It was Sunday, so Dad and I were at the second-hand goods market, looking for tools, appliances(家用电器), and other things that needed cleaning.Some were broken; others, like silver cups, just needed to be cleaned and polished.It was 1974, and the Depression(经济大萧条) was very serious.Dad worked full-time at a factory, but the money wasn‘t enough.Dad had tried a second job for a while, but he found it was too hard on the family.One day, he had an excellent idea that set me on a lifelong course of making money to support myself.Standing beside a crowded table at the second-hand goods market, I looked over an ancient manual sewing machine.Someone had changed it to run on electric power.It was much older than Mom‘s machine, but it looked like it had quality and a long life built into it.“Dad!” I called.“This is a beauty!”
Dad walked over, pulling a cart full of audio equipment, tools, worn-out appliances, and what appeared to be a block of dull kitchen knife.“What have you got, Son?” I described what I saw and what I figured I could do to x the beauty up.Dad paid for my discovery, and we headed home.
Every day after school I worked on the ancient machine, and every night Dad and I sharpened tools and knives, sanded off rust, polished metal, and replaced missing parts from various items.The next Saturday we headed off, as we did every weekend, to that same market, where we sold the treasures we‘d purchased the week before—at a tidy profit.My antique beauty brought in more money than anything else, and Dad let me keep every penny.
Dad‘s gone now, but I can never thank him enough.Even if we hadn‘t needed the extra money Dad and I brought in, I wouldn‘t have traded those weekends for all the picnics or Little League games in St.Louis—not in a million years.
【小题1】Dad‘s good idea was .| A．getting a second job for a while |
| B．having his son get an after-school job |
| C．saving money by buying only used items |
| D．buying things and fixing them up for resale |
| A．He wanted to change it into an electric machine. |
| B．He thought it was like his Mom‘s machine. |
| C．He thought it was of good quality. |
| D．He wanted to practice his repair skills. |
| A．letting him shop at markets |
| B．helping him choose treasures |
| C．allowing him to keep money by himself |
| D．teaching him a lesson of self-support |
| A．Weekends at the Second-hand Goods Market |
| B．An Expensive Sewing Machine |
| C．An Accident Discovery |
| D．Jobs during the Economic Depression |
