大学英语 学英语,练听力,上听力课堂! 注册 登录
> 大学英语 > 大学英语教材 > 新视野大学英语读写教程第四册 >  第5篇

新视野大学英语读写教程第四册unit2-c Section C A Family of Firsts

所属教程:新视野大学英语读写教程第四册

浏览:

手机版
扫描二维码方便学习和分享
https://online1.tingclass.net/lesson/shi0529/0000/190/4t02c.mp3
https://image.tingclass.net/statics/js/2012

A Family of Firsts


  In my family, success is weighed by a single standard: the ability to be first. It does not matter what you are first at as long as you are first at something.


My relatives came from Europe at the height of the Machine Age (机器时代). Every day, something else in America was new and first. The first flush toilet (抽水马桶), the first radio, the first hat with a fan. My family got first fever. Foods and other good ideas all counted. Styles, inventions, phrases, too. The sole standard for being first at something was simply not having heard that somebody else had done it. Then you earned the right to say the wonderful words: "I did it first!"


My great-grandfather on my mother's mother's side invented the toodle. The toodle is a little square of paper with a bit of mustard (芥末) rolled up into it. You could take a toodle to work in the morning with a piece of cold meat and squeeze some fresh mustard on it at lunch.


This great-grandfather, the toodle inventor, had three daughters: Ruthie (露茜), the first girl who ever made a curtain into a jacket; Gertie (格尔蒂), the first girl who ever made a jacket into a curtain; and Polly (波莉), my grandmother, who perfected a brush to clean the inside of a water tap. "Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it isn't dirty," she was fond of saying.


Polly was proud of the fact that every inch of her apartment was touched by human hand at least twice a year. She even dusted the tops of doors, using a top-of-the-door duster made of old stockings, stuffed with more old stockings. Old stockings have always been perceived as a challenge by my family. My mother uses hers as an onion bag, an idea she says she invented. She also takes credit for being the first person to use both legs of a pair of stockings at the same time, one leg for onions, one leg for potatoes or garlic. But I am getting ahead of myself.


Perhaps my most famous relative of all, the one who really left his mark on America, was Reb Sussel (莱伯·萨塞尔), my great-grandfather on my father's father's side. According to family stories, he introduced the pastrami (五香烟熏牛肉) sandwich to the world. In 1879, Reb Sussel left his native country to find fame and fortune on the streets of New York. He had worked at a mill in the old country, but, finding the wheat business too much of a grind, began selling pots and pans off his back. He had no home and would sleep in the basements or stables of the people he sold pots to. While praying one morning he was kicked by a horse.


Reb Sussel knew how to butcher meat, so he decided to change his job and opened a small butcher shop. The first week, a friend stopped by and asked if he could store a trunk in the back of the shop. "I'm just going back to the old country for a few years," he said. "If you store my trunk, I'll tell you how to make pastrami." As the story goes, Great-Grandpa took the trunk, learned how to make pastrami, and began selling big pieces of pastrami over the counter. Soon he was selling it by the slice. Then, between two pieces of bread. He met up with my great-grandfather on my mother's side, who introduced him to the toodle, and before long, people were coming to his shop for sandwiches more than they were coming for meat.


My father's father, Jacob Volk (雅各布·沃尔克), took credit for the wrecking ball. Jake took his wrecking ball all over lower Manhattan Island (曼哈顿) in New York. Painted on the sides of all his trucks were the words "The Most Destructive Force on Wall Street". He married Granny Ethel (格兰妮·爱丝尔), who was so beautiful she did not have to be first at anything. She was, though — the first calendar girl in Princeton, N.J. In the early 1900's her picture was used by a bank there for its first calendar. That's where Grandpa met her, in the bank. She was so beautiful, she once received a letter addressed:


Postman (邮递员), Postman


Do your duty


Deliver this letter


To the Princeton beauty.


It was dropped off right at her front door.


My grandmother on my mother's side invented the shoe pocket. It was her belief that if you always kept a nickel in your shoe, nothing bad would happen to you. You could always make a phone call. You could always buy something. You would never be broke. But the nickel could slide around. And if it could slide around, it could slide out. So she constructed a small pocket that fastened to the inner sole. That way, any pair of shoes could have its own secret sum of money.


Me, I have yet to make my mark. I am still waiting to find a first. Sometimes I think my life is too comfortable. Why should I mother an invention if all my needs are met? But then something gets my attention, and I begin to think of new uses for items such as old light bulbs or eggshells. When you come from a family of firsts, whether you like it or not, you're thinking all the time.


