unit1leisureactivities新编大学英语第二版第四册课文翻译

Unit 1 Leisure Activities

Entertaining Humor—What's Funny

Donald M. Huffman

The joy of laughing at a funny' story is universal, probably as old as language itself. But, what is it that makes a story or a joke funny

As one who had enjoyed humor since I first recognized it, I've made an attempt to explain and discuss humor with students in such diverse cultures as Latin America and China. I've done some serious thinking about funny stories. It has been a labor of love!

Why is it that several students in a class will fall out of their chairs laughing after I tell a joke while the rest of the students look as if I've just read the weather report Obviously some people are more sensitive to humor than others. And, we recognize that some people tell jokes very well while others struggle to say something funny. We've all heard people say, "I like jokes, but I can't tell one well, and I can never remember them." Some people have a better sense of humor than others just as some people have more musical talent, mathematical talent etc. than others. A truly funny person has a joke for every occasion, and when one is told, that triggers an entire string of jokes from that person's memory bank. A humorless person is not likely to be the most popular person in a group. It is reasonable to say that the truly humorous individual is not only well liked, but is often the focus of attention in any gathering.

Even some animals have a sense of humor. My wife's mother often visited us for extended stays. She normally didn't like dogs, but she fell in love with Blitzen—a female Lab we have, and the relationship was mutual. Even when young, Blitzen would tease Grandma by very selectively carrying one of her bedroom slippers into the living room where Grandma sat in her favorite, comfortable chair. Blitzen pranced just beyond the reach of Grandma until Grandma was tempted to leave her chair to get the slipper from Blitzen. When Grandma left her chair, Blitzen would quickly jump into the chair, flashing her Lab smile from sparkling brown eyes which clearly said, "Aha, I fooled you again.

Typical jokes or humorous stories have a three-part anatomy that is easily recognized. First is the SETUP (or setting), next is the BODY (or story line), and these are followed by the PUNCH LINE (an unexpected or surprise ending) which will make the joke funny if it contains some humor. Usually all three parts are present,

and each must be clearly presented. It helps if the story/ joke teller uses gestures and language which are well known to the audience.

Humor, as a form of entertainment, can be analyzed in order to discover what makes a funny story or joke seem funny. Here, for example, are some of the most common types of humor. They range from the most obvious humor to the more subtle types.

"SLAP-STICK" is the most obvious humor. Its language is simple, direct, and often makes fun of another person or group. Slap-stick was and is the technique of the stand-up comedian and the clown. It appeals to all ages and all cultures. Nearly every English-speaking comedian in this century has used the following joke in one form or another. One man asks another, "Who was that lady I saw you with last night" The other replies, "That was no lady, that was my wife." The humor lies in the fact that the second man is saying that his wife is not a lady. In other words, she is not a refined woman. The joke is no less funny because it is so often used. The audience knows in advance what will be said, because it is classic humor, and any audience values it even more because of its familiarity.

Chinese "cross-talk" is a special type of slap-stick in which two Chinese comedians humorously discuss topics such as bureaucrats, family problems, or other personal topics. Cross-talk can be heard anywhere from small village stages to the largest Beijing theatres, and to radio and television. It is clearly a traditional form of humor well understood by Chinese people.

A PLAY ON WORDS is not so obvious as slap-stick, but it is funny because of misused or misunderstood language. My favorite example is the story of three elderly gentlemen traveling by train in England. As the train slowed for a stop the first man asked, "Is this Wembley" "No," said the second, "It's Thursday." "So am I," said the third man. "Let's stop for a beer." We know that older people often do not hear things clearly, so the misunderstanding of both Wednesday (for Wembley) and thirsty (for Thursday) make a nice setup for the punch line delivered by the third man.

