Frequent hand-washing in my job as a medical technologist and the harsh¹ Alaskan weather combined to give me very dry skin. One night as I prepared for bed, I rubbed my hands with petroleum² jelly³ and covered them with a pair of old white glove.

As I sat in bed reading a book with my gloves on, my husband finished showering and came into the room. Drying himself off, he went to the closet, selected a tie and began putting it on. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"Well," he replied, "if you're going to be formal, so am I."Notes:

(1) frequent adj.经常的

(2) technologist n.技师

(3) harsh adj.恶劣的

(4) Alaskan adj.阿拉斯加的

(5) petroleum n.凡士林

(6) jelly n.霜

(7) shower v.洗淋浴