万花筒 2009-05-24&05-25 失业了，卖热狗去

After Adrian Mocerian's real estate business went bust¹ and his friend Mark Jordan got laid off, they travelled all the way from Tennessee to Chicago to an empty parking lot, outside of this Vienna Beef factory, to learn how to sell hot dogs.

"I slide my thumb so I'm not crushing the bun top.

Enrollment² has doubled. Tuition for ‘Wiener Work 101" will run you 400 dollars. But a year-round vendor³ has the potential to be pretty lucrative⁴. Business is up 25%.

Whenever the economy has turned sour, the recession or whatever, there's always been an increase in mobile vending⁵ hot dog carts.

Jack⁶ Beller works at one of the largest vendor cart companies in the country. Business is heating up, especially now. Between Memorial day and Labor⁷ day, just a three-month span, Americans eat about 7 billion hot dogs.

Food like hot dogs, I would consider the comfort food. And I would expect that's one of the pop reasons they are popular. Also in the terms of down economy, people tend to eat more comfort foods.

He calls this the most basic form of capitalism⁸, and it has its advantages. You can be your own boss, set your own hours, and it's an all-cash business with very little overhead.

Usually the permitting from whatever municipality you are in is a couple hundred dollars a year at most.

So how much will this cart run?

This cart will run about $3,400.

The average hot dog costs 25 cents. Most vendors⁹ sell a hot dog for $1.50. If you sold 100 hot dogs a day , working five days a week, you'd clear $32,500 a year; 250 hot dogs a day, more than 80,000 dollars a year. Sounds like a cake some could really relish¹⁰.

Linsey Davis, ABC news.
 

1 bust   

vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部

参考例句：

• I dropped my camera on the pavement and bust it. 我把照相机掉在人行道上摔坏了。
• She has worked up a lump of clay into a bust.她把一块黏土精心制作成一个半身像。

2 enrollment   

n.注册或登记的人数；登记

参考例句：

• You will be given a reading list at enrollment.注册时你会收到一份阅读书目。
• I just got the enrollment notice from Fudan University.我刚刚接到复旦大学的入学通知书。

3 vendor   

n.卖主；小贩

参考例句：

• She looked at the vendor who cheated her the other day with distaste.她厌恶地望着那个前几天曾经欺骗过她的小贩。
• He must inform the vendor immediately.他必须立即通知卖方。

4 lucrative   

adj.赚钱的，可获利的

参考例句：

• He decided to turn his hobby into a lucrative sideline.他决定把自己的爱好变成赚钱的副业。
• It was not a lucrative profession.那是一个没有多少油水的职业。

5 vending   

v.出售（尤指土地等财产）( vend的现在分词 )；（尤指在公共场所）贩卖；发表（意见，言论）；声明

参考例句：

• Why Are You Banging on the Vending Machine? 你为什么敲打这台自动售货机？ 来自朗文快捷英语教程 2
• Coca-Cola had to adapt almost 300,000 vending machines to accept the new coins. 可口可乐公司必须使将近三十万台自动贩卖机接受新货币。 来自超越目标英语 第5册

6 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

7 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

8 capitalism   

n.资本主义

参考例句：

• The essence of his argument is that capitalism cannot succeed.他的论点的核心是资本主义不能成功。
• Capitalism began to develop in Russia in the 19th century.十九世纪资本主义在俄国开始发展。

9 vendors   

n.摊贩( vendor的名词复数 )；小贩；（房屋等的）卖主；卖方

参考例句：

• The vendors were gazundered at the last minute. 卖主在最后一刻被要求降低房价。
• At the same time, interface standards also benefIt'software vendors. 同时，界面标准也有利于软件开发商。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

10 relish   

n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味

参考例句：

• I have no relish for pop music.我对流行音乐不感兴趣。
• I relish the challenge of doing jobs that others turn down.我喜欢挑战别人拒绝做的工作。