The famous Chinese cartoonist and humorist Ding Cong is a master of word play. In one of his funny cartoons, a teacher says, "How come you completely copied somebody else's homework" The young student replies, "I didn't completely copy it. My name on the page is different." In another classic Ding Cong cartoon, an irritated father asks, "Tell me, what's one plus two" The son says, "I don't know." The impatient father then says, "For example, you, your mother, and I altogether are how many, you idiot" The son proudly answers, "Three idiots." Whether these stories are cartoons, jokes told by a slapstick comedian, or a cross-talking team, they appeal

to people everywhere as funny stories because they have a note of reality to them, and the unexpected punch line is quite funny. 11 PUNS are even more subtle forms of word play. They use the technique of similar sounding words or alternative meanings of the same word. Puns are thought by some critics to be the lowest form of humor, but I disagree with this. Puns require more subtle and sophisticated language skills than most humor forms, but even the very young can use them in their simpler forms. For example, the "riddle" or trick question often uses a pun in the setup, the story line, or, more often, the punch line. Puns are the first type of humor I learned, and at about 5 years of age I remember hearing the following riddle. One person asks, "What is black and white and red all over" The other person usually cannot answer the riddle, so says, "I give up. What is the answer" The riddler replies, "A newspaper." This is the obvious answer if one knows that "red" is pronounced the same as "read" in English, but the meanings are clearly different.

DOUBLE-ENTENDRES (French for double meanings) are special variations of puns in which words or phrases have double meanings. Frequently the two meanings are very different, and one is quite proper while the second is often, but not always, vulgar.

I like the somewhat mild story of a school teacher and a principal of a high school who are concerned because some boys and girls have been seen kissing on the school playground. The teacher says to the students, "The principal and I have decided to stop kissing on the school playground." Hearing some laughter, she senses her message was not altogether clear, so she adds, "What I mean to say is that there will be no more kissing going on under our noses". This clarification, of course, does nothing to correct the first statement and the double meaning of the joke becomes even more laughable.

Some professional humorists think too much of today's humor is not very intelligent or sophisticated. They dislike the suggestive or vulgar language used too frequently, and they feel that most humorists are not very creative. It is true that some of today's humor is rather shocking, but I don't think humor is to be blamed for that. Humor is alive and well, and it will persist simply because there are funny things happening every day. Some humorous people see and hear these funny things and are able to make them into funny, entertaining jokes and stories.

享受幽默——什么东西令人开怀

1 听了一个有趣的故事会发笑、很开心，古今中外都一样。这一现象或许同语言本身一样悠久。那么，到底是什么东西会使一个故事或笑话让人感到滑稽可笑的呢

2 我是第一次辨识出幽默便喜欢上它的人，因此我曾试图跟学生议论和探讨幽默。这些学生文化差异很大，有来自拉丁美洲的，也有来自中国的。我还认真地思考过一些滑稽有趣的故事。这么做完全是出于自己的喜好。

3 为什么听我讲完一个笑话后，班上有些学生会笑得前仰后合，而其他学生看上去就像刚听我读了天气预报一样呢显然，有些人对幽默比别人更敏感。而且，我们也发现有的人很善于讲笑话，而有的人要想说一点有趣的事却要费好大的劲。我们都听人说过这样的话：“我喜欢笑话，但我讲不好，也总是记不住。”有些人比别人更有幽默感，就像有些人更具有音乐、数学之类的才能一样。一个真正风趣的人在任何场合都有笑话可讲，而且讲了一个笑话，就会从他记忆里引出一连串的笑话。一个缺乏幽默感的人不可能成为一群人中最受欢迎的人。一个真正有幽默感的人不仅受人喜爱，而且在任何聚会上也往往是人们注意的焦点。这么说是有道理的。

4 甚至有些动物也具有幽默感。我岳母从前经常来我们家，并能住上很长一段时间。通常她不喜欢狗，但却很喜欢布利茨恩—我们养过的一条拉布拉多母猎犬。而且，她们的这种喜欢是相互的。布利茨恩在很小的时候就常常戏弄外祖母，当外祖母坐在起居室里她最喜欢的那张舒适的椅子上时，布利茨恩就故意把她卧室里的一只拖鞋叼到起居室，并在外祖母刚好够不到的地方蹦来跳去，一直逗到外祖母忍不住站起来去拿那只拖鞋。外祖母从椅子上一起来，布利茨恩就迅速跳上那椅子，从它那闪亮的棕色眼睛里掠过一丝拉布拉多式的微笑，无疑是在说：“啊哈，你又上了我的当。”