When you come from a family of firsts, you never forget the burden and the inspiration of your past.
(Words: 907)

    创造“第一”的家族
    在我家里,成功与否只由一种标准来衡量,这就是争取第一的能力。 只要你在某件事上排第一,就算你行,至于它是什么事情,则无关紧要。
    我的前辈们在"机器时代" 的高峰期从欧洲来到了美洲。 在美国,每天都有"新的"和"第一的"东西产生: 第一个抽水马桶,第一部收音机,第一顶装有扇子的帽子。 我家里掀起了"第一"热。 食物以及其他的好主意都算数,还有款式、发明、用语等方面的"第一"也算数。 衡量是否"第一"的惟一标准就是没听说别人做过。 那样你就有权讲出这句惊人的话:"我是第一个做的!"
    我的外曾祖父发明了芥末筒。 它是由一块方形小纸片卷上些芥末做成的。 早晨上班时带着它,再带一块冷肉,中午吃饭时就可挤一些新鲜芥末在肉上一起吃。
    这位发明芥末筒的外曾祖父有三个女儿: 露茜,第一个将窗帘制成短上衣的女孩; 格尔蒂,第一个将短上衣改成窗帘的女孩; 还有波莉,就是我的外祖母,她改进了一把刷子用来清洁水龙头的内部。 她喜欢这么说:"不能因为你看不到就说它不脏。"
    波莉房子里的每一寸地方每年至少都要人工清理两次,她为此深感自豪。 她甚至用一种"门顶揩布"来清洁门顶。这东西是用旧长筒袜里面再塞上旧长筒袜做成的。 旧长筒袜在我家一直都被视为一种大有可为的东西。 我妈妈用她的长筒袜来做洋葱袋,说是她发明的新办法。 她还居功说她是第一个将一对长筒袜的两只同时利用起来的人,一只袜筒做洋葱袋,另一只放土豆或大蒜。 而我则更是有过之而无不及。
    在我的亲属中,最有名的,真正在美国产生影响的,或许就是我的曾祖父莱伯·萨塞尔。 据家里人的说法,是他为世人引进了五香烟熏牛肉三明治。 1879年,莱伯·萨塞尔离开祖国到纽约的街头寻求功名和财富。 在自己国家,他曾在面粉厂干过活,但感觉这种磨面粉的营生真是种折磨人的苦活,就开始背着坛坛罐罐到处兜售。 他没有家,往往卖锅罐给谁,就在谁家的地下室或马棚里过夜。 有一天早晨,他在祈祷的时候还被马踢了一下。
    莱伯·萨塞尔懂得屠宰,所以他决定改行开一家小肉铺。 开张第一个星期,有位朋友路过,问能否将他的大皮箱寄存在店铺的后面。" 我打算回老家几年,"他说。 "如果你让我存放皮箱,我就教你如何制作五香烟熏牛肉。" 据说,曾祖父收下了皮箱,学会了制作五香烟熏牛肉,并开始在柜台上出售大块的五香烟熏牛肉。 很快他又开始将肉切片出售, 然后又将其夹在两片面包中间出售。 他偶然碰到了我的外曾祖父,知道了芥末筒这东西。没过多久,到他的店里来买三明治的人比来买肉的人更多了。
    我的祖父雅各布·沃尔克则拥有发明"球破碎机"的光荣。 他带着"球破碎机"走遍纽约的下曼哈顿区,在他所有卡车的两侧印着"华尔街最强大的破坏力"字样。 他娶了格兰妮·爱丝尔。 她漂亮得没有必要在任何事情上排第一了, 不过她却是新泽西州普林斯顿市的第一位挂历女郎。 在20世纪初,她的相片曾被当地的一家银行用在自己的第一本日历上。 就是在那里,在银行里,祖父遇上了她。 她太美了,她曾收到一封信,信封上写道:
    邮递员,邮递员
    做做好事
    将这封信送给
    普林斯顿的美人。
    这封信就被投在了她家门前。
    我的外祖母则发明了鞋底袋。 她相信,若能总是在鞋里留一个五分镍币,就不会有坏事发生。 你总可以用它打个电话,总可以用它买点东西,你决不会身无分文。 但是镍币会滑来滑去,到处滑动就可能滑出鞋外,因此她制作了一个小口袋固定在鞋内底部。 这样,任何一双鞋子都可以有自己的"私房钱"。
    至于我,我还没有出名,还在等着找到我的第一。 有时候我觉得生活已经太舒服了,所有的需求都满足了,干吗还要去做一项发明? 不过,我已经留意到一些东西,开始考虑能否给诸如旧灯泡或鸡蛋壳之类的东西找些新的用途。 你出生在一个创造"第一"的家庭,不论喜欢与否,你总是在思考着。
    来自一个创造"第一"的家庭,你决不会忘记自己的责任,不会忘记家族历史对你的鼓舞。

用户搜索

疯狂英语 英语语法 新概念英语 走遍美国 四级听力 英语音标 英语入门 发音 美语 四级 新东方 七年级 赖世雄 zero是什么意思青岛市石油七公司家属院英语学习交流群

网站推荐

英语翻译英语应急口语8000句听歌学英语英语学习方法

  • 频道推荐
  • |
  • 全站推荐
  • 推荐下载
  • 网站推荐