【正确答案】My family was hard up, with father a peddler, mother a housewife, and so many children to feed. At thirteen, as the eldest child, I acted to help support the family. Each morning when I went out to practice singing in the open air, I took a little basket to scrounge for cinders for our stove. Even when scrounging for cinders you had to have your wits about you and shift from place to place to avoid those mischievous boys who banded together to collect cinders too.

【答案解析】 原文共四句，基本采用意译法。第一句是“主谓”结构，“生活苦”用hard up表示，意为not having enough money to pay for necessities。第二句原文是“主系表”结构，译文则变为“主谓”结构。第三句是主从复合句，主句是“我带着一个小篮拾煤核”，从句为“早晨去喊嗓子”。scrounge for意办“找寻”。最后一句也是主从复合句，从句为“拾煤核”，表示时间，主句是“要放聪明点，常常换换地方”，原文省略了主语，英译时根据英语的表达习惯，将主语you译出。“放聪明点”是地道的汉语表达，英语意译为“have your wits about you”。