40 你知道我的工作嗎?
One midnight a hotel caught fire because of electrical machine, and the people who were stayingin it struggled to run out in their night gowns.
午夜時(shí)分,一家旅館因電器著火了,住在里面的人們穿著睡衣就出來了。
Two men stayed outside and looked at the flame.
兩個(gè)人站在旅館外面看著大火。
“Before I came out,” said the man with a towel around his waist, “I ran into some of the suitesand found a lot of money. The majority of people don't think of money when they are afraid.When anyone exposes paper currencies in the fire, the fire burns it. So I took all the bills that Icould find. No one will be poorer although I took them.”
“我跑出來前,”腰上裹著一條毛巾的人說,“沖進(jìn)幾個(gè)房間發(fā)現(xiàn)了不少錢。大多數(shù)人在害怕的時(shí)候往往想不到錢。紙幣落在火里就會(huì)被燒掉,于是我把能找到的這些錢都拿出來了。沒人會(huì)因?yàn)槲夷昧诉@些錢而變窮。”
“You don't know my work,” said the other.
“你不知道我是干什么的。”另一個(gè)人說。
“What is your work? A fire fighter?”
“你的工作是什么?消防員嗎?”
“No, I'm a policeman.”
“不。我是警察。”
“Oh,” cried the first man. He thought quickly and said, “And do you know my work?”
“哦。”第一個(gè)人叫道。他很快地想了一下說,“你知道我是干什么的嗎?”
“No.” said the policeman.
“不知道。”警察說。
“I'm a novelist, and I'm always telling stories about things that never happened.”
“我是個(gè)小說家,我總是講一些從沒發(fā)生過的故事。”