新视野大学英语 读写教程第三册 unit9-c

　　Section(C)
A Male Nanny
The woman next to me in the bread café on 67th Street wants to know how much my baby weighs. Idon't tell her that he's not my baby because I'm tired of explaining. Instead, I look at Sam's year-oldbody. I have never been good at guessing weight, but I know Sam feels awfully¹ heavy when I carryhim around the city all day.
“Forty pounds,” I tell her, none too confidently.
“Forty,” she says. “I don't think so. Try somewhere around twenty.”
Sam twists in my arms and I look at my watch. Ann, his mom, is due back from her hairappointment any minute. In the meantime², I bounce³ Sam, sip⁴ my coffee and wait.
“Honestly,” the woman says to her friend, “what kind of parent doesn't know how much his childweighs?”
I want to tell her that I'm Sam's nanny, but I don't because I'm a guy — a “nanny”, you might say.
Whenever someone learns that I'm taking care of Sam, they turn on me — telling me not to bounce himtoo much or he'll throw up, demanding that I give him another bottle of milk.
I have two younger sisters. I was a summer camp counselor⁵ for five years. I had a girlfriend withyoung nephews. I read the books What to Expect the First Year and What to Expect the Toddler (刚学会走路的小孩 ) Years. My experience with kids is probably just as good as, if not better than, any highschool girl who watches kids. Still, I'm not the one thing almost everyone thinks I should be for this job— a woman.
When I look up, Ann is walking through the door. She kisses Sam, then looks at me. “How was he?”
“Fine,” I tell her. “How much does he weigh?”
“Twenty-three pounds. Why?”
“No reason.” I say.
I'm sitting on a bench at the playground, eating a chicken salad next to four woman nannies, all twicemy age. Sam is now a year and a half old, big enough to cross the playground's bouncy bridge himself. Iwatch him and the other children jump up and down.
“I didn't get paid until last Thursday,” one woman says. She takes a bite of her sandwich. “Olivertried to cheat me on the extra hours I worked.” Everyone nods, sympathetically⁶.
“You guys get extra pay?” I ask.
“After 40 hours a week,” someone says. “Don't you pay your nanny that way?” one of them asks me.
“No,” I tell them. “I AM the nanny.”
They stare at me with suspicion⁷.
Is it really that big of a deal? Women are soldiers, truck drivers, and construction workers. Whycan't a man be a nanny? I began watching Sam as a favor to Ann when I was in graduate school. BeforeI knew it, though, I slipped into the nanny position almost full time. It's a job I like, and it helped payfor school. But why does everyone have a problem with it?
Insulted⁸, I throw my lunch into the trash barrel⁹ and let Sam lead me to the swings. I tell him to holdtight, and back and forth¹⁰ he goes.
“How old is he?” the woman at the next swing wants to know. She has a French accent and looks tohave much energy to be a new mother.
“About 17 months.” I say. “And I'm 324 months.”
She gives me a wary¹¹ (谨慎的) smile. Her baby is in the bucket swing, big brown eyes and wild curlyhair.
“She looks like you,” I tell her.
“Thanks,” she says. “He has your blue eyes.”
“Oh, no. He's not mine. I'm his nanny.”
She keeps pushing her baby. “A male nanny,” she says. “How unique.”
We look at the children, and I feel better. Across the playground, a girl falls off the bottom of theslide and bursts into tears. One of the nannies I lunched with rushes over and picks her up and brushesdirt from her knees.
“Do you think she's all right?” I ask.
“She's fine,” the French woman says. “Kids fall all the time.”
But then Sam lets go of the swing. He flies into the air and lands face down in the dirt.
“Sam!” I scream. I pick him up and wipe the dirt from his face. He looks like he is going to cry butlaughs instead.
“You know,” the woman says. “If you're going to take care of him, you really should be more careful.
”
Sam is almost 2 now. I've decided¹² to go to his mother with my problem. One day while we are ridingthe subway, I ask, “What are the reasons you picked me to watch Sam?”
“What kind of question is that?” Ann says.
“I'm just wondering.”
“Because he loves you,” she says. “You make him laugh. You sing songs with him. You've read hisfavorite book to him a thousand times.”
“But I don't know how much he weighs. And I never can keep track of how many months old he is.”
“So what?” she says. “I trust you. Besides, you guys are great friends.”
The train comes to a stop and Ann gets off. “Have fun, you guys,” she calls back. Next to us, an oldwoman asks “What's his name?” “Sam.” I start to tell her that I'm his nanny, but then I rememberwhat Ann just said.　　

1 awfully   

adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地

参考例句：

• Agriculture was awfully neglected in the past.过去农业遭到严重忽视。
• I've been feeling awfully bad about it.对这我一直感到很难受。

2 meantime   

n.其时，其间；adv.同时，当时

参考例句：

• I continued working,meantime,he went out shopping.我继续工作，这期间他出去买东西。
• In the meantime we pressed on with the airlift.与此同时，我们加紧进行空运。

3 bounce   

n.弹，反弹；冲劲，冲力；v.(使)弹起(跳起)

参考例句：

• She's got a lot of bounce.她浑身都是劲。
• The ball gave a high bounce.那球弹得很高。

4 sip   

v.小口地喝，抿，呷；n.一小口的量

参考例句：

• She took a sip of the cocktail.她啜饮一口鸡尾酒。
• Elizabeth took a sip of the hot coffee.伊丽莎白呷了一口热咖啡。

5 counselor   

n.顾问，法律顾问

参考例句：

• The counselor gave us some disinterested advice.顾问给了我们一些无私的忠告。
• Chinese commercial counselor's office in foreign countries.中国驻国外商务参赞处。

6 sympathetically   

adv.悲怜地，富有同情心地

参考例句：

• The teacher clucked sympathetically at the child's story. 对那小孩讲述的遭遇，老师啧啧地表示同情。
• They were all sympathetically disposed towards her bitter experience. 他们都对她的悲惨遭遇寄予同情。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 suspicion   

n.猜疑，怀疑；怀疑，嫌疑

参考例句：

• There was just a suspicion of light in the east. 东方刚刚泛白。
• I confess to some suspicion of your honesty.我承认对你的诚实有所怀疑。

8 insulted   

侮辱，冒犯( insult的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I have never been so insulted in my life! 我一生中从未被如此侮辱过！
• These boys insulted a girl by spitting at her. 这几个男孩向一个女孩吐口水侮辱她。

9 barrel   

n.圆桶；一桶的量；枪管；vt.把...装桶

参考例句：

• I drew off three pints of beer from the barrel.我从酒桶里抽出三品脱啤酒。
• The man rolled the barrel into the yard.那个人把圆桶滚进院子。

10 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

11 wary   

adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的

参考例句：

• He is wary of telling secrets to others.他谨防向他人泄露秘密。
• Paula frowned,suddenly wary.宝拉皱了皱眉头，突然警惕起来。

12 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。