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Most of my gifts this year were books or clothes. The closest thing I got to a toy was a present from Uncle Charlie. When I unwrapped Uncle Charlie's gift, I didn't even know what it was supposed to be. It was this big plastic ring with a net attached to it. Uncle Charlie explained that it was a "Laundry Hoop" for my bedroom. He said I was supposed to hang the Laundry Hoop on the back of my door and it would make putting away my dirty clothes "fun."

今年我收到的大多数礼物都是书或衣服。 我得到的最接近玩具的东西是查理叔叔送我的礼物。 当我拆开查理叔叔的礼物时，我甚至不知道那是什么。 它是一个大的塑料环，上面系着一张网。 查理叔叔解释说，这是我卧室的“洗衣箍”。 他说我应该把洗衣箍挂在门后面，这样放脏衣服就很“有趣”了。

At first I thought it was a joke, but then I realized Uncle Charlie was serious. So I had to explain to him that I don't actually Do my own laundry. I told him I just throw my dirty clothes on the floor, and Mom picks them up and takes them downstairs to the laundry room.

起初我以为这是个玩笑，但后来我意识到查理叔叔是认真的。 所以我不得不向他解释我自己不洗衣服。 我告诉他，我只是把脏衣服扔在地板上，妈妈会把它们捡起来，带到楼下的洗衣房。

Then a few days later, everything comes back to me in nice, folded piles. I told Uncle Charlie he should just return the Laundry Hoop and give me cash so I could buy something I'd actually use. That's when Mom spoke up. She told Uncle Charlie she thought the Laundry Hoop was a great idea. Then she said that from now on I'd be doing my own laundry. So basically, it ends up that Uncle Charlie got me a chore for Christmas. It really stinks that I got such crummy gifts this year. I put in a lot of effort buttering people up for

几天后，所有的东西都叠得整整齐齐地回到我身边。 我跟查理叔叔说，他应该把洗衣箍还给我，然后给我现金，这样我就能买到我真正需要的东西了。 这时妈妈开口了。她告诉查理叔叔，她认为洗衣箍是个好主意。 然后她说从现在开始我要自己洗衣服了。 所以基本上，最后查理叔叔给了我一件家务作为圣诞礼物。 我今年收到的礼物真糟糕。 我花了很多精力去奉承别人

the past few months, and I thought it would pay off on Christmas. Now that I'm responsible for my own laundry, I guess I'm kind of glad I got a bunch of clothes. I might actually make it through the whole school year before I run out of clean stuff to wear. Monday When me and Rowley got to our bus stop today, we found a nasty surprise. There was a piece of paper taped to our street sign, and it said that, effective

在过去的几个月里，我以为这会在圣诞节得到回报。 现在我自己负责洗衣服了，我想我有点高兴我有一堆衣服。 我也许能挺过整个学年然后就没干净的衣服可穿了。 星期一当我和罗利今天到达公共汽车站时，我们发现了一个令人讨厌的惊喜。 我们的路牌上贴着一张纸，上面写着，很有效

today, our bus route was "rezoned." And what that means is now we have to walk to school. Well, I'd like to talk to the genius who came up with that idea, because our street is almost a quarter of a mile from the school. Me and Rowley had to run to make it to school on time today. And what really stunk was when our regular bus passed us by and it was full of kids from Whirley Street, the neighborhood right next to ours. The Whirley Street kids made monkey noises when they passed us, which was really annoying because that's exactly what we used to do when we passed them.

今天，我们的公交路线被“重新规划”了。 这意味着现在我们必须步行去学校。 我想和想出这个主意的天才谈谈，因为我们的街道离学校差不多有四分之一英里。 我和罗利今天不得不跑着去按时上学。 真正让人恶心的是，当我们的公共汽车从我们身边经过时，车上坐满了来自惠里街的孩子，就在我们旁边。 威利街的孩子们从我们身边经过时会发出猴子般的声音，这真的很烦人，因为我们过去从他们身边经过时就是这样做的。

I'll tell you one reason it's a bad idea to make kids walk to school. These days, teachers give you so much homework that, with all the books and papers you have to carry home, your backpack ends up weighing like a hundred pounds. And if you want to see what kind of an effect that has on kids over time, all you have to do is look at Rodrick and some of his friends. Speaking of teenagers, Dad scored a pretty big

我来告诉你一个让孩子走路上学不是个好主意的原因。 现在，老师给你布置了很多作业，你必须把所有的书和论文带回家，你的背包最终有100磅重。 如果你想知道随着时间的推移，这对孩子们有什么样的影响，你只需要看看罗德里克和他的一些朋友。 说到青少年，爸爸得分相当高