时髦蓝装

Jill Carmer was the first student to walk through the classroom door.

"Good morning, my flower," Mr. El said as he finished writing the morning assignments on the board for his fourth graders.He was especially fond of Jill.She had a lot of qualities, Mr. El's favorite being that she always laughed at all his jokes.

"Mr. El, I like your blue jeans. You look cool!" Jill said as she took her seat.

Before Mr. El could acknowledge1 the compliment2, Tommy and Alex Howard,the twins,walked in."Cool jeans, Mr. El," Alex announced.

Soon the rest of the class was streaming in,and a chorus3 of similar comments could be heard.

"Thank you, thank you," Mr. El said to the class. "I'm glad you guys like my new jeans. I wear Levi's jeans almost every day and this is the first time anybody has even noticed."

Angela Williams, the self-appointed fashion expert of the class. raised her hand and spoke without waiting to be called on."That's because all the other jeans you wear are brown, black, green, tan, or gray."

David Tyler waved both hands furiously4 until the teacher pointed at him. "You see, Mr. El, you're wearing blue jeans, just like a real person."

"Thank you, David" Mr. El responded and then addressed the entire class. "Does it really matter what color denim jeans5 are?Think about it and we'll discuss the matter later."

Mr. El took the roll call6 quickly and was pleased to find that no one was absent.This was that annoying day of the week when he had to get his kids to their gym class first thing in the morning.

The class walked down the long hallway to the gym with Mr. El at the end of the line. He opened the door to the faculty room7 as he watched the last child in line disappear into the gym. Miss Joan was the only person in the room.

"Mr. El, what kind of field trip are you taking?" she asked.

"What field trip?"

"You're wearing jeans. Isn't that a little unusual?"

"I wear jeans all the time. These just happen to be blue."

At that moment, Mr. Kay, the principal, walked into the room. He glanced at Mr. El who was still standing by the door. "Hmmm," he said as he walked over to the refrigerator that stood in the far corner of the room. He placed his brown paper lunch bag into it and walked back toward the door. "How are you people this morning?" he asked, and walked out before anyone could reply.

"Those are very nice jeans," Miss Joan continued, "but aren't they a little, shall we say, undignified8 for a professional position?" Before Mr. El could respond, she added, "Not that I mean to suggest that you ever are dignified."

Mr. El smiled. He would have been disappointed if Miss Joan had not made the latter remark. "How come you haven't made any comments all the other times I wore different color jeans?"

"I hadn' t noticed. Besides, they weren' t blue jeans."

"They were the same brand, the same style, the same material. No one noticed, no one cared."

Miss Joan sighed, "I get the feeling you're trying to make some profound point."

Mr. El sat down at the long table that practically went from one end of the room to the other. "My point,"he said, "is that humans are a strange species. They tend to put a lot of importance on unimportant differences."

Miss Joan smiled. "That's true," she replied. "But there are times when you have to pretend to be a human if you want to live successfully among them."

吉尔·卡默是第一位走进教室门的学生。

“早上好，我的好学生。”埃尔先生打着招呼，他刚在黑板上写下了为四年级学生留的晨课作业。他特别喜欢吉尔。她有许多逗人之处，埃尔先生最喜欢的是她对他所有的笑话都回应以笑声。

吉尔一边坐到位子上，一边说：“埃尔先生，我喜欢你的蓝色牛仔裤。你看上去很酷!”

埃尔先生还没来及道谢，汤米和亚力克斯·霍华德这对双胞胎走了进来。亚力克斯接过话茬儿：“酷牛仔裤，埃尔先生。”

很快，班上其他的同学陆续进来，类似的评价也不绝于耳。

“谢谢，谢谢，”埃尔先生对同学们说，“我很高兴你们大家都喜欢我的新牛仔裤。我几乎每天都穿着李维斯牌子的牛仔裤，但今天大家才第一次都注意到了这回事。”

安吉拉·威廉姆斯，自封为班上的时尚专家，没等被点名就举着手嚷嚷：“那是因为你穿的所有那些牛仔裤都是棕色的、黑色的、绿色的、黄褐色的、灰色的。”

戴维·泰勒拼命摇晃着双手直到老师点到他。“你明白吧，埃尔先生，你穿着蓝色牛仔裤，才像一个真正的男人。”

埃尔先生答道：“谢谢你，戴维”。

转而对全班人说：“这真的和粗棉牛仔裤的颜色有关系吗?考虑一下稍后我们再讨论这件事情。”

埃尔先生快速点了一遍名，没发现有人缺席，他很满意。这是一周中令人烦心的日子，他不得不一早就先领他的孩子们去上体育课。

埃尔先生跟在全班队伍的最后走下通往体育馆的长长走廊。目送完最后一个孩子走进体育馆后，他打开了教员室的门。只有琼小姐一个人在房间里。

“埃尔先生，你在进行什么样的校外考察旅行?”她问。

“考察旅行?”

“你穿着牛仔裤。难道没有一点特别吗?”

“我总是穿牛仔裤。只不过这恰巧是蓝色的。”

刚好那会儿，校长凯先生走进了房间。他瞥了一眼还站在门边的埃尔先生；“唔，”他一边说一边走到放在屋子最里面角落处的冰箱旁，把他的棕色纸制午餐包放了进去，然后走回门边。他问：“你的学生今早表现如何?”说着没等任何人回答就走了出去。

“那条牛仔裤不错，”琼小姐继续说，“不过，我说，穿着它难道就没有一点有损专业人士的身份吗?”没等埃尔先生回应，她又说：“我没有暗示你曾穿着不得体的意思。”

埃尔先生笑了。如果琼小姐没有说出后面的一番评价的话，他会很失望的。“我穿着别的颜色的牛仔裤时你怎么不加评论呢?”

“我没有注意到，况且，它们不是蓝色牛仔裤。”

“它们是同样的牌子，相同的样式，连料子都是一样的，却没有人注意到，没有人在意过。”

琼小姐叹了口气说：“我感觉你正在试图证明某个深刻的，问题。”

埃尔先生坐在长桌边，那条长桌几乎从房间的一头横到另一头，他说：“我的看法是，人是一种奇怪的物种。他们喜欢在微不足道的差别上大做文章。”

琼小姐笑了。她回答：“这是真的。但有时候如果你想要在人群中活得顺顺当当的话，你不得不佯装成一个人。”

注释

1. acknowledge vt. 就…表示感谢

2. compliment n. 赞美（话）；恭维（话）

3. chorus n. 齐声，一齐

4. furiously adv. 猛烈地，热烈兴奋地

5. denim jean 粗棉布牛仔裤

6. roll call 点名

7. faculty room 教师办公室

8. undignified adj. 无尊严的，有损尊严的