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's a sergeant there?”
“He's not doing any digging,sir.”
【注釋】
squad/skw?d/n.(軍隊(duì)的)班;小組
recruit/r??kru?t/n.新兵;新成員
unhesitatingly/?n?hez?te?t??l?/adv.毫不猶豫地
sergeant/?sɑ?d??nt/n.陸軍(或空軍)中士;巡佐
【譯文】
那時(shí),班里正在進(jìn)行“視覺(jué)訓(xùn)練”。一個(gè)聰明伶俐的新兵被班長(zhǎng)叫出來(lái)數(shù)遠(yuǎn)處曠野上采掘隊(duì)的人數(shù)。采掘隊(duì)在很遠(yuǎn)的地方,那些人看起來(lái)只是一些小點(diǎn)兒。但是這個(gè)新兵毫不猶豫地回答:
“十六個(gè)兵外加一個(gè)中士,長(zhǎng)官。”
“正確,可是你怎么知道那兒有一個(gè)中士?”
“他不干活,長(zhǎng)官。”