[ti:Are You Loaded?] [ar:Faith Lapidus] [al:WORDS AND THEIR STORIES] [by:www.51voa.com] [04:46.60][00:00.00]¸ü¶àÌýÁ¦Çë·ÃÎÊ51voa.com [00:10.42]Now, the VOA Special English program [00:14.95]Words and Their Stories. [00:17.34]Most people enjoy working for several reasons [00:22.06]-- their job might be fun, [00:24.86]or they like their employer and the other people at work. [00:29.14]Most people I know, however, work for the money. [00:33.83]I do not know anyone who is "loaded" [00:37.86]-- or extremely rich. [00:40.31]Most of my friends work to earn enough money to live. [00:46.01]They have to "make ends meet" [00:48.35]-- they have to earn enough money [00:51.73]to pay for the things they need. [00:54.08]Some even live "from hand to mouth" [00:57.63]-- they only have enough money for the most important things. [01:02.45]They struggle to earn enough money to "bring home the bacon" [01:08.88]-- it can be difficult to earn enough money for a family to survive. [01:15.35]Sometimes, poor people even "get caught short" [01:20.63]-- they do not have enough money to pay for what they need. [01:26.41]Or they have to spend or "lay out" [01:30.60]more money than they want for something. [01:33.54]When this happens, [01:35.08]poor people have to "tighten their belts" [01:38.77]and live on less money than usual. [01:42.16]I hate when I have to live on less money. [01:46.64]It takes me longer to get "back on my feet" [01:50.93]-- or return to good financial health. [01:54.97]However, other people are "on the gravy train" [02:00.05]-- they get paid more money than their job is worth. [02:05.24]These people "make a bundle" [02:08.57]-- they really "rake in the cash." [02:11.46]In fact, they make so much money [02:15.65]that they can "live high off the hog" [02:19.43]-- they own the best of everything and live in great ease. [02:25.06]Sometimes they "pay an arm and a leg" for something. [02:29.99]Because "money is no object" to wealthy people, [02:34.48]they will pay high prices for whatever they want. [02:38.96]Sometimes, they even "pay through the nose" [02:42.50]-- they pay too much for things. [02:45.29]I am not rich. [02:48.72]I did not "make a killing" in the stock market [02:52.60]when my stocks increased in value. [02:55.50]Yet, I am not poor either. [02:58.83]When I go out with friends, [03:01.48]I do not want to "shell out" -- or pay a lot of money. [03:06.11]Often, my friends and I will "chip in" [03:09.55]-- or pay jointly for a fun night out. [03:13.14]When we go to restaurants, the meal is "Dutch treat" [03:18.47]-- each person pays his or her own share. [03:22.95]Once, the owner of a restaurant gave us a dinner "on the house" [03:29.53]-- we did not have to pay for our meals. [03:33.11]However, I admit that we had to "grease someone's palm" [03:38.34]-- we had to pay money to the employee who led us to our table. [03:43.42]The money was for a special request. [03:47.06]Yes, it was a "buy-off" [03:49.94]-- the employee put us at the top of the list [03:54.48]for a table instead of making us wait like everyone else. [03:59.46]We had a great time that night [04:02.60]and the meal did not "set me back" at all [04:06.04]-- I did not have to pay anything. [04:10.28]Because of that experience, [04:13.11]I will always remember that nice things still happen [04:17.84]in a world that is "driven by money." [04:20.53]But, that is "just my two cents worth" [04:24.27]-- it is just my opinion. [04:27.21]Words and Their Stories, in VOA Special English, [04:41.91]was written by Jill Moss. [04:44.11]I'm Faith Lapidus.