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Now, the VOA Special English program |
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Words and Their Stories. |
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Most people enjoy working for several reasons |
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-- their job might be fun, |
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or they like their employer and the other people at work. |
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Most people I know, however, work for the money. |
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I do not know anyone who is "loaded" |
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-- or extremely rich. |
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Most of my friends work to earn enough money to live. |
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They have to "make ends meet" |
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-- they have to earn enough money |
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to pay for the things they need. |
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Some even live "from hand to mouth" |
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-- they only have enough money for the most important things. |
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They struggle to earn enough money to "bring home the bacon" |
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-- it can be difficult to earn enough money for a family to survive. |
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Sometimes, poor people even "get caught short" |
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-- they do not have enough money to pay for what they need. |
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Or they have to spend or "lay out" |
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more money than they want for something. |
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When this happens, |
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poor people have to "tighten their belts" |
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and live on less money than usual. |
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I hate when I have to live on less money. |
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It takes me longer to get "back on my feet" |
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-- or return to good financial health. |
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However, other people are "on the gravy train" |
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-- they get paid more money than their job is worth. |
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These people "make a bundle" |
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-- they really "rake in the cash." |
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In fact, they make so much money |
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that they can "live high off the hog" |
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-- they own the best of everything and live in great ease. |
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Sometimes they "pay an arm and a leg" for something. |
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Because "money is no object" to wealthy people, |
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they will pay high prices for whatever they want. |
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Sometimes, they even "pay through the nose" |
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-- they pay too much for things. |
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I am not rich. |
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I did not "make a killing" in the stock market |
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when my stocks increased in value. |
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Yet, I am not poor either. |
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When I go out with friends, |
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I do not want to "shell out" -- or pay a lot of money. |
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Often, my friends and I will "chip in" |
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-- or pay jointly for a fun night out. |
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When we go to restaurants, the meal is "Dutch treat" |
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-- each person pays his or her own share. |
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Once, the owner of a restaurant gave us a dinner "on the house" |
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-- we did not have to pay for our meals. |
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However, I admit that we had to "grease someone's palm" |
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-- we had to pay money to the employee who led us to our table. |
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The money was for a special request. |
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Yes, it was a "buy-off" |
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-- the employee put us at the top of the list |
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for a table instead of making us wait like everyone else. |
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We had a great time that night |
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and the meal did not "set me back" at all |
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-- I did not have to pay anything. |
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Because of that experience, |
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I will always remember that nice things still happen |
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in a world that is "driven by money." |
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But, that is "just my two cents worth" |
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-- it is just my opinion. |
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Words and Their Stories, in VOA Special English, |
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was written by Jill Moss. |
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I'm Faith Lapidus. |