商务英语学习

商务英语学习 'way up in the air they are-- too high for me! I guess they got every new kind of fancy rig in there that'sbeen invented. And harness-- well, everybody in town can tell when Ambersons are out driving after dark, bythe jingle. This town never did see so much style as Ambersons are putting on, these days; and I guess it'sgoing to be expensive, because a lot of other folks'll try to keep up with 'em. The Major's wife and thedaughter's been to Europe, and my wife tells me since they got back they make tea there every afternoonabout five o'clock, and drink it. Seems to me it would go against a person's stomach, just before supper likethat, and anyway tea isn't fit for much--not unless you're sick or something. My wife says Ambersons don'tmake lettuce salad the way other people do; they don't chop it up with sugar and vinegar at all. They pourolive oil on it with their vinegar, and they have it separate--not along with the rest of the meal. And they eatthese olives, too: green things they are, something like a hard plum, but a friend of mine told me they tasteda good deal like a bad hickory- nut. My wife says she's going to buy some; you got to eat nine and then youget to like 'em, she says. Well, I wouldn't eat nine bad hickory-nuts to get to like them, and I'm going to letthese olives alone. Kind of a woma n's dish, anyway, I suspect, but most everybody'll be makin' a stagger toworm through nine of 'em, now Ambersons brought 'em to town. Yes, sir, the rest'll eat 'em, whether they getsick or not! Looks to me like some people in this city'd be willing to go crazy if they thought that would help'em to be as high-toned as Ambersons. Old Aleck Minafer-- he's about the closest old codger we got-- hecome in my office the other day, and he pretty near had a stroke tellin' me about his daughter Fanny.Seems Miss Isabel Amberson's got some kind of a dog--they call it a Saint Bernard-- and Fanny was boundto have one, too. Well, old Aleck told her he didn't like dogs except rat-terriers, because a rat- terrier cleansup the mice, but she kept on at him, and finally he said all right she could have one. Then, by George! shesays Ambersons bought their dog, and you can't get one without paying for it: they cost from fifty to ahundred dollars up! Old Aleck wanted to know if I ever heard of anybody buyin' a dog before, because, ofcourse, even a Newfoundland or a setter you can usually get somebody to give you one. He says he sawsome sense in payin' a nigger a dime, or even a quarter, to drown a dog for you, but to pay out fifty dollarsand maybe more-- well, sir, he like to choked himself to death, right there in my office! Of course everybodyrealizes that Major Amberson is a fine business man, but what with throwin' money around for dogs, andevery which and what, some think all this style's bound to break him up, if his family don't quit!" One citizen, having thus discoursed to a visitor, came to a thoughtful pause, and then added, "Does seempretty much like squandering, yet when you see that dog out walking with this Miss Isabel, he seems worththe money." "What's she look like?" "Well, sir," said the citizen, "she's not more than just about eighteen or maybe nineteen years old, and Idon't know as I know just how to put it-- but she's kind of a delightful lookin' young lady!"