5 典型的笑话或幽默故事由明显的三部分构成。第一部分是铺垫（即背景），接下来是主干部分（即故事情节），随后便是妙语（即一个出人意料或令人惊讶的结尾）。如果这个妙语含有一定的幽默成分，这个笑话便会很有趣。通常笑话都包含这三部分，而且每部分都必须交代清楚。如果讲故事或说笑话的人使用听众都熟悉的手势和语言，则有助于增强效果。

6 我们可以对幽默这种娱乐形式，进行分析，从而发现究竟是什么使一个有趣的故事或笑话令人发笑。举例来说，最常见的幽默有以下几种，包括了从最显而易见的幽默到比较微妙含蓄的幽默。

7 “滑稽剧”是最明显的幽默。它语言简单、直截了当，常常以取笑他人为乐。说笑打闹这种形式过去是、现在仍然是滑稽说笑演员和小丑的惯用技巧。它为不同年龄、不同文化背景的人们所喜爱。几乎本世纪的每个讲英语的滑稽说笑演员都曾以这样或那样的方式说过下面这则笑话。一位男士问另一位男士：“昨晚我看到的那位和你在一起的贵妇是谁”那位男士回答道：“那可不是什么贵妇，那是我老婆。”这个笑话的幽默之处在于第二位男士说他的妻子不是一位贵妇，也就是说她不是一个高雅的女人。这个笑话并没有因为经常讲而变得不再那么好笑。由于这是一个经典笑话，观众都知道要说什么，而且因为大家对这个笑话很熟悉而更加珍爱它。

8 中国的相声是一种特殊的滑稽剧。相声中两名中国喜剧演员幽默地谈论诸如官僚主义者、家庭问题或其他一些有关个人的话题。相声随处都能听到，无论是在乡村的小舞台上，

还是在北京最大的剧院里，抑或在广播、电视上。它显然是中国人家喻户晓的一种传统的幽默形式。

9 “俏皮话”不像滑稽剧那样浅显，它是因语言的误用或误解而引人发笑。我特别喜欢的一个例子是三位年长的绅士在英国乘火车旅行的故事。当火车慢慢停下来时，第一位绅士问道：“这是Wembley (温布利)吗”“不，”第二位绅士说：“是Thursday (星期四)。”“我也是，”第三位说道，“让我们下车喝杯啤酒吧。”我们知道上了年纪的人往往耳背，因此会把Wembley（温布利）听成了Wednesday（星期三），把Thursday（星期四）听成了thirsty （渴了），这样一来就为第三位老人的妙语做好了铺垫。

10 着名的中国漫画家和幽默家丁聪便是一位俏皮话大师。在他的一幅幽默漫画中，一位老师说：“你为什么一字不改地抄别人的作业”那位年轻的学生回答道：“我没有一字不改地抄。我把作业上的名字改成自己的了。”在丁聪的另一幅经典漫画里，一位生气的父亲问道：“告诉我，1加2等于几”儿子说：“我不知道。”这位不耐烦的父亲接着说道：“比方说，你、你妈妈和我，我们加起来一共是几个，傻瓜”儿子得意地回答道：“是三个傻瓜。” 这些故事无论是漫画还是笑话，是由演滑稽剧的喜剧演员说还是由搭档的相声演员讲，都为各地人们所喜爱。人们喜爱这些有趣的故事，因为它们贴近现实生活，而且里面那些出人意料的妙语十分有趣。

