The Worst Christmas Jobs 圣诞特辑 9

But it found that the theater spell danger, Christmas joy for rich kids meant misery¹ for other children. Toy makers³ were the poorest of the poor, and the hardest life of all was that of the doll maker². Expensive Christmas gifts were produced in slum dwellings⁴ by anonymous⁵ workers as young as 6.

Gillie, it’s extraordinary in here. It’s like a dream! Did you actually make these?
I actually made the dolls sitting next to you there, but the ones in the far corner are rare actual Victorian dolls.
It seems such a lovely thing to do. It’s hard to believe that this would have been a worst job.
It’s a very nice job for me these days, but they worked under much different conditions to me in the Victorian times.
What sort of conditions would they have been in when they were making the dolls?
They'd been working in very crowd, small working houses in the kitchens, working with the pot wax, and the children would have been playing around and actually doing parts of the jobs as well.
So these would have been on the kitchen stove with all the kids running around.
These, they were, yea. That'll probably be the one doing the pouring of the wax.
Would be very dangerous, wouldn’t it?
It would. The wax could get so hot that it would actually combust and burst into flames as well, so I work with the hot fat.
Like sheep fat.
Yea…oh, if I hold the molds, slightly tilt⁶ , tilt and pour, into the mold
Yeah, just pour it all in.
Pour it in, yeah, that’s it.
Stop! (Good.)There you go. Now that just as settlers settle a little bit though.
How much would a doll like that have cost?
Would have been about 5 guineas which would have been a whole year’s wage for one of the workers.
The little child who was making the dolls wouldn’t have been able to afford to buy one of those.
No way, no. They were just for the spoilt, rich children.
Dolls weren’t for playing with. They were expensive accessories. It was fashionable to have dolls with faces modeled on one of Queen Victoria’s children.So I...

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spell vt. mean; result in 意谓
Ex: Such an error spells out ruin. 这种错误意味着毁灭。
Does lazinesss always spell failure? 怠惰必然招致失败吗？

tilt vi. lean to one side; move something so that it leans to one side 倾斜

guinea n. 几尼(英国旧金币)

1 misery   

n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦

参考例句：

• Business depression usually causes misery among the working class.商业不景气常使工薪阶层受苦。
• He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。

2 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

3 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 dwellings   

n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The development will consist of 66 dwellings and a number of offices. 新建楼区将由66栋住房和一些办公用房组成。
• The hovels which passed for dwellings are being pulled down. 过去用作住室的陋屋正在被拆除。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 anonymous   

adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的

参考例句：

• Sending anonymous letters is a cowardly act.寄匿名信是懦夫的行为。
• The author wishes to remain anonymous.作者希望姓名不公开。

6 tilt   

v.(使)倾侧；(使)倾斜；n.倾侧；倾斜

参考例句：

• She wore her hat at a tilt over her left eye.她歪戴着帽子遮住左眼。
• The table is at a slight tilt.这张桌子没放平，有点儿歪.