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Margaret , married with two small children , has been working for the 1ast seven years as a night
c1eaner, cleaning offices in a bigbuilding.
She trained as a nurse, but had to give it up when her elderchild became seriously ill. "I would have
liked to go back to it, butthe shifts(工作班次)are all wrong for me, as I have to be home toget the
children up and off to school."
So she works as a cleaner instead,from 9 am till 6 am fivenights a week for just￡90 before tax and
insilrance. "It's betterthan it was last year , but I still think that people who work ' unsocialhours' should
get a bit extra."
The hours she's chosen to work mean that she sees plenty of thechildren,but very little of her husband.
However, she doesn't thinkfhat puts any pressure on their re1ationship.
Her work isn't physically very hard, but it's not exactlypleasant, either."I do get angry with people who
leave their officeslike a place for raising pigs. If they realized people like me have todo it,perhaps they'd
be a bit more careful. "
The fact that she's working all night doesn't worry Margaret atail.Unlike some dark buildings at night,
the building where sheworks is fully lit, and the women work in groups of three. "Since I'vegot to be here,
I try to enjoy myself-and I usually do,because of theother girls. We all have a good laugh, so the time
never drags."
Another challenge Margaret has to face is the !reaction of otherpeople when she tells them what she
does for a living.They thinkyou're a cleaner because you don't know how to read and write, "said
Margarit. "I used to think what my parents would say if theyknew what I'd been doing, but I don't think
that way any more. I don't dislike the work though I can't say I'm mad about it."
1. Margaret quit her job as a nurse because__________
A. she wanted to earn more money to support her family
B. she had suffered a lot of mental pressure
C. she needed the right time to look after her children
D. she felt tired of taking care of patients
2. Margarel gets angry with people who work in the office because_________.
A. they never clean their offices
B. they look down upon cleaners
C. they never do their work carefully
D. they always make a mess in their offices
3. When at work , Margaret feels__________
A. light-hearted because of her fellow workers
B. happy because the building is fully lit
C. tired because of the heavy workload
D. bored because time passes slowly
4. The underlined part in the last paragraph implies that Margaret's parents would__________.
A. help care for her children
B. regret what they had said
C. show sympathy for her
D. feel disappointed in her