11 双关语是一种更微妙的俏皮话。它使用的技巧是利用发音相似的词或同一个词的不同意思。有些批评家认为双关语是最低级的幽默，但我不同意这种观点。双关语与其他形式的幽默相比需要更细微、更巧妙的语言技巧；然而，简单的双关语甚至很小的孩子也能利用。例如，谜语或脑筋急转弯问题常使用双关语做铺垫、制造故事情节，而且更多地是用在妙语部分。双关语是我最早懂得的幽默。记得大约在五岁时我听到了下面这个谜语。一个人问：“什么东西整个儿是黑的、白的和红的”另外一个人通常猜不出来，于是问道：“我不猜了。是什么呀”出谜语的人回答：“是报纸。”如果你知道在英语中“red（红色）”和“read （读）”的读音一样但意思完全不同，答案就很明显了。

12 DOUBLE ENTENDRES （法语中的“一语双关”）是双关语的特殊形式, 其中的词或短语有双重意思。两个意思往往很不相同，一个比较恰当，另一个往往比较粗俗—但并不总是这样。我喜欢那个关于一位中学教师和校长因看见学生在学校操场上接吻而感到担心的故事。故事并不过火。那位教师对学生们说；“我和校长已经决定停止在学校操场上接吻。”听到笑声，她意识到她没有把意思表达清楚，于是补充说：“我的意思是不能再在我们的鼻子下面发生接吻这样的事了。”当然，这个解释并没有纠正她的第一句话，反而使这个笑话的双重含义变得更加好笑。

13 一些专业的幽默家认为如今的幽默大多缺乏智慧，不够巧妙。他们不喜欢在幽默中过多使用有色情意味或粗俗的语言，而且觉得大多数幽默家缺乏创造性。的确，现在有些幽默令人震惊，但我认为这不是幽默的过错。幽默本身是活泼健康的，它还会继续生存下去，只因为每天都有有趣的事情发生。一些有幽默感的人会看到听到这些有趣的事情，并把它们编

成妙趣横生、令人开心的笑话和故事。

Fatal Attraction

The "Queen" of British murder mystery writing is, without doubt, Agatha Christie. Although the writer herself died over 20 years ago, her 78 "Whodunit" novels continue to sell in huge numbers. They have been translated into more than a hundred languages and they have sold over two billion copies.

The appeal of Agatha Christie's books, both in Britain and abroad, is not hard to understand. Each book is cleverly constructed. She uses characters that are easily recognizable and her plots develop almost like clockwork. But most importantly, all her stories set a puzzle for the reader.

Nearly all of Christie's books start with a murder, forcing the reader to ask the question, "whodunit", and all of them end with a solution. The fun for the reader is in following the clues hidden in the story and trying to reach the correct solution before the author reveals it. This formula appeals to the strongest of human instincts—curiosity—and its popularity shows no sign of going away.

Many of the mysteries are solved by one of the Christie's regular investigators, like the very confident Belgian, Hercule Poirot, or the apparently harmless little old lady, Miss Marple. She also created a special setting for her stories which has become as familiar as some of her characters. It is England between the two World Wars, where close-knit communities live in quiet villages or rich city folk assemble for weekends at grand country houses.

This world is ruled by a rigid social hierarchy. The owners of the country houses, probably members of the aristocracy, are at the top, then there are the professional classes: doctors, lawyers and businessmen. At the bottom are the common people, who normally appear in the books as servants, cooks and gardeners. When a murder is committed, there's no shortage of suspects to be investigated.

Agatha Christie's world is not quite a real world, which is one of the reasons why her books have not become dated. This is a world which is safe and predictable until a murder shatters people's lives. The crime must be solved so that the murderer can be arrested, but also, so that calm can be restored.

During most of Agatha Christie's life, England had the death penalty for murder. So, once the crime in her books is solved and the murderer identified, that is the

end for him or her. There are no loose ends and the reader can sleep peacefully in his or her bed.

In the real world, of course, things don't happen quite like that. Criminals go unpunished, people are wrongly convicted and there are miscarriages of justice. In short, the real world is not a safe place. It is for this reason that so many readers like to bury their heads in an old-fashioned detective story with a safe and predictable ending.

