In the United States, when one becomes rich, he wants people to know it. And even if he does not become very rich, he wants people to think that he is. That is what "keeping up with the Joneses" is about, It is the story of someone who tried to look as rich as his neighbours.
The expression was first used in 1913 by a young American called Arthur Momand. He told this story about himself. He began earning $ 125 a week at the age of 23. That was a lot of money in those days. He got married and moved with his wife to a very wealthy neighbourhood outside New York City. When he saw that rich people rode horses, Momand went horseback riding every day. When he saw that rich people had servants. Momand and his wife also hired a servant and gave big parties for their new neighbours.
It was like a race, but one could never finish this race because one was always trying to keep up. The race ended for Momand and his wife when they could no longer pay for their new way of life. They moved back to an apartment(公寓房间) in New York City.
Momand looked around him and noticed that many people do things just to keep up with rich life--style of their neighbours. He saw the funny side of it and started to write a series (系列) of short stories, He called it "Keeping up with the Joneses' because ‘Jones' is a very common name in the United States." Keeping up with the Joneses' came to mean keeping up with rich lifestyle of the people around you. Momand's series appeared in different newspapers across the country for over 28 years.
People never seem to get tired of keeping up with the Joneses. And there are "Jonses" in every city of the world. But one must get tired of trying to keep up with the Joneses because no matter what one does, Mr. Jones always seems to be ahead.
When I lived in Spain, some Spanish friends of mine decided to visit England by car. Before they left, they asked me for advice about how to find accommodation (住所). I suggested that they should stay at ‘bed and breakfast' houses, because this kind of accommodation gives a foreign visitor a good chance to speak English with the family. My friends listened to my advice, but they came back with some funny stories.
"We didn't stay at bed and breakfast houses," they said, "because we found that most families were away on holiday."
I thought this was strange. Finally I understood what had happened. My friends spoke little English, and they thought ‘VACANCIES' meant ‘holidays', because the Spanish word for ‘holidays" is ‘vacaciones'. So they did not go to house where the sign outside said ‘VACANCLES', which in English means there are free rooms. Then my friends went to house where the sign said ‘NO VACANCLES', because they thought this meant the people who owned the house were not away on holiday. But they found that these houses were all full. As a result, they stayed at hotels!
We laughed about this and about mistakes my friends made in reading other signs. In Spanish, the word ‘DIVERSION' means fun. In English, it means that workmen are repairing the road, and that you must take a different road. When my friends saw the word ‘DIVERSION' on a road sign, they thought they were going to have fun. Instead, the road ended in a large hold.
English people have problems too when they learn foreign languages. Once in Paris. when someone offered me some more. coffee, I said ‘Thank you' in French. I meant that I would like some more, However, to my surprise the coffee pot was taken away! Later I found out that ‘Thank you' in French means ‘Mo, thank you.'
When Dean Arnold got his first job, he was miserable (痛苦的), Each time he went to work, he coughed and he couldn't breathe. Working in a bakery(面包房) when you are allergic to (对…过敏) flour can be painful.
But Arnold stayed with the National Biscuit Company for ten years. He was a businessman and he helped them improve production. At last his health problems became too serious. He left and formed his own company.
With his wife and mother, he founded Arnold Bakery. They tried new recipes (配方). changing the kind and amount of flour used. This enabled Arnold to work there without too much pain. The bread, made with unbleached flour (标准粉), was baked in a brick oven (烘炉).
They began by baking two dozen loaves. The bread was sold door to door for fifteen cents a loaf. Winning customers to his unusual, old-fashioned bread took time. But Arnold, struggling against his allergy, built his bakery into one of the largest in the United States.
One day a poor farmer1 taking a bag of rice to town. Suddenly the bag fell off his cart (马车) onto the road. He didn't know2 he could do about it because it was too3 for him to lift (举起)alone. He only hoped that someone would soon pass by and give him a hand.
Just at this moment, a man riding a4 came up to him. But the farmer felt5 when he saw who he was. It was the great man who lived nearby. He thought the great man6 help him, and hoped another farmer would come up. But the man got7 his horse right away and said, "I think you need help." Then he took one end of the bag and the farmer took8 . They lifted it together and put it on the cart. "Sir, " asked the farmer, "how much should I9 for you?" "Don't mention it, " the great man answered. "when you see10 else in trouble, do the same for him."
A 14-year-old boy from the USA was described as a hero yesterday after he saved the life of a woman in another country.
Dean Bluey from Dallas, Texas, was a school boy who has much1 in computer. One day, he2 an email to a friend on the Internet. Suddenly he received a message saying, "Help! Pain! Help!" "The message was from Finland,3 kilometers away from America." "I didn't know4 I should do," Dean said to a reporter afterwards. "It was really difficult to tell if the message was real." So dean did nothing at first.5 the message kept coming.
"By then it was easy to see that someone was in trouble, "Dean explained. He6 and discovered that the sender was a student called Tarja, who was alone in a university library. She was ill. What was7 , there was no phone around her. Her only way of communicating with the world was by email. Dean got in touch8 the police immediately. And they realized that the situation was quite serious. They called the police in Finland. Then an ambulance rushed to the library.9 , she was still alive and was sent the hospital quickly.
"I'm glad she's OK," Dean said. "It's hard to believe, but10 saved her life."
