#字词篇
1. Mr. Roy seemed pretty satisfied with my apology, and he let me go without even tacking on any detention.
tack on something: to add something extra
detention: 扣留，扣押，放学后留校
造句：They tacked an additional 18% on the bill as a service charge.
2. Mom didn't seem to happy with what I said, but it's not my fault I'm broke.......but the people I worked for stiffed me.
be broke在这里表示“破产，没钱，囊中羞涩”，另外表示“不名一钱或者负债/赤字”还可以说penniless, in the red, impoverished...
stiff someone表示“诈骗，不还钱，尤指不给小费”
造句：I went to broke because the boss I worked for stiffed me.
3. But Rordrick went down to the convenience store and blew his money on some heavy-mental magazines.
blow something on something: 在某事上花大价钱，挥霍to spend a lot of money on something
造句：Every year my brother will blow his money on some stupid video games.
#句子篇
But every time I'd leave, Princess would make a big mess in the foyer, and I'd have to clean it up the next day. Toward the end of the summer I got smart and realized it would be a whole lot easier to just clean up all of Princess's messes at once instead of doing it every single day.
表示“把……搞砸，弄脏弄乱”可以有多种表达，例如mess up, screw up, blow something, make a big mess等
toward the end of the summer是介词短语做时间状语，然后这里的用法是介词短语前置
a whole lot=very much or a great deal 在之前的书中也出现过这个表达
instead of doing something
at once一次，一下子（解决），例如“一劳永逸”可以说put things right once and for all
造句：Toward the end of this week I finally found the person who messed my papers up. But I realized it was a whole lot tougher to face him firsthand.
#作文篇
There was a drenching rain outside and power failure indoors. With nothing serious to do, I just decided to have a house meeting with my younger brother. You know, my brother recently often got detained by his math teacher. I asked him firsthand the reason and he replied that it was because he helped his classmate cheat when the teacher asked him questions. To be honest with you, I didn't believe even a word of what he said. So I kept digging and my brother confessed that his classmate paid 5 yuan for that every time. It drove me really nuts and I warned him it must be stopped. But my brother said if he was broke, then it just was my fault.
#其他知识点
And now I can tell you firsthand that it's true. firsthand这里的意思是“直接地”，相当于directly.
kennel狗窝，养狗场
gun-shy （猎犬，马等）被枪炮声吓坏的
dopey party, dopey本意是“呆头呆脑的，愚笨的”，这里与party搭配可以理解为无聊的，无趣的
be put on hold:暂停，中止
cut one's trip short and get home 数词 days early这也是一个比较实用的表达。表示缩短行程提早回家
dug up 有“开垦，采掘”的意思。这里是“发现，找出”