The kind of whodunit Agatha Christie wrote is certainly old-fashioned. Few contemporary crime writers are producing this kind of book. The modern crime novel is more morally and psychologically complex, often adding to "whodunit", another question: "whydunit". Modern writers are more interested in understanding the criminal's mind and what drives a person to kill. They explore a world of crime that is much darker than anything imagined by Agatha Christie. Instead of being comforting, most contemporary crime novels unsettle their readers.

But Britain's affection for what the Americans call the "cosy" school of crime fiction has not died. Murder is still considered to be entertainment and the television schedules are full of detective dramas which end with a murderer safely under arrest.

Another sign of how popular whodunits have become are "Murder Mystery Weekends", offered by hotels. Guests take on the characters of classic whodunit suspects and spend a weekend trying to find out who among them is the "murderer". Or there are murder dinner parties, at which groups of friends get together to solve a crime over the dinner table, using specially prepared information about their character and their whereabouts. If murder with your meal doesn't appeal, there are a range of popular board games and computer games to test your powers of detection.

But for some people it can become an obsession. Letters still get sent to "221b Baker Street, London", home of Sherlock Holmes, perhaps the most famous fictional detective of all, asking for his help in solving a variety of mysteries. So many letters arrive for the great detective, that the company which now occupies that address employs someone with the special job of answering them.

So long as human beings remain curious, there seems no doubt that the whodunit, in all its various forms, will continue to exert its fatal attraction.

致命诱惑

1 英国离奇谋杀案小说的女皇，毫无疑问是阿加莎·克里斯蒂。虽然作者本人在20多年前

就去世了，但她创作的78部侦探小说还是非常畅销。它们已经被译成了100多种语言，销量超过了20亿册。

2 阿加莎的小说无论是在英国还是在其他国家，都如此受人喜爱并不难理解。她的每本书都构思精巧。她创造的人物一眼就能辨认出，情节的发展非常规范、准确、流畅。但最重要的是，她所有的故事都给读者一个谜团。

3 克里斯蒂的作品几乎都是以谋杀开场，迫使读者提出这样一个问题：“是谁干的”，而最后总是水落石出。读者的乐趣就在于根据故事里隐含的线索顺藤摸瓜，试图在作者揭开谜底之前找到正确答案。这种模式吸引了人类最强烈的本能——好奇心——而人们对这种模式欢迎的程度没有任何减弱的迹象。

4 很多离奇的案子都是由克里斯蒂笔下某个常常出场的侦探破解，例如那个非常自信的比利时人埃居尔·波洛探长，或者是那个显然没有恶意的小老太太马普尔小姐。她同时也为她的故事创造了一个特有的背景，这一背景，如同她创作的一些人物一样为人们所熟知。那是处于两次世界大战之间的英国，那儿的小村庄里社区关系紧密，生活安静，或者是城里的阔佬们在乡下的豪宅里度周末。

5 这个世界有着严格的社会等级制度。乡下宅子的主人，很可能是贵族成员，占据着社会的顶层，然后是那些职业阶层：医生、律师和商人。处于底层的则是一般民众，在书中通常作为仆从、厨师和园丁出场。当谋杀案发生时，需要调查的嫌疑人不在少数。

6 阿加莎-克里斯蒂的世界不是一个完全真实的世界，这就是她的作品还没有过时的原因之一。这是一个安定、循规蹈矩的世界，然后谋杀案打乱了人们的正常生活。必须侦破案件，抓住杀人犯，恢复宁静的生活。

7 在阿加莎·克里斯蒂一生的大部分时问里，英国的杀人犯都被处以死刑。因此，她作品中的谋杀案一旦破获，找出了杀人犯，那么他或者她的末日也就到了。不会有未了结的事情，读者于是就可以高枕无忧了。

8 当然，在真实的世界里，事情并非完全如此。罪犯会逍遥法外，法律会伤及无辜，审判不公时有发生。简单地说，真实世界并不是一个安全的地方。正因为如此，才会有这么多的读者喜欢逃避现实，埋头于一本老式的、结局完全可预测的侦探小说。

