

One morning as Cam left the radio station, he saw a young man sitting in an old yellow Dodge⁶ in the parking lot Cam waved to him and drove away. When he went back to work that night, he noticed the car again, parked in the same space. After a couple of days, it dawned on him that this car had not moved, The fellow in it always waved cordially to him as he came and went. What was he doing sitting in his car for three days, in the terrible cold?

Cam discovered the answer the next morning. This time as he walked near the car, the man rolled his window down. "He introduced himself and said he had been in his car for days with no money or food," Cam recalled,."He had driven to Fort Worth from out of town to take a job, But he arrived three days early and couldn't go to work right away.

"Then, very reluctantly, he asked if he night borrow a dollar for a snack to get him by until the next day, when he would start work and get a salary advance, I didn't have a dollar to lend him; I barely had gas to get home. I explained my situation and walked to my car, wishing I could have helped him."

Then Cam remembered his Frand Ole Opry dollar. He wrestled⁷ with his conscience a minute or two, pulled his wallet out and studied the bill. Then he walked back to the man and gave him his bottom dollar, "Somebody has written all over this ,"the man said, but he didn't notice that the writing was dozens of autographs. He took the bill.

"That very morning when I was back home trying not to think about what I had done, things bigan to happen,"Cam told me. The phone rang; a recording⁸ studio wanted him to do a commercial that paid $ 500. It sounded like a million. Cam hurried to Dallas and did the spot. and in the next few days more opportunities came to him out of nowhere. "Good things kept coming steadily," said Cam. "and soon I was back on my feet."

The rest, as they say, is history. Things improved dramatically for Cam. His wife had a baby. Cam opened a successfil auto-body shop and built a home in the country. And it all started that morning in the parking lot, when he parted with his bottom dollar.

Cameron never saw the man in the old yellow Dodge again. But whether the guy was a beggar or an angel doesn't matter.

Cam was tested that cold morning-and he passed.

1 ballad   

n.歌谣，民谣，流行爱情歌曲

参考例句：

• This poem has the distinctive flavour of a ballad.这首诗有民歌风味。
• This is a romantic ballad that is pure corn.这是一首极为伤感的浪漫小曲。

2 attained   

（通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况）

参考例句：

• She has attained the degree of Master of Arts. 她已获得文学硕士学位。
• Lu Hsun attained a high position in the republic of letters. 鲁迅在文坛上获得崇高的地位。

3 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

4 intercepted   

拦截( intercept的过去式和过去分词 )； 截住； 截击； 拦阻

参考例句：

• Reporters intercepted him as he tried to leave the hotel. 他正要离开旅馆，记者们把他拦截住了。
• Reporters intercepted him as he tried to leave by the rear entrance. 他想从后门溜走，记者把他截住了。

5 outdated   

adj.旧式的，落伍的，过时的；v.使过时

参考例句：

• That list of addresses is outdated,many have changed.那个通讯录已经没用了，许多地址已经改了。
• Many of us conform to the outdated customs laid down by our forebears.我们许多人都遵循祖先立下的过时习俗。

6 dodge   

v.闪开，躲开，避开；n.妙计，诡计

参考例句：

• A dodge behind a tree kept her from being run over.她向树后一闪，才没被车从身上辗过。
• The dodge was coopered by the police.诡计被警察粉碎了。

7 wrestled   

v.（与某人）搏斗( wrestle的过去式和过去分词 )；扭成一团；扭打；（与…）摔跤

参考例句：

• As a boy he had boxed and wrestled. 他小的时候又是打拳又是摔跤。
• Armed guards wrestled with the intruder. 武装警卫和闯入者扭打起来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。