Returning from a golf outing, my husband was greeted at the door by Sara, our four-year-old daughter. "Daddy, who won the golf game? You or Uncle Richie?"
"Uncle Richie and I don't play golf to win," my husband hedged. "We just play to have fun."
Undaunted, Sare said, "Okay, Daddy, who had more fun?"
丈夫打完高尔夫球回来,我们四岁的女儿莎拉在门口迎了上去。“爸爸,谁赢了高尔夫球比赛,是你还是理查叔叔?”
“我和理查叔叔打高尔夫球不是为赢,”丈夫推诿说。“我们打球只是为了开心而已。”
莎拉毫不气馁,又问:“那么,爸爸,谁玩的更开心呢?”
A schoolboy went home with a pain in his stomach. "Well, sit down and eat your tea," said his mother. "Your stomach's hurting because it's empty. It'll be all right when you've got something in it."
Shortly afterwards Dad come in from the office, complaining of a headache.
"That's because it's empty," said his bright son. "You'd be all right if you had something in it."
一个男孩放学回家时,觉得肚子痛。“来,坐下,吃点点心,”妈妈说,“你肚子痛是因为肚子是空的。吃点东西就会好的。”
一会儿,男孩的爸爸下班回家了,说是头痛。
“你头痛是因为你的脑袋是空的,”他那聪明的儿子说,“里面装点东西,就会好的。”
A young mother believed that it was very wrong to waste any food when there were so many hungry people in the world. One evening, she was giving her small daughterher tea before putting her to bed. First she gave her a slice of fresh brown bread and butter, but the child said that she did not want it like that. She asked for some jam on her bread as well.
Her mother looked at her for a few seconds and then said, "When I was a small girl like you, Lucy, I was always given either bread and butter, or bread and jam, but never bread with butter and jam.
Lucy looked at her mother for a few moments with pity in her eyes and then said to her kindly, "Aren't you pleased that you've come to live with us now?"
一位年轻的母亲认为,世界上还有许多受饥饿的人,浪费食物真不应该。有天晚上,在安排幼小的女儿睡觉之前,她给女儿喂夜宵。她先给她一片新鲜的黑面包和黄油,但孩子说她不喜欢这样吃。她还要一些果酱涂在面包上。
母亲看了女儿几秒钟,随即说道,“露茜,当我象你一样小的时候,总是吃面包加黄油,或者面包加果酱,从来没有面包既加黄油又加果酱。”
露茜看了母亲一会儿,眼中露出怜悯的神情,然后她柔声说:“您现在能跟我们生活在一起难道不感到高兴吗?”
Julie was saying her bedtime prayers. "Please God," she said, "make Naples the capital of Italy. Make Naples the capital of Italy."
Her mother interrupted and said. "Julie, why do you want God to make Naples the capital of Italy?"
And Julie replyed, "Because that's what I put in my geography exam!"
朱莉叶在做睡前祷告。“上帝,求求你,”她说,“让那不勒斯成为意大利的首都吧。”
妈妈打断她的话说:“朱莉叶,为什么求上帝让那不勒斯成为意大利的首都呢?”
朱莉叶回答道:“因为我在地理考卷上是这样写的。”
A young couple were becoming anxious about their four-year-old son, who had not yet talked. They took him to specialists, but the doctors found nothing wrong with him. Then one morning at breakfast the boy suddenly blurted, "Mom, the toast is burned."
"You talked! You talked!" Shouted his mother. "I'm so happy! But why has it taked this long?"
"Well, up till now," Said the boy, "things have been okay."
一对年轻夫妇有个儿子,已经四岁了,还没有开品说话,他们对此深感焦虑。他们带他去找专家诊治,但医生们总觉得他没有毛病。后来有一天早上吃早餐时,那孩子突然开口了:“妈妈,面包烤焦了。”
“你说话了!你说话了!”他母亲叫了起来。“我太高兴了!但为什么花了这么长的时间呢?”
“哦,在这之前,”那男孩说,“一切都很正常。”
The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake. Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson. "If Jesus were sitting here, He would say, 'Let my brother have the first pancake. I can wait." Kevin turned to his younger brother and said, "Ryan, you be Jesus!"
两个男孩争着要先尝薄烤饼,他们的母亲觉得,这是给他们上道德课的好机会:“如果耶稣坐在这里,他会说:‘让我的兄弟先尝薄烤饼吧’。” Kevin听罢立即对他的弟弟说:“Ryan,你来做耶稣!”
Dan was the doorman of a club in a big city. Everyday, thousands of people passed his door, and a lot of them stopped and asked him, "What's the time, please?"
After a few months, Dan said to himself, "I'm not going to answer all those stupid people any more. I'm going to buy a big clock and put it upon the wall here." Then he did so.
"Now people aren't going to stop and ask me the time," he thought happily. But after that, a lot of people stopped, looked at the clock and then asked Dan, "Is that clock right?"
丹在一个大城市的某个俱乐部当守门人。每天都有数千人经过他的门口,而且许多人都会停下来问他:“请问现在几点?”
几个月后,丹想:“我不想再回答这些蠢人提出的问题了,我要去买一只大钟,把它挂在这儿的墙上。”于是他买了一只钟,把它挂在了墙上。
“现在人们总不会再停下来问我时间了。”他高兴地想。可是打那以后,每天仍有许多人停下来,看看钟,然后问丹:“这钟准吗?”
When a man called a motel and asked how much they charged for a room, the clerk told him that the rates depend on room size and number of people.
"Do you take children?" the man asked.
"No, sir," replied the clerk. "Only cash and credit cards."
一个人打电话给一家汽车旅馆询问房租,旅馆的工作人员回答说房租的多少取决于房间的大小和住客的人数。
“小孩儿算不算呢?”那人问道。
“不算,先生。”服务员回答,“我们只算现金和信用卡。”
Once a superintendent of schools was visiting a three-room school. One room was very noisy, so the man grabbed a tall boy who had been standing up talking. He took the boy into another room and stood him in the corner. Five minutes later, a smalll boy came out of the first room and said, "When can we have our teacher back?"
有一次,一位督学去视察一个只有三间教室的学校。一间教室非常吵闹,因此督学抓住其中一个正在站着说话的人,把他带进另一间教室,并让他站在墙角。五分钟以后,一个小男孩从第一间教室走进来,问道,“您什么时候能让我们的老师回去呢?”
Mrs. Brown: Oh, my dear, I have lost my precious little dog!
Mrs. Smith: But you must put an advertisement in the papers!
Mrs. Brown: It's no use, my little dog can't read.
布朗夫人:哦,亲爱的,我把珍爱的小狗给丢了!
史密斯夫人:可是你该在报纸上登广告啊!
布朗夫人:没有用的,我的小狗不认识字。”