精美英文欣赏:幽默的意义

编者按:

我们喜欢和有幽默感的人在一起，幽默感似乎成了睿智的代名词。幽默不仅是讲几个笑话，它是智慧的体现，是生活的沉淀。幽默可以让你开怀，可以让你健康，可以化解你与他人的矛盾。做个幽默的人吧，给别人带来欢笑，也给自己带来快乐！

The story goes that a certain court jester went too far one day and insulted his king. The king became so infuriated he sentenced the jester to be executed. His court prayed upon the king to have mercy for thes man who had served him well for so many years. After a time, the king relented only enough to give the jester his choice as to how he would like to die. The jester replied,"If it's all the same to you, my Lord, I'd like to die of old age." Certainly in this case, a good sense of humor saved the man's life.

It's true for us as well. We may not be faced with a situation where our wit will save us from an execution, but our sense of humor and the ability to laugh at things has proven health benefits that extend and improve our quality of life. Norman Cousins, in his book Anatomy¹ of an Illness, wrote about how he cured himself of cancer by laughing a good part of each day. He rented films of comedies and watched them for hours on end in his hospital room. He had nothing to lose since he'd been diagnosed as terminal. His "experiment" turned out to be a classic example of the healing powers of laughter. If it worked for Cousins with a life-threatening illness, it can work for us to enhance and protect our good health. We should laugh often and heartily². It's good for our body. Besides, life's too important to take seriously.

幽默的意义

这是关于一个宫廷小丑的故事。这天，他故事讲的有点儿过头，得罪了国王。国王非常恼怒，下令将其处死。他的同伴求情，希望国王能够饶过这个服侍他多年的人。后来，国王有些心软了，但只是让他选择如何死而已。小丑回答说：“陛下，如果您不反对的话，我愿意老死。”无庸质疑，出色的幽默感救了这个人的性命。

对我们来说，幽默感同样重要。我们可能不会遇到用智慧来使我们免于处死的情况，但是幽默感和笑对人生的能力却可以促进身体健康，提高生活质量。诺曼·库辛在他的名为《解剖疾病》的书中记录了他如何通过每天大笑一段时间来治愈癌症的故事。他租了一些喜剧电影然后在病房里连续看上几个小时。自从被诊断出癌症晚期之后，他对死亡淡然处之。他的这个“试验”成为证明大笑的治疗作用的经典例子。如果幽默对这位面临着死亡危险的库辛起作用的话，那么幽默也会促进和保护我们的健康。我们应该经常大笑，而且是发自内心地大笑，这对我们的健康有好处。除此之外，生命如此重要，我们要认真对待。

1 anatomy   

n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织

参考例句：

• He found out a great deal about the anatomy of animals.在动物解剖学方面，他有过许多发现。
• The hurricane's anatomy was powerful and complex.对飓风的剖析是一项庞大而复杂的工作。

2 heartily   

adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很

参考例句：

• He ate heartily and went out to look for his horse.他痛快地吃了一顿，就出去找他的马。
• The host seized my hand and shook it heartily.主人抓住我的手，热情地和我握手。