当失业率节节攀高，当媒体间竞争越发激烈，不停的新人换旧人以求发展的时候，就算你是拼命三郎，或是操着卖白粉的心，挣着卖白菜的钱，被炒鱿鱼都不算多意外的事儿。电视节目制作人Becky Fuller，尽管从小立志做电视，做新闻，也拼了命地干好自己的工作，却也成了最新的失业青年之一。更让人尴尬的是，被叫去辞退之前，你还在做着升迁的美梦。

Becky: What? What's going on? What is that? 怎么了？这是啥？

Colleague: We thought you might need this. 我们觉得你需要这个。

Becky: That better not be a box of condoms again and I didn't even use the old one. 别再送我一盒避孕套了，上回的还没用完。

Colleague: No, you're gonna use this. 不是，这个你会需要的。

Becky: Oh, my God. 天哪！

Colleague: Congratulations. 恭喜。

Colleague: Congrats. 恭喜。

Becky: That's so sweet. 你们真贴心。

(YES!I ACCEPT! 衬衫上：“好的！我接受！”)

Becky, we have to let you go. I'm really sorry about this, kiddo. Corporate wants us to ①reduce our overhead. We're having to ②make big cuts and they want me to hire a senior producer with more business experience to manage the contraction of the show. 贝琪，我们不得不辞退你了。很抱歉这么做。公司让我们削减开销。我们不得不下狠心了。他们让我雇佣一个高级编导，更有经验，能够解决节目合同的问题。

Becky: But wait a second. You told them you can't do that, right? Because I... I've been here so long and I've worked so hard. 等等，你跟他们说过不会这么做，对吧？因为我在这儿工作了这么久，比谁都努力。

His name is Chip. He's... Chip starts Monday. He has an M.B.A. And a journalism degree from Columbia. They're grooming him to run the whole station in a few years. ③In the meantime, I can't afford to keep you both. Becky, look, I'm really... 新来的叫切普。他周一就上班。人家有工商管理硕士学位，哥伦比亚大学新闻专业毕业。公司希望培养他几年后做台长。现在的情况是，钱不够你俩同时开工资。贝琪，我很…

Becky: Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Shit, shit, shit. Shitty... 我靠！靠，靠，靠，靠，靠，靠……

Becky, I... I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry. 贝琪，我真的很抱歉。

Becky: I fought them as hard as I could. There's lots of terrific opportunities out there, you know? I mean, look at Chip. He got one. So maybe this is just the push I need, you know? So it can get me to the next level, maybe even to a network or... Yeah. I mean, it's not like it's my whole life. It's only work, right? 我尽力争取了。外面肯定会有更好的机会，对吧？看看切普，人家就找到了一个。可能这还算帮了我一把，这样我能再上一个台阶儿，说不定是甚至是一个大的电视网。没错，这又不是我的一辈子，只是份工作，对吧？

虽然愤怒，但是Becky依旧乐观。我们先来看一下文中几处用法：

1. reduce our overhead. Overhead. 有“经常开支”的意思。复数形式意思是“管理费用”。Reduce overhead, 也就是“削减开支”。

2. make big cuts: 和上面的短语意思相近。也是要“大幅削减”。不过对象既可以是人，也可以是资金。

3. in the meantime. Meantime, “与此同时；其间”，in the meantime, 也是“在此期间”的意思。再比如：The next programme starts in five minutes: in the meantime, here's some music. 下一节目五分钟後开始，现在先播放些音乐。

如同对白中所说，被辞退可能正是the push I need, 一个省略了关系词的定语从句，“我需要的推动力。”大家猜也猜的到Becky未来一定会得到新的工作机会。不过，遵循着所有的发家史背后都可能有一部血泪史这样的原则，Becky未来的工作历程一定是跌宕起伏，麻烦不断的。别说同行对这个资历不深的女孩儿无法给予应有的信任，就是自己的母亲也将Becky的热忱看做是盲目的乐观加以批评了。好了，下期，我们继续“早间主播”，关注Becky新工作中的表现吧。