地道美语听力播客:Getting Childcare

My friend Susan is an engineer and she's also a single mom. She has been working some odd hours lately and was having a tough time finding childcare for her 4-year-old daughter and her 8-year-old son.

Her daughter, Kimberly, is enrolled¹ in a preschool and Susan is able to drop her off on her way to work. But, the preschool closes as 6:00 p.m. and sometimes Susan can't get there in time to pick her up.

Her son, Paul, is in the second grade and goes to a public school near their house. Paul gets out of school at 3 p.m. but Susan never gets off work before 6:00 p.m., and sometimes later.

So, what can she do with the kids after school? I went with Susan to check out a latchkey program at the local community center. It seemed like a good idea. Paul would be picked up from his school and he could stay at the center to do his homework and to play in the center until as late as 7 p.m. The tuition was fairly low and there was rolling admission. The trouble was, there was very little supervision² of the kids and the staff seemed inexperienced.

Now, Susan is considering hiring a nanny . The nanny would pick both kids up from their schools and bring them home. The nanny could make dinner for them and stay with them until she got home. This would be ideal, but a good nanny is hard to come by and is very expensive to hire, even the ones who don't live in.

I don't envy Susan. Single moms‚ and dads‚ have it tough.

Script by Dr. Lucy Tse
 

1 enrolled   

adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起

参考例句：

• They have been studying hard from the moment they enrolled. 从入学时起，他们就一直努力学习。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He enrolled with an employment agency for a teaching position. 他在职业介绍所登了记以谋求一个教师的职位。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。