9 阿加莎·克里斯蒂所着的侦探小说当然可谓风格陈旧。当代描写破案的作家几乎没人再写这样的作品了。现代的侦探小说在道德上和心理上都更趋复杂，经常在“是谁干的”之外再加上“为什么这样干”这个问题。现代作家更感兴趣的是了解罪犯的心理和杀人动机。他们所探讨的犯罪世界比阿加莎·克里斯蒂所能想象的要黑暗得多。当代的破案小说不仅不能给读者带来慰藉，反而使他们感到不安。

10 但是对于这种美国人称之为“舒适型”的侦探小说流派，英国人依旧十分喜爱。谋杀故事仍被看作是一种消遣娱乐，而且电视节目表里也充斥着那些以杀人犯肯定被捕而告终的侦探剧。

11 从酒店提供的“周末谋杀奇案”活动也可以看出侦探小说有多么流行。客人们扮演那些

经典侦探小说中的嫌疑人，用一个周末的时间来找出他们中的哪一个是“杀人犯”。或者举办“谋杀案侦破晚宴”：一群朋友聚在一起，在餐桌上利用预先准备好的关于人物性格和行踪的线索破解一桩疑案。如果餐桌上的谋杀案提不起你的兴趣，还有各种各样的棋盘游戏和计算机游戏来测试你的侦探能力。

12 但是有些人会沉迷于此无法自拔。(例如，)所有小说里最有名的侦探也许是舍洛克·福尔摩斯，他的住所是“伦敦贝克街22lB号”。现在仍有信件寄到那里，要求他帮助解决各种各样的迷案。因为有如此多的信件寄给这位大侦探，现在使用该处的公司雇用了一个人，专门回复这些信件。

13 只要人类还有好奇心，那么毫无疑问，各种各样的侦探小说就会继续发挥它致命的诱惑力。

Wow, Would I Love to Do That

I was 16 years old when I became interested in juggling. I saw a television commercial in which two guys began tossing cans of frozen orange juice back and forth in a juggling pattern.

Wow, would I love to do that! I imagined myself performing before a clapping audience.

Fat chance. Even if I knew how to juggle, I was scared to death of standing in front of an audience. But then a strange coincidence occurred, the kind of thing that makes you think it's an answer to prayer, even when you haven't actually prayed.

A few days later, my older brother, Jeff, and I were visiting some friends when a boy of my age said, "Hey, you should see what my brother learned to do." He took me to his brother's room, where the older boy was showing Jeff how to juggle golf balls.

"I want to learn too," I said.

In no time I was hooked. Even though I dropped a lot of balls at first, I was amazed how easily I caught on. First, I just tossed a single ball up in the air from one hand to the other. Then I tried two balls, one from each hand, letting them pass in the air.

Finally I was ready for three balls. The pattern was simple: I held two golf balls in my right hand and one in the left. Tossing one of the balls from my right hand into the air, I waited till it reached the top of its arc. Then I tossed up the ball from my left hand, so that the two balls passed each other. And before that one came down, I sent up the ball that had remained in my right hand. I caught and

tossed the balls, back and forth, back and forth. When I dropped one, I started over. By the end of the evening I could make 10 tosses before dropping a ball.

It was a challenge; I had to perfect this skill. The next day I got three tennis balls and practiced in the garage until I could make 20 tosses before dropping a ball. I practiced with a vengeance. I wanted to be as good as those guys on TV.

As I got better, I began to add tricks, tossing the balls so that one went over the top of the others, or under the others, or I bounced one off my head or elbow and still kept the pattern going.

Funny thing is, I thought I was making up all those tricks. But one day at the library I discovered a book on juggling, and there were all the tricks I was doing! The basic three-ball pattern was a cascade, juggling the balls in a circle was a shower, and throwing one ball over the top was a half-shower.

I bought a set of juggling clubs, and my parents bought me a set of juggling rings. I performed for my family and a few friends, but I never thought of myself as an entertainer. Entertaining meant getting up in front of an audience. Impossible!

