「故事·听力」My Parents Are Rich But Left Me Without Money
My Parents Are Rich But Left Me Without Money
This is Justin, and he recently bought a new cell phone. Nothing unusual, you might think, but for him this purchase was very special, and here’s why.
Around a year ago Justin’s dad was promoted at work, and they had to move to another city. His family’s new income brought a new social status for all of them, and his parents decided that the first thing to do was to send Justin to a new and better school. Together, they chose one that corresponded to their plans for his future education. It was a boarding school for boys, mostly from wealthy families, but he was actually okay with that. Meeting new people didn’t actually bother him. It was interesting to hang out with his classmates, and since they all wore the same uniform, it didn't seem like they were all that much different from each other. Except for one thing – practically all of them had a bunch of interesting stories to tell about places they'd already visited and tons of photos of their lives stored on their latest iPhones. Whereas he’d never been outside of his hometown up to that point, and his phone was about three years old. Did he envy them, you might ask? You bet he did!
He figured out the perfect solution to his problem by asking his parents to buy him a new phone. He thought that if he could just explain to them how important it was for him to have something like the iPhone X in order to be more like his classmates, then they'd meet him halfway, especially taking into account his dad's higher salary. So, when he came home for the holidays, he kindly hinted that it would be perfect for them to give him something nice and fancy, since he’d done pretty well in his studies. But despite the fact that they now had a lot more money and that he’d been on his best behavior, they refused. They said that the gadget he was asking for was too expensive to just go out and buy for no actual reason, especially since his old phone still worked perfectly well. He tried to persuade them at first, but they wouldn't budge.
Justin was disappointed and even mad at his parents, and he kept thinking the situation over while looking through his friends’ photos on Facebook later that night. Suddenly he came across a photo that showed his classmate Richard with a miserable look on his face, holding a broken laptop in his hands. “I guess somebody’s now in big trouble…” the caption said. Suddenly, he had an idea – what if his phone was really broken? His parents wouldn’t let their only son be without any source of communication. In order to not arouse any suspicions, he waited a while, and about a week after their talk about the iPhone X, he deliberately dunked his dependable “5S” under water. Oh, you should have seen how emotional he was as he told the story to his parents about how it all happened! He thought he did great, almost like a real actor. But his dad, apparently, saw right through his deception. He said that he was sorry, but he still wasn’t going to give Justin any money to buy a new phone. He was upset that his cunning plan hadn’t worked out, and that his hopes for a new phone had sunk along with his old one.
In fact, he was devastated. Now he had neither a new cell phone nor his old one anymore. But he felt like an even a bigger loser when his mom kindly lent him her phone, which was not only pink, but was so ancient that it didn't even have an internet connection. And it had actual buttons, instead of a touch screen. He now understood how stupid he was for destroying his phone on purpose, and decided to confess. His dad said that what he did was really stupid. However, the fact that he had admitted it gave him an easy win. He promised to help, and told him about a 3-week temporary job offer at his office. The only thing he needed to do there was to catalogue an archive, and he’d be generously paid for it.
The thought of having extra money, and finally being able to buy himself his own iPhone X, inspired him during the whole three weeks of work. And it wasn’t hard at all. Sure, it was boring, but he handled it easily enough and received his hard-earned…300 bucks!? This was what his dad had meant by “generously paid”? He couldn’t believe it, he felt so betrayed. It made him furious at his parents again. But this time they also got mad. His mom said that he was no longer a little boy but almost a grown-up man, and that it was time for him to take responsibility for his own actions. And his dad told him that whoever judges people by their cell phones can neither be a good person nor a real friend. And as if this wasn’t enough, his parents cut off his allowance. So, this time he really had to figure out his money problems on his own.