Hospitality 好客

The hostess apologized to her unexpected guest for serving an apple pie without any cheese.

The little boy of the family left the room quietly for a moment and returned with a piece of cheese which he laid on the guest？蒺s plate.

The visitor smiled， put the cheese into his mouth and then said：“You must have better eyes than your mother， sonny. Where did you find the cheese？”

“In the rat？鄄trap， sir，” replied the boy.

【注释】

apologize /？藜？謖p？鬑l？藜d？廾a？奘z/ v. 道歉；谢罪

unexpected /？謣？蘧n？奘k？謖spekt？奘d/ adj. 出乎意料的；始料不及的

rat-trap /？謖r？覸ttr？謖？覸p/ n. 捕鼠笼；捕鼠器；捕鼠夹

【译文】

只能为不速之客提供苹果派而没有奶酪了，女主人因此表示歉意。

这家的小男孩悄悄地离开了屋子。过了一会儿，他拿着一片奶酪回到房间，并把奶酪放在客人的盘子里。

客人微笑着把奶酪放进嘴里说：“孩子，你的眼睛就是比你妈妈的好。你在哪里找到的奶酪？”

“在捕鼠夹上，先生。”小男孩回答道。

Visual training 视觉训练

The squad were having “visual training”. One smart recruit was asked by the officer to count how many men composed a digging party in a distant field. The party was so faraway that the men appeared as mere dots， but unhesitatingly the recruit replied：

“Sixteen men and a sergeant， sir.”

“Right， but how do you know there？蒺s a sergeant there？”

“He？蒺s not doing any digging， sir.”

【注释】

squad / skw？鬑d / n. （軍队的）班；小组

recruit / r？奘？謖kru？蘼t/ n. 新兵；新成员

unhesitatingly /？蘧n？謖hez？奘te？奘t？奘？耷l？奘/ adv. 毫不犹豫地

sergeant / ？謖sɑ？蘼d？廾？藜nt / n. 陆军（或空军）中士；巡佐

【译文】

那时，班里正在进行“视觉训练”。一个聪明伶俐的新兵被班长叫出来数远处旷野上采掘队的人数。采掘队在很远的地方，那些人看起来只是一些小点儿。但是这个新兵毫不犹豫地回答：

“十六个兵外加一个中士，长官。”

“正确，可是你怎么知道那儿有一个中士？”

“他不干活，长官。”

（海南 孟焕晨 译）