I couldn't do that.

Then five years later, when I was 21, my mother called me aside one day during the Christmas season and said, "Dan, how would you like to juggle for the Salvation Army dinner this year" For the past two years Mom and her boss had helped at the annual dinner.

"There will be other entertainment," she hastened to add. "All you need to do is stand at one side of the auditorium and juggle during dinner."

Two days before Christmas, as people streamed into the auditorium, there I was, juggling on a small stage at one side of the hall. I was nervous, but somehow the tension gave me courage. I began doing my tricks, including one I'd recently mastered: juggling behind my back. Then I juggled the clubs, and finally a bowling ball and two small balls. Kids crowded around the stage, laughing. People applauded.

Suddenly I felt an elation I had never experienced before. I was performing for an audience, and they loved it!

At home I kept practicing. I began juggling cigar boxes, knives and torches. And when an uncle gave me his unicycle, I learned to ride it and juggle at the same time.

I began to think about becoming a professional. I knew I'd have to do more than just tricks; I'd have to speak, make jokes and so on. That's what the books said. So I prayed about it. When I next juggled in front of my family, I added some jokes.

I hoped that trying them out on my family would help me feel more comfortable doing the same thing in public.

My chance soon came. I was asked to juggle torches at a fashion show with a Polynesian theme. I went barefoot and bare-chested, dressed in silly-looking shorts, with black stripes across my face. As I was about to go on, I was handed a list of announcements. 'Please read these when you finish your act," the mistress of ceremonies said. It was too late to back out.

Was I ever nervous! I dropped the torches-three times! But not wanting the audience to know how nervous I was, I tried to make my mistakes look like part of the act. I danced over the torches crazily, making jungle sounds, until I could pick them up and resume my juggling. The people applauded. They liked my act. And somehow I got through reading the announcements.

The following month I received a phone call from the principal of a local elementary school. An old performer had asked for a sick leave. Could I fill in And include a message "Sure," I said.

Three weeks later I was standing before a couple of hundred eager children. Using my juggling practice as an example, I began my message. When I started to juggle, I let the balls drop. I picked them up, started, and dropped them again.

"That's what it's like when you start," I said. But then, as the program progressed, I began to do more and more tricks, juggling while riding a unicycle and while lying on my back, getting back up to my feet without dropping a ball.

Forty-five minutes later I ended the performance with my final word of advice to the children: "If you want to succeed, at juggling or anything else, you have to keep trying. You can do it. Just never give up."

哇噢，真希望我也能那样

1 16岁的时候我开始喜欢上了杂耍。我在一个电视广告中看到两个人开始玩杂耍，把冻橘子汁罐头抛来抛去。

2 哇噢，我真希望自己也能那样做!我想象着自己在表演，面前的观众在鼓掌。

3 真是异想天开。即便我会杂耍，站在观众面前的时候我也会被吓死的。但是后来发生了一件奇妙的巧事，使人觉得自己的祈祷得到了回应——甚至在你还没有真正祈祷的时候就得到回应了。几天之后，我哥哥杰夫和我正在朋友那里作客，有个和我同岁的男孩说：“嘿，你该看看我哥哥学会的本事。”他带我到他哥哥的房间，他哥哥正在教杰夫怎么耍高尔夫球。

4 “我也想学，”我说。

5 没有多久我就着迷了。虽然最初我经常接不住球，但我很快就会了，连我自己都感到惊

讶。最初，我只能把一个球抛到空中，用另一只手去接住。然后我试着抛两个球，每只手抛出一个，让它们在空中交叉。

6 终于我可以抛三个球了。做法很简单：我右手拿两个高尔夫球，左手拿一个。我用右手将一个球抛到空中，等它到达弧线的最高点，就把左手的球抛起来，以便这两个球互相交叉。在那只球落下之前，我把留在右手里的那只球抛到空中。我反反复复地接球，抛球。如果掉了一个球，我就重新开始。到了那天傍晚的时候，我就能抛10次而不掉一个球了。

