If Santa were salaried...如果耶誕老人支薪 年薪可賺四百萬

A child has his picture taken with a Father Christmas who turned up bearing gifts in Greater Tainan on Dec. 17.
十二月十七日在台南耶誕老人突然造訪送禮，小朋友驚喜，開心合影。

Every Christmas Eve is Santa’s busiest time. Santa Claus does not have an easy job. He not only has to prepare gifts for each of the world’s children, he also needs to deliver them to the kids in a single night. But if we were to actually calculate Santa’s salary, how much would he earn?

The latest labor survey announced on an insurance Web site discovered that, if you combined all of his festive activities, from the management and distribution to tasks such as checking off name lists of how good or naughty children have been, altogether Santa should get an annual salary of US$139,924, approximately NT$4.4 million.

The Web site explained that Santa’s tasks include managing the reindeer, reading kids’ letters, wrapping presents, keeping a stealthy check on whether children have been good, sweeping chimneys, driving the sleigh, and singing Christmas carols.

TODAY’S WORDS
今日單字

1. naughty adj. 淘氣 

例: He was always a very naughty child.

(他以前是個非常淘氣的小孩。)

2. stealthy adj. 偷偷 

例: He stole a stealthy look at the presents.

3. carol n.耶誕歌 

例: We will sing Christmas carols tonight.

(我們今晚會吟唱耶誕歌。)

(Liberty Times, translated by Paul Cooper)

每年耶誕節前夕就是耶誕老人工作的旺季。耶誕老人工作並不輕鬆，不僅須要為世上每個孩子準備禮物，還要在一個晚上之內送到孩子手上！但若現實一點估算耶誕老人薪水，他能賺多少？

一份由保險網站公布的最新的勞動力調查發現，綜合整個耶誕慶祝活動，從管理送貨系統到檢查小孩子的乖寶寶和淘氣名單等各項工程，加總起來耶誕老人一年應可賺到十三萬九千九百二十四美元（約新台幣四百四十萬元）薪水。

該網站解釋，耶誕老人的工作內容包括，管理馴鹿、閱讀孩子寫的信、包裝禮物、偷偷調查孩子乖不乖、掃煙囪、駕駛雪橇、唱耶誕歌等等。

（自由時報)