1、什么樣的工作對大學生是最有益的THERE I was, at the height of the great Disco Summer, selling hot dogs in the shadow of a six-story, elephant-shaped building on the shores of Margate, N.J. Most nights, my shift started at midnight. It was June 1977, just after my freshman year at Wesleyan, and I was hard at work at

2、Lennys Hot Dogs.那是迪斯科音樂正值流行的夏天,在新澤西州馬蓋特市的海灘邊,我在一座大象形狀的六層建筑的陰影下賣熱狗。很多時候,我的班次都是從午夜開始。那是1977年6月,我在衛斯理大學(Wesleyan剛剛結束了大一的課程,正努力在雷尼熱狗店(Lennys Hot Dogs工作。The big rush came just after 3 a.m., when the disco across the street, The Music Box, unplugged its rotating mirror ball and its denizens spilled out in

3、 search of hot dogs, frozen yogurt cones and Lennys pepper hash. At that late hour the lines stretched from Lennys across the parking lot, past Lucy th e Elephant, and toward the rumbling Atlantic beyond.洶涌的客流在剛過凌晨3點時涌來,那時街對面的迪斯科舞廳“音樂盒”(The Music Box關掉了旋轉的水晶球,舞廳里的人群涌出來尋找熱狗、凍酸奶蛋卷和雷尼辣椒碎。在深夜里的那個時刻,顧客的隊

4、伍從雷尼熱狗店一直向后排,穿過停車場、經過大象露西(Lucy the Elephant,一直向洶涌的大西洋的方向延伸。Lucy the Elephant is now a National Historic Landmark, but Lennys, sadly, has been gone for decades. Still, plenty of freshmen will spend this summer selling hot dogs, waiting tables, tending bar or supervising the archery range at clam shac

5、ks, taverns and summer camps from Maine to California.大象露西現在是一處國家歷史名勝,但是很遺憾雷尼熱狗店已經關門幾十年了。不過,還是有很多大一的學生在暑假賣熱狗、在餐廳當服務員、在酒吧當酒保,或者看管靶場,從緬因州到加州各個地方的海鮮餐館、旅店和度假營地都有他們的工作。One question, of course, is what kind of work is best for college students?當然,有一個問題是,什么樣的工作對大學生是最有益的?For many, summer employment means ta

6、king whatever job can best reduce the burden of debt, which was more than $30, 000, on average, for members of the class of 2015.對很多人來說,夏季的工作經歷意味著接受一份最能減輕債務負擔的隨便什么工作。對2015級新生來說,平均債務負擔超過3萬美元。Other students, both with and without the burden of debt, feel the pressure to take on internships. The fields

7、 of politics, media and entertainment, to name three, now virtually demand a period of unpaid work.其他學生,無論有沒有債務負擔,也都感受到了從事實習工作的緊迫性。試舉三例,政治、媒體、娛樂領域,現在實際上必須經歷一段無薪工作的時間。But there are times, I suspect, when a mind is a terrible thing not to waste.但我猜想,有些時候不讓頭腦浪費一下,就太糟了。One example of a mind well wasted

8、is that of my friend Richard Russo. Richard, who is now a novelist, worked on a construction crew, not as the guy who worked the jackhammer, but as that guys assistant. One day they had to break up a concrete wall, and it was Richards job to hold the business end of the jackhammer steady and horizon

9、tal while the other guy operated it, leaving Richard feeling, for the rest of the summer, as if his brains had actually bounced around the inside of his skull.I had another friend, Billy Warden, who dug graves one summer and learned, on the occasion of some not very deeply buried 19th-century casket

10、s collapsing just beneath the place where he was standing, what it was like to be hip deep in dead guys.完全浪費頭腦的一個例子就是我的朋友理查德·羅索(Richard Russo。現在已經成為小說家的羅索曾經在建筑工地工作,不是操作風鉆的那個家伙,而是他的助手。有一天,他們要拆掉一堵混凝土墻,理查德的工作是抓穩風鉆鉆頭的一邊,保持穩定,而另一個人操作風鉆。這導致理查德一整個夏天都覺得自己的腦子真的在頭顱里面彈來彈去。我還有另外一個朋友,比利·沃登(Billy Warden

11、,他有一年夏天挖掘墳墓。有一次在某個埋著19世紀棺槨的墳地,墓穴比較淺,就在他站的地方塌陷了。他由此知道了站在齊腰深的死人堆里是什么感覺。I had a lot of so-called stupid jobs between high school and the time I turned 30. I sold hot dogs. I worked as an office temp. I was a messenger. I sold T-shirts at Grateful Dead concerts. (They sold faster when I hawked them with

12、 a British accent. I cleared brush. I cleaned swimming pools.我在高中畢業到30歲之前,做過很多所謂愚蠢的工作。我賣過熱狗、當過辦公室臨時工、當過收發員。我在“感恩而死”(Grateful Dead的演唱會上賣過T恤衫。(我用英國口音兜售的時候,賣得還更快一些。我清洗過刷子,也清洗過游泳池。There was a lot to like about mowing lawns. For one, the smells: the sharp, green scent of freshly cut grass, the fumes of g

13、asoline, the whiff of exhaust. Then there was the sound: the endless roar that made it impossible to hear anything else, including the voice of the irate homeowner standing less than two feet away, yelli ng that Id run right over his tulips. It was dramatic, too: Sometimes Id plow through a field of

14、 fallen apples and applesauce would spew out of the mower in a shocking arc of sweet-smelling goo. Other times, Id run straight over a rock, and the mower wo uld stop with a tremendous clang, as if the engine itself had just been executed, military-style, by firing squad.割草坪的工作有許多讓人喜歡的地方。比如,它的味道:剛剛割

15、過的青草的那強烈而清新的香味、汽油的味道、廢氣。還有聲音:那讓你聽不見任何其他聲音的無休止的轟鳴,包括不到兩英尺開外那位憤怒的屋主,大喊著我要踩到他的郁金香了。它也很有戲劇性:有時我會割過一塊落滿了蘋果的草地,蘋果泥就會從割草機里噴出來,散發著香甜氣味的粘液呈現出一道驚人的弧線。有時,我還會碰到石頭,割草機就會停止工作,發出一聲巨響,好像發動機自身剛剛被一支軍人行刑隊給處決了。The summer after I worked at Lennys, I was a teller at Continental Bank in Philadelphia. I thought it was clev

16、er to give my customers their money in $2 bills, or in Eisenhower dollar coins, or in some strange combination of Kennedy half-dollars and $50 bills. My drawer, at the end of day, was always “under” or “over, ” and all the other tellers had to stand around as I counted and re-counted the float.One t

17、ime, I accidentally left $10, 000 by the coffee maker in the lounge. I had no choice except to tell my boss the truth: Id been on my way to the safe with the cash when I remembered we were out of creamer.在雷尼熱狗店之后的那個夏天,我在費城的一家大陸銀行(Continental Bank做柜員。我以為把錢以兩美元鈔票、艾森豪威爾硬幣、或以肯尼迪的0.5美元和50美元鈔票等奇怪的面值組合交給顧客是很聰明的。每天下班時,我的抽屜不是“太少”就是“太多”,其他的所有柜員都得站在周圍,等著我清點、再清點找零備用金。有一次,我不小心把1萬美元落在休息室的咖啡機旁邊。我別無選擇,只能向老板說明真相:我在拿著錢去保險柜的路上突然想起來,我們沒有奶精了。 vt. 監督,管理;指導vi. 監督,管理;指導shackækvideon. 棚屋;小室vi. 居住skullsklv