《童话镇》第293期:阿斯特丽德的困境

 Maybe I saw the light. I mean, maybe somebody showed it to me. 也许我突然明白事理了呢 也许有人给了我指引

What difference does it make, sister? It looks like you can use all the help you can get. 有什么区别呢  小妹 看上去你非常需要人帮助

Okay, I need help manning the candle booth¹. No swearing, no drinking, and I get to call all the shots. 好吧  我需要有人帮忙打理蜡烛摊位 不能骂人  不能喝酒 一切都是我说了算

You ordered how many tanks of helium? 你订了多少罐氦气

I meant to order twelve. 我本想订十二罐的

You ordered twelve dozen. 可是你订了十二打

Return them. 退掉吧

There are no refunds². 他们不退款

We needed that money. You knew that. You know how he feels about us. 我们需要这笔钱  你知道的 你知道他对我们的态度

You fix this, Sister Astrid. You fix it now. 你解决  阿斯特丽德修女  马上解决

Hey. What's the problem? 你好 有什么问题吗

The problem is I'm an idiot³. 问题是我就是个笨蛋

We get a stipend⁴ each year for expenses, and it's all carefully budgeted except for the part where I spent it all on helium. 我们每年获得定额津贴用于花销 所有花销都精心做过预算安排 除了我花在氦气上的这部分钱

And now we can't pay our rent. 现在我们没有钱付租金了

So you'll make it up when you get your next stipend.  你们收到下笔津贴时就能补上这笔钱了 

Which isn't till next month. The rent is due next week. 我们下个月才能拿到这笔钱 而房租下周就该交了

And the only income we have are these candles. 我们唯一的收入只有这些蜡烛

Well, so how many do you need to sell? 你们需要卖掉多少蜡烛

Like, a thousand. 大概一千吧

How many did you sell last year? 你们去年卖了多少

Forty-two.  四十二

 

1 booth   

n.小房间，公用电话亭，岗亭；货摊

参考例句：

• Where can I find a telephone booth?我在哪儿可以找到电话亭？
• Let's walk around to each booth.我们到每个摊子转一转吧！

2 refunds   

n.归还，偿还额，退款( refund的名词复数 )v.归还，退还( refund的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Tomorrow he would return them to the store and claim refunds. 明天他要把它们退还给商店并要求退款。 来自辞典例句
• The new method means that taxpayers get refunds much faster. 这种新办法意味着纳税人可以较快地领到退还款。 来自辞典例句

3 idiot   

n.白痴，傻子，笨蛋

参考例句：

• Only an idiot would make such a thoughtless remark.只有草包才会说出这样没有头脑的话来。
• You are behaving like a perfect idiot.你表现得像个十足的白痴。

4 stipend   

n.薪贴；奖学金；养老金

参考例句：

• The company is going to ajust my stipend from this month onwards.从这一个月开始公司将对我的薪金作调整。
• This sum was nearly a third of his total stipend.这笔钱几乎是他全部津贴的三分之一。