A man came home from work late, tired and irritated1, to find his 5-year old son waiting for him at the door.
“Daddy, may I ask you a question?”
“Yeah sure, what is it?” replied the man.
“Daddy, how much do you make an hour?”
“That’s none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?”  the man said angrily.
“I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?” pleaded2  the little boy.
“If you must know, I make $20 an hour.”
“Oh,” the little boy replied, with his head down. Looking up, he said,“Daddy, may I please borrow $10?”
The father was furious3,“If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly4 toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I work hard everyday for such this childish behavior.”
The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy’s questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money? After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think: Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $10 and he really didn’t ask for money very often.
The man went to the door of the little boy’s room and opened the door.
“Are you asleep, son?” He asked.
“No daddy, I’m awake,” replied the boy.
“I’ve been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier,” said the man,“It’s been a long day and I took out my aggravation5 on you. Here’s the $10 you asked for.”
The little boy sat straight up, smiling. “Oh, thank you daddy!” He yelled6. Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled7 bills. The man, seeing that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, then looked up at his father.
“Why do you want more money if you already have some?” the father grumbled8.
“Because I didn’t have enough, but now I do,” the little boy replied.“Daddy, I have $20 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you.”

男人很晚下班回家，他很累，也很煩悶。而5歲的兒子正站在門口等他回家。
“爸爸，我可以問你一個問題嗎？”　　
“當然可以，什么問題？”爸爸回答。
“爸爸，您每小時掙多少錢？”
“這不是你管的事兒！為什么問這個問題？”爸爸生氣地說。
“我只是想知道。請告訴我，您一小時掙多少錢，好嗎?”男孩央求道。
“如果你非要知道，我告訴你，我每小時掙20美元�！�
“哦，”男孩答著，低下了頭。然后抬起頭說：“爸爸，我可以跟你借10美元嗎？”
爸爸生氣了：“這就是你問我掙多少錢的原因嗎？你想買一些破爛玩具或者其他什么東西嗎？回到你的房間去！上床睡覺！想想你有多自私，我每天辛苦工作，你卻做出這樣幼稚的事�！�
男孩靜靜地走回自己的房間，關上了房門。男人坐在那兒，越想孩子的問題越生氣。他竟敢問我這個問題，就是為了要錢！半小時后，男人冷靜了下來，想到也許孩子真的需要10美元去買他想要的東西，畢竟孩子不經(jīng)常要錢的。
男人走到了男孩的房門口，打開房門。
“睡了嗎，兒子？”他問道。
“還沒呢，爸爸，我醒著呢，”男孩回答。
“我一直在想，也許我剛才對你太粗暴了，”男人說，“我工作了一天，把我的煩躁都發(fā)泄在你身上。這是你要的10美元。”
男孩從床上坐了起來，高興地叫著：“謝謝你，爸爸! ”然后從他的枕頭下面拿出幾張皺巴巴的鈔票。男人看見孩子有錢，又生氣了。男孩仔細地數(shù)著錢，然后仰望著爸爸。
“為什么你有錢還向我要呢？”爸爸抱怨著。
“因為我的錢不夠，不過現(xiàn)在夠了，”男孩回答，“爸爸，我現(xiàn)在有20美元了。我能買你一小時的時間嗎？明天請早點回家，我想和你一起吃晚餐�！�

1. irritated  adj. 惱怒的，生氣的
2. plead v. 再三懇求或請求
3. furious   adj. 狂怒的，激烈的
4. silly  adj. 愚蠢的，可笑的
5. aggravation  n. 惱怒
6. yell [jel] v. 大叫，呼喊
7. crumple  v. 弄皺，變皺
8. grumble  v. 抱怨，發(fā)牢騷