18

It was MY job to write the description to post online. And I got a little creative to try and make it stand out. Four-bedroom house with three bathrooms in nice neighbourhood. Home of former bank robber. Possible gold rare coins buried under floorboards. We took photos of every room and posted those, too. The house was a MESS when we took the pictures, though, so we had to move some stuff around to make it LOOK clean.

在网上发卖房信息，写介绍这个活儿归我干。 我耍了点小花招，想让我们的房子更吸引人眼球。 好社区四居室，带三间卫生间。 前银行劫匪旧居。 地板下可能埋着稀有金币。 我们拍了每个房间的照片，也一起贴上去了。 不过拍照的时候房子乱成一团，我们只好挪了挪东西，让它看起来干净点。

The open house started at noon, and we really had to scramble to get everything nice and neat. We did the best we could and got out of there just before people started to arrive. But it was kind of hard sitting there doing NOTHING while total STRANGERS went into our house. Mom said none of the people at our open house actually knew we were the OWNERS, so WE could pretend to be checking the place out, TOO. And that way we could listen in on what everyone was saying.

开放看房中午开始，我们急急忙忙把一切收拾整齐。 我们尽最大努力收拾好，赶在人们来之前出了门。 可一群陌生人进了我们家，我们坐在外面啥也不干，实在浑身难受。 妈妈说开放日来看房的人都不知道我们就是房主，所以我们也可以假装是来看房的。 这样我们就能偷偷旁听大家都说了些什么。

Well, I thought that sounded kind of FUN, so I went inside with Mom. But everyone ELSE in the family thought it was a dumb idea and stayed back in the car. It turns out the spying idea was a MISTAKE, though. Most of the people didn't have anything NICE to say about our house, and it was kind of tough hearing all the criticism. But I think Mom was taking it a little harder than I was. Because, whenever someone had something NEGATIVE to say, she'd speak up.

我觉得这事听着挺有意思，就跟着妈妈进去了。 可家里其他人都觉得这主意很傻，都待在车里不进去。 不过没想到，偷听这事其实是个错误。 大多数人都没说我们房子什么好话，听着一堆批评真让人不好受。 不过妈妈比我还要难受。 因为只要有人说不好的话，她都要忍不住插嘴反驳。

THE WALLPAPER IN THIS ROOM IS SO TACKY. WELL, I'M SURE WHOEVER PICKED IT OUT WAS TRYING HER VERY BEST! Mom got so upset that she went back out to the CAR. But I stayed in the HOUSE, because I wasn't comfortable with all these random strangers poking around our things.

这个房间的墙纸也太俗气了。 哼，选这个墙纸的人已经尽了最大的努力了！ 妈妈气得不行，走回车上了。 但我留在房子里，因为这么多陌生人乱碰我们的东西，我实在不自在。

But not everyone was exploring the house. There were a bunch of men in the family room watching a football game, and, from the look of things, they had helped themselves to our SNACKS. These guys were letting their kids run wild in our house while they sat back and watched TV. So they were basically using the open house for free BABYSITTING.

但不是所有人都在看房子。 一群男人在家庭厅看橄榄球比赛，看那样子，他们还自己动手拿了我们的零食吃。 这帮男人坐着看电视，任由他们的孩子在我们家里乱跑胡闹。 说白了，他们就是把开放日当成免费看孩子的地方了。

Since these dads weren't watching their KIDS, it was up to ME to make sure they didn't BREAK anything. But I couldn't be everywhere at ONCE, and I was upstairs chasing kids out of our bathroom when there was a loud noise DOWNSTAIRS. It sounded like a kid had tipped over the FRIDGE or something, so I ran down to make sure nobody was HURT. But it wasn't a KID who'd made the noise, it was one of the DADS.

这些当爸爸的都不管自己的孩子，所以只能我来盯着，别让他们弄坏东西。 可我没办法同时出现在每个地方，我上楼赶孩子出浴室的时候，楼下传来一声巨响。 听着像是小孩弄翻了冰箱之类的，我赶紧跑下去看有没有人受伤。 可弄出响声的不是孩子，是其中一个爸爸。