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。”