零花錢

　　很多中國父母經(jīng)常用給孩子零花錢的方式來激勵孩子好好學習，你贊同這種做法嗎?

　　Pocket Money

　　Personally, I don’t believe that giving children pocket money is a very good idea. In my opinion, doing so only encourages children to think that things in life are free. As humans, we only value those things that cost us something to obtain.

　　When I was a child, my parents never gave us any pocket money(or “allowance” as we call it in America). They made us work to earn any money we had. They wanted us to know that money is valuable, and that hard work is even more valuable. They wanted us to learn to make wise choices with our money, and they knew we would be more careful with our money if we earned it ourselves. Finally, they wanted us to understand that work and money are related: you cannot have one without the other.

　　I think there are two things parents need to do to help their children understand the value of money. First, they should make their children earn their spending money, which will make the children consider the money precious. Second, they should not always stop their children from doing foolish things with their money. Making some mistakes will teach the children to be wise.

　　obtain [əb'tein] vt. 獲得，得到

　　allowance [ə'lauəns] n. 津貼，零用錢，允許，限額，折扣，允差，考慮

　　valuable ['væljuəbl] adj. 貴重的，有價值的

　　related [ri'leitid] adj. 相關(guān)的，有親屬關(guān)系的

　　understand [.ʌndə'stænd] vt. 理解，懂，聽說，獲悉，將 ... 理解為，認為

　　precious ['preʃəs] adj. 寶貴的，珍貴的，矯揉造作的