Napoleon was ill
Jack had gone to the university to study history, but at the end of his first year, his history professor failed him in his examinations, and he was told that he would have to leave the university. However, his father decided that he would go to see the professor to urge him to let Jack continue his studies the following year.”He‘s a good boy,” said Jack‘s father, “and if you let him pass this time, I‘m sure he‘ll improve a lot next year and pass the examinations at the end of it really well.””No, no, that‘s quite impossible,” replied the professor immediately. “Do you know, last month I asked him when Napoleon had died, he didn‘t know!””Please, sir, give him another chance,” said Jack‘s father. “You see, I‘m afraid we don‘t take any newspaper in our house, so none of us even know that Napoleon was ill.”
翻译：
拿破仑病了
杰克到一所大学去学历史。第一学期结束时，历史课教授没让他及格，校让他退学。然而，杰克的父亲决定去见教授，强烈要求让杰克继续来年的学业。“他是个好孩子，”杰克的父亲说，“您要是让他这次及格，我相信他明年会有很大进步，学期结束时，他一定会考好的。”“不，不，那不可能，”教授马上回答，“你知道吗？上个月我问他拿破仑什么时候死的，他都不知道。”“先生，请再给他一次机会吧。”杰克的父亲说，“你不知道，恐怕是因为我们家没有订报纸，我们家的人连拿破仑病了都不知道。”
This Way to Request
I had fallen and dislocated my elbow, which made writing checks for my small business nearly impossible. I called my bank to explain that the signature on my checks would look odd due to my accident, and would they please horror them anyway.
“Okay,” said the woman on the phone, “but you‘ 11 have to write a letter to the bank telling them that you are requesting this. “
翻译：
如是请求
我摔倒了，肘骨脱臼了。这使得我几乎不能给我的小生意签账单了。我打电话给银行解释说由于事故，账单上我的签名看起来会有些古怪，并请求他们无论如何给予承兑。
“好的，”电话中的女子说，“但你必须给银行写封信，告诉他们你在作此项请求。”
Dumas
One day a man was taunting Alexandre Dumas，the greatFrench novelist，with his ancestry． “Why，” snarled the fellow，“you are a quadroon；yourfather was a mulatto，and your grandfather was a negro．” “Yes，” roared Dumas，“and，if you wish to know‘mygreatgrandfather was a monkey． In fact， my pedigree beganwhere yours terminates．”
翻译：
仲马
有一天，一个人在嘲弄法国大小说家亚历山大·仲马，讥笑他的祖先。 那家伙厉声说：“唔，你是四分之一黑白混血儿，你父亲是黑白混血儿，而你的祖父是个黑人。” “是的，”仲马大声回敬：“还有呢，如果你想知道的话， 我的曾祖父是一只猴子。其实我的血统起始于你的血统终止的地方。”
My First and My Last
When George was thirty-five, he bought a small plane and learned to fly it. He soon became very good and made his plane do all kinds of tricks.
George had a friend. His name was Mark. One day George offered to take Mark up in his plane. Mark thought, “I‘ve travelled in a big plane several times, but I‘ve never been in a small one, so I‘ll go.”
They went up, and George flew around for half an hour and did all kinds of tricks in the air.
When they came down again, Mark was very glad to be back safely, and he said to his friend in a shaking voice, “Well, George, thank you very much for those two trips in your plane.”
Gerogy was very surprised and said, “Two trips?”
“Yes, my first and my last,” answered Mark.
翻译：
第一次与最后一次
乔治35岁时买了架小型飞机，并开始学习驾驶。不久，他就能很娴熟地驾机做各种各样的特技飞行了。
乔治有个朋友名叫马克。一天，乔治主动邀请马克乘他的飞机上天兜一圈。马克心想，“我乘大客机飞行过好几次，还从来没有乘过小飞机，我不妨试一试。”
升空后，乔治飞了有半个小时，在空中做了各种各样的飞行特技。
后来他们着陆了。马克很高兴能够安全返回地面。他用颤抖的声音对他的朋友说：“乔治，非常感谢你让我乘小飞机做了两次飞行。”
乔治非常吃惊地问：“两次飞行？”
“是的，我的第一次,但也绝对是最后一次。”马克答道。
