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所以我开始设计狗一生中所有的外套。首先，我估算了一下养活他要花多少钱。我只想要一只相当小的小狗，但我知道它会长大的。所以我去超市确定了狗粮。
I’d sort of learnt that the dog would need to eat twice a day, and on the cans of dog food, there was information about how much to give different breeds of dogs at each meal. Then I added up the food costs for a week and then a year, and then over the average life span of the breed I wanted – more or less twelve years.
我了解到狗每天需要吃两次，在狗粮罐头上，有关于每顿给不同品种的狗多少钱的信息。然后我把一周和一年的食物成本加起来，然后是我想要的品种的平均寿命——大约12年。
I also found out what it would cost to buy a few accessories, such as a leach for when I took it out on the streets, some dog toys, and perhaps even a bed.
我还发现了买一些配件要花多少钱，比如我带着它上街时用的滤嘴、一些狗玩具，甚至可能还有一张床。
Already it looked like a very sizeable amount of money. But I had to keep going. I told my father what I’d done so far, and he nodded carefully, but then said, “And what about healthcare?” The vet’s fees! What if my dog became ill? Even if it wasn’t ill, it was doubtless that it would need injections and other regular medication.
这看起来已经是一大笔钱了。但我必须继续前进。我告诉父亲我到目前为止所做的一切，他小心地点点头，然后说:“那医疗保健呢?“兽医费!”如果我的狗病了怎么办?即使它没有生病，毫无疑问也需要注射和其他常规药物。
So I went to the local vet, and asked about fees. The receptionist enlightened me on the cost of a consultation and typical medication cost. But she then said, “Or you might like to think about this,” and handed me a leaflet containing information about a pet insurance scheme. The regular
premiums were really quite small if you began the scheme while the dog was very young. So at least I could make an informed prediction about vet’s fees.
于是我去了当地的兽医那里询问费用。接待员告诉我咨询费用和典型的药物费用。但她接着说，“或者你可以考虑一下这个。”然后递给我一张传单，上面有关于宠物保险计划的信息。如果你在狗很小的时候就开始这项计划，那么常规的保费其实是非常小的。所以至少我可以对兽医的费用做出一个明智的预测。
But where was I going to get the money for all of this? Clearly, it was crucial to earn some money. I worked out that if I found a job, something like a paper round, delivering early morning newspapers in the neighborhood, I’d help pay some of the bills, and take my puppy with me for a long walk before I went to school. I also decided to look for a Saturday job in a shop, which would earn me more money.
但是我从哪里弄到这些钱呢?显然，赚钱是至关重要的。我发现，如果我找到了一份工作，比如送报纸之类的，在社区里送晨报，我会帮着付一些账单，在上学前带着我的小狗出去散个步。我还决定在商店找一份星期六的工作，这样可以挣更多的钱。
Well, I must have satisfied everyone about looking after them all, because on my birthday, my mummy and daddy and my brother were waiting for me downstairs with the cutest puppy you’ve ever seen. This was Benny the puppy, who became Benny the dog, and who lived many happy years with us.
嗯，我一定让每个人都满意了，因为在我生日那天，我的爸爸妈妈和弟弟在楼下等我，带着你见过的最可爱的小狗。这就是小狗本尼，后来变成了狗本尼，和我们一起快乐地生活了很多年。
Today is Father’s Day, and I’m 83 years old now. My daddy died many years ago, but it’s the one day when I think of him and thank him for everything he taught me and did for me. I learnt how to look after my finances and care for my family, three sons and five grandchildren. And I remember
his last words to me before he died.
今天是父亲节，我83岁了。我的爸爸很多年前就去世了，但在这一天，我想起了他，感谢他教会我的一切，感谢他为我所做的一切。我学会了如何理财，如何照顾我的三个儿子和五个孙子。我记得他死前对我说的最后一句话。
“Look after yourself!”
“照顾好自己!”
Reading across cultures / P86 The bridges and gateways of Euroland
In 1992, in the small town of Maastricht in Holland, the 12 members of the European Community (as it was then called) took a major step in the direction of economic union: They introduced a single currency, the euro. It marked the beginning of the European Union. Two countries (Denmark and the United Kingdom) decided against the adoption of the euro. For the other members, a process began which led to the first euros appearing in people’s pockets ten years later, on the 1st of January 2002, replacing the French franc, the German mark, and other historic currencies across the continent.
1992年，在荷兰的小镇马斯特里赫特，欧洲共同体的12个成员国(当时的叫法)朝着经济联盟的方向迈出了一大步:他们引入了单一货币——欧元。它标志着欧盟的诞生。两个国家(丹麦和英国)决定不采用欧元。对其他成员国来说，这一过程开始了，十年后的2002年1月1日，欧元首次出现在人们的口袋里，取代了法国法郎、德国马克和欧洲大陆其他历史货币。
The idea behind the euro was to create the conditions for macroeconomic stability, as well as making life easier for citizens travelling within Europe, who no longer had to worry about changing money between countries (and paying charges to do so). The experiment was a success. After a
shaky start the euro began to stabilize as a major international currency, growing in strength against the US dollar and sterling. Today the European Union numbers 27 member states, most of which have adopted the euro.
欧元背后的想法是为宏观经济的稳定创造条件，同时让在欧洲旅行的公民的生活更加便利，他们不再需要担心在国家之间兑换货币(并且为此支付费用)。实验很成功。欧元在经历了一个不稳定的开始后，作为主要的国际货币开始稳定下来，对美元和英镑的强势也在增长。如今，欧盟有27个成员国，其中大多数已经采用了欧元。
But one problem facing the EU was the design of coins and banknotes. The sign for the currency, itself -$- was uncontroversial. But, in a relatively small continent with considerable cultural and linguistic diversity, what symbols should be chosen to represent a shared cultural heritage? In the end, it was decided that coins would have a national side, which would feature a symbol of the member country in which it was issued, and a map of Europe on the “common” side. Banknotes, however, would be different. They would be exclusively “European”.
但欧盟面临的一个问题是硬币和纸币的设计。美元本身的标志是毫无争议的。但是，在一个文化和语言相当多样化的相对较小的大陆上，应该选择哪些符号来代表共同的文化遗产呢?最后，决定硬币将有一个国家的一面，上面有发行硬币的成员国的标志，“共同”一面是欧洲地图。然而，纸币就不同了。他们将完全是“欧洲人”。
A competition to design the banknotes was won by an Austrian artist, Robert Kalina. His idea was to capture the spirit of the new Europe through images of gateways and windows (symbolizing openness and welcome) and bridges (a metaphor for communication between cultures). But instead of using existing European monuments, he chose abstract designs of major architectural periods which have left traces throughout Europe. Thus the $5 note illustrates the Classical Period, the $10 features a Romanesque bridge and doorway typical of the 12th century, and the journey through time and architecture continues with Gothic ($20), Renaissance ($50), Baroque ($100), the glass and iron of the Art Nouveau style ($200), finally reaching the modern age in the $500 note.