读者文摘:一则笑话

A friend paid my mother a visit. Later, I spoke¹ with Mom.

一位朋友拜访了我母亲。后来，我和母亲聊天。

"I was very nervous," she said. "Why?" I asked.

她说：“我当时很紧张。”我问为什么。

"Because he's a captain in the Air Force."

“因为他是一名空军上尉。”

"Mother, as you know, I, too, am a captain in the Air Force." "Yes," she said.

“妈妈，你知道，我也是空军上尉。”“我知道，”她说。

"And you also make me nervous when you visit."

“你来的时候也让我很紧张。”

In San Diego to work with military linguists², my colleague and I checked into a hotel and ordered a 5 a.m. wake-up call.

在圣地亚哥与军事语言学家一起工作时，我和同事住进了一家酒店，并预订了早上5点的叫醒服务。

The next morning, the phone didn't ring until 5:30.

第二天早上，电话直到五点半才响。

"You were supposed to call us at 5 a.m.!"

“你应该在早上5点给我们打电话！”

I admonished³ the desk clerk on the other end of the line.

我警告了电话另一端的接待员。

"What if I had to close a million-dollar contract this morning?

“如果今天早上我必须签下一份百万美元的合同呢？”

Your oversight⁴ would have cost me the deal!"

你的疏忽会使我失去这笔交易！”

"Sir," he said calmly, "if you had to close that type of deal, I doubt you'd be staying in this type of hotel."

“先生，”他平静地说，“如果你要完成那种交易，你不会住在这种类型的酒店里。”

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 linguists   

n.通晓数国语言的人( linguist的名词复数 )；语言学家

参考例句：

• The linguists went to study tribal languages in the field. 语言学家们去实地研究部落语言了。 来自辞典例句
• The linguists' main interest has been to analyze and describe languages. 语言学家的主要兴趣一直在于分析并描述语言。 来自辞典例句

3 admonished   

v.劝告( admonish的过去式和过去分词 )；训诫；（温和地）责备；轻责

参考例句：

• She was admonished for chewing gum in class. 她在课堂上嚼口香糖，受到了告诫。
• The teacher admonished the child for coming late to school. 那个孩子迟到，老师批评了他。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。