原版英文小故事 21. A Big Lottery Winner

A 58-year-old grandmother in Massachusetts won one of the biggest prizes in U.S. history—$294 million. If she had taken the 26-year payout, Doris Stevens would have received $11 million a year for 26 years, before taxes.

Mrs. Stevens decided¹ to take the lump sum payment. People who take the lump sum get paid within 60 days, but their total payment is reduced by almost 40 percent. Mrs. Stevens’s lump sum was $168 million, but after the federal tax was applied², she received $110 million. That’s the amount that Mrs. Stevens got to put in her purse.

Recently divorced, Stevens says that her ex-husband has already called her to ask about a “loan.” She laughed. “I wouldn’t lend him a quarter to call the police if he was getting robbed. Let him borrow money from his new young girlfriend who makes him so happy.”

What is she going to do with her windfall? “Well, the first thing I'm going to do is to help out my children and grandchildren, of course. Next, I hope to revolutionize the housecleaning industry.”

A housecleaner for her entire life, Mrs. Stevens says she’s going to establish a National Housecleaner Helper Corporation. Her corporation would focus on giving seed money to various individuals and research firms to develop more efficient and more powerful housecleaning solvents³ and tools.

“When was the last time you saw something new in housecleaning?” Mrs. Stevens asked. “They keep claiming they’ve invented new products that remove any and all blemishes⁴, but they still haven’t invented a product that removes an ordinary ballpoint ink stain from your ordinary white shirt. This industry needs some new products. I hope to revolutionize the cleaning world, so that my ‘sisters’ will have an easier time of it in the future. We’ve all spent too much time on our hands and knees. If men had to do housecleaning, you know that they’d be inventing more powerful products every week.”
 

1 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。

2 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

3 solvents   

溶解的，溶剂

参考例句：

• It is resistant to borohydride reduction in alcoholic solvents. 在醇溶剂中，它不能被硼氢化物还原。
• Strains require special treatments for removal such as spotting with organic solvents. 要清除这些着色物质，需要特殊处理，例如：滴加有机溶剂。

4 blemishes   

n.（身体的）瘢点( blemish的名词复数 )；伤疤；瑕疵；污点

参考例句：

• make-up to cover blemishes 遮盖霜
• The blemishes of ancestors appear. 祖先的各种瑕疵都渐渐显露出来。 来自辞典例句