新视野大学英语读写教程听力 第三册 te-unit04-c

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[00:00.00]喜欢hxen.net，就把hxen.net复制到QQ个人资料中！Life in Low-Grade Terror
[00:-1.00]1  The phong rang, and I grabbed it as fast as I could.
[00:-2.00]"Thank you for calling the Psychic Network,"
[00:-3.00]I said as I started my presentation.
[00:-4.00]"I read tarot cards. I'm mixing the cards now;
[00:-5.00]tell me when it feels right to stop."
[00:-6.00]As usual, I made noises with the cards without bothering to mix them,
[00:-7.00]much less read them.
[00:-8.00]2  The first time I saw a psychic television commercial,
[00:-9.00]I wasn't as interested in the famous people
[00:10.00]advertising the service as I was in ordinary
[00:11.00]people talking about the life-transforming psychic help they had received.
[00:12.00]As I recall, an office manager said her psychic
[00:13.00]told her that the first man she talked to at a Christmas party
[00:14.00]would become her husband — now they're married and expecting a child.
[00:15.00]A housewife who lost her cat found it in the exact place predicted.
[00:16.00]But the satisfied customers — mostly women
[00:17.00]— didn't look like they could afford
[00:18.00]$3.99 a minute to talk to a psychic on the phone.
[00:19.00]At the time, I was a struggling writer.
[00:20.00]I decided to get a job as a psychic and then write about it.
[00:21.00]3  To start my career, I took a nine-hour class with a fast-talking woman
[00:22.00]who made a living reading tarot cards at psychic fairs
[00:23.00]and for private customers.
[00:24.00]At the end of the course, I still felt like a beginner,
[00:25.00]so I studied the scientific reasons why tarot cards work.
[00:26.00]Israeli researchers suggest that there is a similarity between tarot readings
[00:27.00]and the plots of popular folk tales.
[00:28.00]By laying out a few cards,
[00:29.00]you create a story as appealing as a fairy tale,
[00:30.00]with you client as the hero.
[00:31.00]People are amazed at your "insight"
[00:32.00]because most are so vain they can't imagine
[00:33.00]how much they have in common with the rest of the population.
[00:34.00]4  To further prepare myself, I offered readings to friends,
[00:35.00]including a scientist who makes a career of proving
[00:36.00]popularbeliefs to be false.
[00:37.00]My friend laughed as I laid out his cards and gave my introduction.
[00:38.00]But soon his laughter faded,
[00:39.00]and later he told me he was astonished that my reading was so "accurate".
[00:40.00]5  I figured I was ready.
[00:41.00]6  I called the Psychic Readers Network,
[00:42.00]which immediately mailed me an application.
[00:43.00]Soon someone from their personnel department called,
[00:44.00]and I gave a reading. "Great," she said.
[00:45.00]"You can start immediately."
[00:46.00]7  First I had to learn a long list of instructions:
[00:47.00]Always pick up the phone by the second ring.
[00:48.00]Never answer specific questions
[00:49.00]before doing a "general reading".
[00:50.00]This would take up a lot of time and keep
[00:51.00]the client on the line past the first
[00:52.00]two minutes that Psychic Readers offered free.
[00:53.00]8  The call could last as long as 55 minutes,
[00:54.00]which (after taking away the two free minutes)
[00:55.00]translated into a telephone bill of $211.47.
[00:56.00]I kept the conversation going by asking for a full name and address
[00:57.00]"so we can send you tickets for reduced price readings."
[00:58.00]At the end I was required to say,
[00:59.00]"For adults and entertainment only."
[-1:00.00]9  All this was strengthened by the message
[-1:-1.00]I listened to each time I phoned in to work.
[-1:-2.00]"Come on, guys," it said.
[-1:-3.00]"Make sure you write down the full mailing address.
[-1:-4.00]We have six people testing every psychic every month.
[-1:-5.00]We will see if you're doing everything properly."
[-1:-6.00]10  With this pace, I lived in low-grade terror
[-1:-7.00] — and I was only a part-time worker.
[-1:-8.00]Imagine people trying to make a living at this job.
[-1:-9.00]Most were women working 20 to 40 hours a week on the phone.