2006年NPR美国国家公共电台七月-Working Teens Are a Dying Breed（在线收听） |
| OK, so maybe rifling through your boss' desk for trade secrets is not the best way to get ahead on the job, keep that in mind. Commentator Angela Nissel picked up a few other tips working summer and after-school jobs. When I turned 14 I dragged my mother to the mall and begged her to buy me a pair of Air Jordan sneakers. Once my mother saw the price on the sneaker box, she dropped it like it was burning her hand. "60 dollars for sneakers! For that price Michael Jordan better be in this box too." After embarrassing me by pretending to look for mini Michael Jordan in the box, she asked the salesman for a job application. Instead of sneakers, my mother had decided my birthday gift should be learning the value of a dollar. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, mothers like mine are a dying breed. Fewer teens work after school now and many don't even attempt to find summer employment. On Internet message boards, parents argue that competition for college is intense and students have too many extracurricular activities to take on a job. Some claimed that tuba or soccer camp can provide the same life lessons. I beg to differ. My minimum-wage after-school jobs taught me as much as those activities designed to pad my college resume. After-school telemarketing taught me the value of persistence, house after house people called me names like phone-Nazi or placed their phones next to a blasting stereo speaker. The pain from my eardrum quickly dissolved when I reached my goal. The one person who understood that three months of free accidental deaf insurance is an incredible deal. Basketball camp claimed to teach me that tenacity but all I learned was that short flat-footed players like me are great at keeping benches warm. In high school there's so much pressure to fit in whether it's through cutting classes, drinking or having sex. One of the most important lessons a teenager can learn is how to say no to her peers. After working at a dress store and refusing to return prom dresses for hundreds of girls who cried and swore they didn't wear them, even the ones with the corsage still attached, I found that saying no to drugs was a cinch. I learned to be a concerned student not in history class but when I saw the amount of taxes deducted from my paycheck. When I cleaned the bathrooms I learned that my colleagues weren't always going to be my age, from my neighborhood or even speak my language. In fast food I learned that people like their lettuce washed before they eat it. Being a child raised on microwave cooking I don't know where else I could have learned this lesson. While I'm sure college admissions officers will be impressed that your daughter has mastered the upright bass, they might be more impressed with the personality that emerges after a summer of old fashion hard work. And even if your daughter doesn't get early admission into Stanford, at least next summer she will be able to pay for her own music lessons. Commentator Angela Nissel is consulting producer and writer for the television show Scrubs. Our summer job is working for Morning Edition from NPR News, I'm Steve Inskeep. And I'm Lynn Neary. 【WORLD BANK】 dying breed He's one of a dying breed (=a type of person that is no longer common) . tuba a large metal musical instrument that consists of a curved tube with a wide opening that points straight up. It produces very low sounds when you blow into it. eardrum a tight thin piece of skin over the inside of your ear which allows you to hear sound flat-footed informal moving in an awkward way synonym clumsy The defence looked flat-footed as Sutton scored easily. cinch [singular] informal 1 something that is very easy 'How was the exam?' 'Oh, it was a cinch!' be a cinch to do something The program is a cinch to install. 2 American English something that will definitely happen, or someone who will definitely do something be a cinch to do something Most observers say the President is a cinch to win re-election. corsage a group of small flowers that a woman fastens to her clothes on a special occasion such as a wedding rifle also rifle through [transitive] to search a place or container quickly because you are looking for something, especially something to steal Sally rifled through her wardrobe looking for a dress. The killer had rifled his wallet and stolen $200. I beg to differ spoken formal used to say firmly that you do not agree with something that has been said I must beg to differ on this point. |
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