英语杂谈：42 Christmas jar

Before my dad died, we never thought about money. I mean, it wasn't that we were rich, but we weren’t poor either, you know, we just were. We had a nice house; we had a hot dinner every night; we even went to Disneyland once and I remember we all got dressed up for the airplane ride. We never really wanted for anything except perhaps for a little more time together.
That’s from the performance you will see live from New York on December 3rd in movie theaters all across the country. You can go to Glennbeck.com for all the details. I want to talk to you about the Christmas Jars Reunion, and author Jason Wright is here. The Christmas jars tradition is what exactly?
Very simple, you take an empty jar, pickle¹ jar or mayonnaise jar, doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter how big it is. And you just dedicate² your spare change to it each and every day. You don’t need to write a really big check. You don’t need to drop a hundred dollar bill in it; it’s your spare change. That little act of daily sacrifice, every day filling up that jar, eventually accumulates³ into a pretty tidy sum of money to give away to someone anonymously⁴ on Christmas Eve.
Now I do it. We all have one in our house. I have one in my closet⁵, it really has a Christmas jar. We filled it up; and then we go and put it on somebody’s doorstep the week of Christmas anonymously. We just , you know, it is great fun for the kids to be able to try to sneak⁶ it up to the house and leave it there. If anybody, you haven't started you jar at the beginning of the year. I think people would say, well, OK, that will be a good tradition to start next year.
That’s right. I hear that a lot; and that's not true. Go right now as soon as the program is over. Find a jar, fill it up. Between now and Christmas, what do we got, still four or five weeks? Cheat a little bit if you have to. Go to the bank and get twenty dollars for the quarters. To the right family in need, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty dollars may not seem like a lot of money to you; but to a family who just have been, maybe dad’s been laid off, maybe it’s a single mom with a couple of kids has no idea how she’s gonna to afford to be able to put even one thing under the tree for Christmas, let alone some extravagant⁷ kind of Christmas that they don’t need. But one thing with their name on it, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty dollars in a Christmas jar given anonymously to them could change their Christmas, could in fact change their life and they will pay off for it.
America, I’m...Next week I'll share with you a story about the hardest Christmas that I had with my kids was the year I was flat broke, was the year I got my daughter a bell. And actually, I mean, I found myself shopping at CVS, the drugstore, for Christmas. And I was so low. I remember that Christmas. I also remember the Christmas that we did the Christmas jars. That first Christmas we did it, I remember my kids were still small enough where they were just wired. They couldn’t wait. And we got out in the middle of the night; and we parked the car a couple of blocks away. And then we snuck up to the house; the kids ran with the jar. I was afraid that they were gonna drop it; it was gonna break. And then there would be broken glass and then there’d be a lawsuit⁸. But that didn’t happen. And I remember so vividly⁹ how great it was. Please, begin to start new traditions. This is Christmas Jars Reunion, it is the sequel to The Christmas Jars, you will find it in bookstores everywhere. It is a fantastic book and a fantastic tradition. Jason Wright.

Thank you! If you give a jar away or you get a jar, will you please visit my website and tell me your story. I’d love to hear them , I’d love to share them with other...
The website is...?
Christmasjars.com.
Got it!

 

1 pickle   

n.腌汁，泡菜；v.腌，泡

参考例句：

• Mother used to pickle onions.妈妈过去常腌制洋葱。
• Meat can be preserved in pickle.肉可以保存在卤水里。

2 dedicate   

vt.献身，致力于，把（时间、精力等）用于

参考例句：

• She vowed to herself that she would dedicate her life to scientific studies.她默默地发誓要献身于科学研究。
• To my father I dedicate this volume in token of affection and gratitude.我谨以此书献给我的父亲，以表示对他的爱戴和感激之情。

3 accumulates   

堆积，积累( accumulate的第三人称单数 )； （数量）逐渐增加，（质量）渐渐提高

参考例句：

• The waistline is usually the first area where fat accumulates. 最先有脂肪堆积的部位通常是腰部。
• Whenever it rains, a lot of water accumulates in the low-lying land. 一下雨，洼地里就存了好些水。

4 anonymously   

ad.用匿名的方式

参考例句：

• The manuscripts were submitted anonymously. 原稿是匿名送交的。
• Methods A self-administered questionnaire was used to survey 536 teachers anonymously. 方法采用自编“中小学教师职业压力问卷”对536名中小学教师进行无记名调查。

5 closet   

n.壁橱；储藏室

参考例句：

• I'll clear out that closet for you.我要替你把那个小衣橱清理出来。
• Hang your overcoat in the closet.把你的大衣挂在衣橱里。

6 sneak   

vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行

参考例句：

• He raised his spear and sneak forward.他提起长矛悄悄地前进。
• I saw him sneak away from us.我看见他悄悄地从我们身边走开。

7 extravagant   

adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的

参考例句：

• They tried to please him with fulsome compliments and extravagant gifts.他们想用溢美之词和奢华的礼品来取悦他。
• He is extravagant in behaviour.他行为放肆。

8 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

9 vividly   

adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地

参考例句：

• The speaker pictured the suffering of the poor vividly.演讲者很生动地描述了穷人的生活。
• The characters in the book are vividly presented.这本书里的人物写得栩栩如生。