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果派而沒有奶酪了，女主人因此表示歉意。

這家的小男孩悄悄地離開了屋子。過了一會兒，他拿著一片奶酪回到房間，并把奶酪放在客人的盤子里。

客人微笑著把奶酪放進嘴里說：“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?！毙∧泻⒒卮鸬?。

Visual training 視覺訓(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，班里正在進行“視覺訓(xùn)練”。一個聰明伶俐的新兵被班長叫出來數(shù)遠處曠野上采掘隊的人數(shù)。采掘隊在很遠的地方，那些人看起來只是一些小點兒。但是這個新兵毫不猶豫地回答：

“十六個兵外加一個中士，長官?！?/p>

“正確，可是你怎么知道那兒有一個中士？”

“他不干活，長官?！?/p>

（海南 孟煥晨 譯）