Margaret, married with two small children, has been working for the last seven years as a night cleaner, cleaning offices in a big building.
She trained as a nurse, but had to give it up when her elder child became seriously ill. “I would have liked to go back to it, but the shifts are all wrong for me, as I have to be home to get the children up and off to school.”
So she works as a cleaner instead, from 9 p.m. till 6 a.m. five nights a week for just ￡90, before tax and insurance. “It’s better than it was last year, but I still think that people who work ‘unsocial hours’ should get a bit extra.”
The hours she’s chosen to work meant that she sees plenty of the children, but very little of her husband. However, she doesn’t think that puts any pressure on their relationship.
Her work isn’t physically very hard, but it’s not exactly pleasant, either. “I do get angry with people who leave their offices like a place for raising pigs. If they realized people like me have to do it, perhaps they’d be a bit more careful.”
The fact that she’s working all night doesn’t worry Margaret at all. Unlike some dark buildings at night, the building where she works is fully lit, and the women work in groups of three. “Since I’ve got to be here, I try to enjoy myself——and I usually do, because of the other girls. We all have a good laugh, so the time never drags.”
Another challenge Margaret has to face is the reaction of other people when she tells them what she does for a living. “They think you’re a cleaner because you don’t know how to read and write,” said Margaret. “I used to think what my parents would say if they knew what I’d been doing, but I don’t think that way any more. I don’t dislike the work though I can’t say I’m mad about it.”
CDD
答案解析：
1. Margaret quit her job as a nurse because _______
A. she wanted to earn more money to support her family
B. she had suffered a lot of mental pressure
C. she needed the right time to look after her children
D. she felt tired of taking care of patients
解析：C正确
玛格丽特为什么辞掉了护士工作？
护士的工作班次与她接送孩子的时间矛盾，所以她才辞去工作。
2. Margaret gets angry with people who work in the office because Margaret _______.
A. they never clean their offices
B. they look down upon cleaners
C. they never do their work carefully
D. they always make a mess in their offices
解析：D正确
玛格丽特生办公室工作人员的气是因为？
她的原话是：I do get angry with people who leave their offices like a place for raising pigs.也就是办公人员把办公室弄的非常乱，增加了她工作的负担。
3. The underlined part in the last paragraph implies that Margaret’s parents would _______
A. help care for her children
B. regret what they had said
C. show sympathy for her
D. feel disappointed in her
解析：D正确
最后一段划线部分暗示玛格丽特的父母会怎样？
父母肯定都对孩子有期望，玛格丽特也清楚自己的工作会被别人看不起，如果父母知道她现在是清洁工应该会对她失望，毕竟她曾经是护士。这里要注意说话者的语气。
参考译文：
玛格丽特已婚，育有一双儿女，过去的七年中，她一直做夜间清洁工，清扫大厦办公室。
她曾是一位训练有素的护士，但是当年龄稍长的孩子染上严重的疾病后，她不得不放弃护士工作。“我本来也想回去工作，但是工作班次不适合我，因为我要接孩子们上下学。
所以她做起了清洁工，从晚上9点到次日早上6点，一周工作5个晚上，包括所得税和保险金在内只有90英镑。“情况要比去年好些了，不过我还是在想那些在深夜工作的人应该得到一些额外的收入。”
她选择这样的时间工作意味着她可以用很多时间照顾孩子，但是与丈夫相处的时间却很少。然而，她觉得这不会对他们的关系造成任何压力。
她的工作不是非常累人，但是也不令人愉快。“我真的对那些把办公室当成猪圈的人很生气。如果他们意识到像我这样的人要打扫垃圾，也许他们能仔细点。”
事实上，整夜工作一点都不困扰玛格丽特。和其他建筑夜里一片黑暗不同的是，她工作的这幢建筑通宵灯火通明，女人们三人一组工作。“既然我要待在这里，我就要过得愉快——我一直都很快乐，因为周围其他的女伴。我们尽情的笑，所以时间也过得很快。”
玛格丽特的另外一个挑战就是当她告诉别人她谋生的手段的时候，人们的反应。“他们认为因为你不会读书写字才当清洁工，”玛格丽特说。“我以前常常想要是我父母知道我现在在做什么，他们会怎么说，但是我现在不去想了。我不反感这个工作，但是也谈不上很喜欢它。”
词汇及短语：
unsocial:非社会的,不合群的,不善交际的
shift:轮[换]班;工作班次
drag: (使…)在地上拖拉; 慢吞吞地走, 磨蹭
be mad about: 狂热地迷恋某事[某人]
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