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.

【注釋】

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

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. 捕鼠籠；捕鼠器；捕鼠夾

【譯文】

只能為不速之客提供蘋(píng)果派而沒(méi)有奶酪了，女主人因此表示歉意。

這家的小男孩悄悄地離開(kāi)了屋子。過(guò)了一會(huì)兒，他拿著一片奶酪回到房間，并把奶酪放在客人的盤(pán)子里。

客人微笑著把奶酪放進(jìn)嘴里說(shuō)：“孩子，你的眼睛就是比你媽媽的好。你在哪里找到的奶酪？”

“在捕鼠夾上，先生。”小男孩回答道。

Visual training 視覺(jué)訓(xùn)練

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.”

【注釋】

squad / skw？鬑d / n. （軍隊(duì)的）班；小組

recruit / r？奘？謖kru？蘼t/ n. 新兵；新成員

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

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

【譯文】

那時(shí)，班里正在進(jìn)行“視覺(jué)訓(xùn)練”。一個(gè)聰明伶俐的新兵被班長(zhǎng)叫出來(lái)數(shù)遠(yuǎn)處曠野上采掘隊(duì)的人數(shù)。采掘隊(duì)在很遠(yuǎn)的地方，那些人看起來(lái)只是一些小點(diǎn)兒。但是這個(gè)新兵毫不猶豫地回答：

“十六個(gè)兵外加一個(gè)中士，長(zhǎng)官?！?/p>

“正確，可是你怎么知道那兒有一個(gè)中士？”

“他不干活，長(zhǎng)官?！?/p>

（海南 孟煥晨 譯）