A man came home from work late, tired and irritated1, to find his 5-year old son waiting for him at the door.
“Daddy, may I ask you a question?”
“Yeah sure, what is it?” replied the man.
“Daddy, how much do you make an hour?”
“That’s none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?” the man said angrily.
“I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?” pleaded2 the little boy.
“If you must know, I make $20 an hour.”
“Oh,” the little boy replied, with his head down. Looking up, he said,“Daddy, may I please borrow $10?”
The father was furious3,“If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly4 toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I work hard everyday for such this childish behavior.”
The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy’s questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money? After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think: Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $10 and he really didn’t ask for money very often.
The man went to the door of the little boy’s room and opened the door.
“Are you asleep, son?” He asked.
“No daddy, I’m awake,” replied the boy.
“I’ve been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier,” said the man,“It’s been a long day and I took out my aggravation5 on you. Here’s the $10 you asked for.”
The little boy sat straight up, smiling. “Oh, thank you daddy!” He yelled6. Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled7 bills. The man, seeing that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, then looked up at his father.
“Why do you want more money if you already have some?” the father grumbled8.
“Because I didn’t have enough, but now I do,” the little boy replied.“Daddy, I have $20 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you.”
男人很晚下班回家，他很累，也很烦闷。而5岁的儿子正站在门口等他回家。
“爸爸，我可以问你一个问题吗？”
“当然可以，什么问题？”爸爸回答。
“爸爸，您每小时挣多少钱？”
“这不是你管的事儿！为什么问这个问题？”爸爸生气地说。
“我只是想知道。请告诉我，您一小时挣多少钱，好吗?”男孩央求道。
“如果你非要知道，我告诉你，我每小时挣20美元。”
“哦，”男孩答着，低下了头。然后抬起头说：“爸爸，我可以跟你借10美元吗？”
爸爸生气了：“这就是你问我挣多少钱的原因吗？你想买一些破烂玩具或者其他什么东西吗？回到你的房间去！上床睡觉！想想你有多自私，我每天辛苦工作，你却做出这样幼稚的事。”
男孩静静地走回自己的房间，关上了房门。男人坐在那儿，越想孩子的问题越生气。他竟敢问我这个问题，就是为了要钱！半小时后，男人冷静了下来，想到也许孩子真的需要10美元去买他想要的东西，毕竟孩子不经常要钱的。
男人走到了男孩的房门口，打开房门。
“睡了吗，儿子？”他问道。
“还没呢，爸爸，我醒着呢，”男孩回答。
“我一直在想，也许我刚才对你太粗暴了，”男人说，“我工作了一天，把我的烦躁都发泄在你身上。这是你要的10美元。”
男孩从床上坐了起来，高兴地叫着：“谢谢你，爸爸! ”然后从他的枕头下面拿出几张皱巴巴的钞票。男人看见孩子有钱，又生气了。男孩仔细地数着钱，然后仰望着爸爸。
“为什么你有钱还向我要呢？”爸爸抱怨着。
“因为我的钱不够，不过现在够了，”男孩回答，“爸爸，我现在有20美元了。我能买你一小时的时间吗？明天请早点回家，我想和你一起吃晚餐。”
1. irritated adj. 恼怒的，生气的
2. plead v. 再三恳求或请求
3. furious adj. 狂怒的，激烈的
4. silly adj. 愚蠢的，可笑的
5. aggravation n. 恼怒
6. yell [jel] v. 大叫，呼喊
7. crumple v. 弄皱，变皱
8. grumble v. 抱怨，发牢骚