7 这是一种挑战，我必须使自己的技术尽善尽美。第二天我找来三个网球，在车库里练了起来，直到我可以连续抛球20次而不掉球。我拼命地练呀练呀。我想做得像电视里的人一样出色。

8 随着我技术的进步，我开始加上花样：抛球时让一个经过其他球的上方，或者经过其他球的下方；或者我让一个球弹在我的头上或者臂肘上，并继续按原来的方式抛球。

9 可笑的是，我以为是我自己创造了那些花样。然而有一天我在图书馆发现了一本关于杂耍的书，所有我玩的花样，里面都有!三个球的基本花样叫层叠，将球抛成一个圆圈叫簇旋，将一只球抛得最高叫半簇旋。

10 我买了一套杂耍棒，我的父母为我买了一套杂耍圈。我给家人和一些朋友表演，可是我从没有把自己当作一个演员。那样的话就意味着在一群观众面前站起来。不可能!我可做不到这一点。

11 五年之后，当我21岁时，在圣诞节期间的一天，母亲把我叫到一边说：“丹，你愿不愿意给今年的救世军聚餐会表演杂耍”在过去的两年里母亲和她的老板一直在给一年一度的聚餐会帮忙。

12 “还有其他节目呢，”她急忙补充了一句。“你只要在吃饭的时候，站在会堂的一边表演杂耍就行了。”

13 圣诞节的前两天，当人群涌入会堂的时候，我就在那儿，在会堂一边的一个小舞台上表演杂耍。我很紧张，但不知为什么，那紧张也给了我勇气。我开始耍花样，包括我刚刚掌握的：在我的背后去玩杂耍。然后我耍起了杂耍棒，最后耍起了一个保龄球和两个小球。孩子们拥在舞台周围，哈哈大笑。人们鼓掌喝彩。

14 突然间，我感受到了一种从未有过的得意洋洋的感觉。我在为观众表演，而且他们喜欢看!

15 我继续在家中练习。我开始耍雪茄盒、刀和火把。当我的一个叔叔把他的独轮车送给我的时候，我学会了一边骑车一边杂耍。

16 我开始考虑成为一个职业杂耍演员。我知道仅仅耍花样是不够的；我得能说会道，能讲笑话等等。书上就是这么说的。于是我为之祈祷。当又在全家面前表演杂耍的时候，我加上了些笑话。我希望先在自己家人面前试试这一套，这样会让我在观众面前做同样事情的时候更放松些。

17 我的机会很快就来了。我被邀请到一个波利尼西亚主题的时装展示会上表演耍火把。我

光着脚，赤裸着上身，穿着傻乎乎的短裤，脸上画着黑色条纹。我正要上台，有人给了我一个写着通知的单子。“请在你的节目表演完之后念一下，”晚会的女主持人说。打退堂鼓已经来不及了。

18 我从没这么紧张过!我有三次没有接住火把!可是我不想让观众看出我有多么紧张，便尽量使我的失误看起来是节目安排的一部分。我发疯般地跳舞，在火把上跨来跨去，发出丛林里的声音，直到我可以把它们捡起来继续杂耍表演。人们鼓掌喝彩。他们喜欢我的节目。我也总算念完了那些通知。

19 过了一个月，我接到一个当地小学校长的电话。一个老演员请了病假，我能否接替他表演，并且寓教于乐“没问题，”我答道。

20 三个星期后，我站在两百来个热切的孩子面前。我用自己学习杂耍的经历为例，给他们讲道理。当我开始表演杂耍的时候，我故意把球掉在地上。我把它们捡起来，又让它们落在地上。

21 “开始的时候都是这样，”我说。可是，随着节目的进展，我的花样也变得越来越多。我骑着独轮车耍球，我躺着耍球，慢慢站起来而又不让一个球掉下去。

22 45分钟以后，我给了孩子们一句忠告，作为节目的结束语：“不论是杂耍还是别的，如果你们想成功，就必须不断地努力。你们能做到，只是永远不能放弃。”

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