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，班里正在進行“視覺訓(xùn)練”。一個聰明伶俐的新兵被班長叫出來數(shù)遠處曠野上采掘隊的人數(shù)。采掘隊在很遠的地方，那些人看起來只是一些小點兒。但是這個新兵毫不猶豫地回答：

“十六個兵外加一個中士，長官?！?/p>

“正確，可是你怎么知道那兒有一個中士？”

“他不干活，長官?！?/p>