这是英语专业大二上册的课本里的一篇文章，说的就是工作狂的
1 He worked himself to death, finally and precisely, at 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning.
2 Theobituary didn’t say that, of course. Itsaid that he died of a coronary thrombosis— I think that was it — but everyone among his friends and acquaintances knewit instantly. He was a perfect Type A2, a workaholic, a classic,they said to each other and shook their heads — and thought for five or tenminutes about the way they lived.
3 Thisman who worked himself to death finally and precisely at 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning — on his day off — wasfifty-one years old and a vice-president. He was, however, one of sixvice-presidents, and one of three who might conceivably — if the president diedor retired soon enough — have moved to the top spot. Phil knew that.
4 Heworked six days a week, five of them until eight or nine at night, during atime when his own company had begun the four-day week for everyone but theexecutives. He worked like the Important People3. He had no outside“extracurricular interests,” unless, of course, you think about a monthly golfgame that way. ToPhil, it was work. He always ate egg salad sandwiches at his desk. He was, ofcourse, overweight,by 20 or 25 pounds. He thought it was okay, though, because he didn’t smoke.
5 OnSaturdays, Phil wore a sports jacket to the office instead of a suit, becauseit was the weekend.
6 Hehad a lot of people working for him, maybe sixty, and most of them liked himmost of the time. Three of them will be seriously considered for his job. Theobituary didn’t mention that.
7 Butit did list his “survivors” quite accurately. He is survived by his wife, Helen, forty-eightyears old, a good woman of no particular marketable skills, who worked in anoffice before marrying and mothering. Shehad, according to her daughter, given up trying to compete with his work yearsago, when the children were small.A company friend said, “I know how much you will miss him.” And she answered,“I already have.”
8 “Missinghim all these years,” she must have given up part of herself which had caredtoo much for the man. She would be “well taken care of.”
9 His“dearly beloved” eldest of the “dearly beloved” children is a hard-workingexecutive in a manufacturing firm down South. In the day and a half before thefuneral, he went around the neighborhood researching his father, asking theneighbors what he was like. They were embarrassed.
10 Hissecond child is a girl, who is twenty-four and newly married. She lives nearher mother and they are close, but whenever she was alone with her father, in acar driving somewhere, they had nothing to say to each other.
11 Theyoungest is twenty, a boy, a high-school graduate who has spent the last coupleof years, like a lot of his friends, doing enough odd jobs to stay in grass andfood4. He was the one who tried to grab at his father, and tried tomean enough to him to keep the man at home. He was his father’s favorite. Overthe last two years, Phil stayed up nights worrying about the boy.
12 Theboy once said, “My father and I only board here5.”
13 Atthe funeral, the sixty-year-old company president told the forty-eight-year-oldwidow that the fifty-one-year-old deceased had meant much to the company andwould be missed and would be hard to replace. The widow didn’t look him in theeye. She was afraid he would read her bitterness and, after all, she would needhim to straighten out the finances — the stock options6 and allthat.
14 Philwas overweight and nervous and worked too hard. If he wasn’t at the office hewas worried about it. Phil was a Type A, a heart-attack natural. You could havepicked him out in a minute from a lineup.
15 Sowhen he finally worked himself to death, at precisely 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning, no one was reallysurprised.
16 By5:00 p.m. the afternoon of the funeral, the company president had begun,discreetly of course, with care and taste, to make inquiries about hisreplacement. One of three men. He asked around: “Who’s been working thehardest?”
温馨提示：答案为网友推荐，仅供参考