A child on Christmas time asked for some paper and crayons in order to draw a crib. Eventually the artistic masterpiecemasterpiece n.杰作， 名着 was displayed for parentalparental adj.父母亲的， 做双亲的 approval. The manager， the shepherds， Jesus and Holy Family wore duly admired.
“But what，s that in the corner？” asked Mother.
“Oh， that，s their telly.” replied the tot.
耶稣的电视机
圣诞节时孩子要了纸和蜡笔，想画一张耶稣诞生像。最后这件艺术品被陈列出来供父母鉴赏。
他们对耶稣诞生后睡的马槽，牧羊人，耶稣及其家庭都逐一表示赞赏。
“可是那个角落里是什么？”妈妈问。
“噢，那是他们的电视机。”孩子回答说。
I Am Not Wrong
Eleanor，s younger brother Freder was a simple youth. One day， Eleanor，s husband， Babo， went to Africa in a hunting trip accompaniedaccompany vt.陪伴， 伴奏 by Freder. About 3 weeks later， she received a telegramtelegram n.电报 from her brother saying： “Bano died in hunting a lion.” In great sorrow， Eleanor sent an answer to her brother saying： “Send the dead body home.”
Three weeks later， a parcel arrived from Africa in which was the corpse of a lion.
Eleanor sent an urgent telegram back to Freder： “Lion received. You are wrong. Wanted dead Babo.” The next day she received a final telegram from Freder： “I，m not wrong. Babo and one of my legs are in the abdominal cavitycavity n.洞， 空穴， ［解剖］腔 of the lion.”
我没弄错
埃莉诺的弟弟弗雷德尔是一个头脑简单的年轻人。一天，他陪埃莉诺的丈夫鲍勃去非洲打猎。三个星期之后，埃莉诺接到弟弟的一封电报。电文如下：“鲍勃在猎狮时死亡。”
在极大的悲痛中，埃莉诺回电说：“把遗体运回。”
三个星期之后，从非洲运来了一个包裹，里面装的是一头狮子的尸体。
埃莉诺给弗雷德尔发了一封加急电报：“狮子已收到。你弄错了。把鲍勃的遗体运回。”
第二天，她接到了弗雷德尔发来的最后一封电报：“我没错，鲍勃和我的一条腿在狮子的腹腔内。”
Boxing and Running
Dan is teaching his son how to box. As he does so， he left his friend， “This is a tough world， so I，m teaching my boy to fight.”
Friend： “But suppose he comes up against someone much bigger than he is， who，s also been taught how to box.”
Dan： “I，m teaching him how to run， too.”
拳击和赛跑
丹在教他的儿子怎样拳击。他告诉他的朋友：“这是一个粗暴的世界，所以我要教我的儿子怎么去拼搏。”
朋友：“如果他碰上的对手是一个比他高大，健壮而且也会拳击的人怎么办？”
丹：“我也会教他怎么样赛跑呢。”
Planet of the Humans
Virginia and her guest， Johnson， have just watched Planet of the Apes on DVD.
J： Hmm. Apes that evolve into something humanlike？ Pretty unlikely， methinksmethinks vi.(古)(无人称动词)我想， 我以为， 据我看来.
V： Definitely. Evolution within a species or family of species does not have to increase in complexitycomplexity n.复杂(性)， 复杂的事物， 复杂性.
J： Right. If it did， every fish in the ocean would now have limbs and live on land.
V： Exactly. Because countless ecologicalecological adj.生态学的， 社会生态学的 opportunities remained for fish underwater， plenty of them remained aquaticaquatic adj.水的， 水上的， 水生的， 水栖的.
J： Another thing， the most developed species， like humans and apes， are products of a very specific combination of selection pressures and genetic mutationsmutation n.变化， 转变， 元音变化， (生物物种的)突变 over millions of years. There，s no reason why such a combination will repeat itself.
V： Right. Planet of the Apes simply exploits the fallacy that presentday apes are traveling down the same evolutionary path as ourselves.
J： When it，s widely accepted among scientists that at some point five to eight million years ago， humans and apes diverged to form the two separate species we know today.
V： Yeah. As descendants of a common ancestor， apes are our evolutionary cousins.
J： The main bone of contentioncontention n.争夺， 争论， 争辩， 论点 remaining among the boffinboffin n.(英俚)研究员， 科学工作者， 技术专家 is which species in the fossil record is the socalled“missing link”.
V： What John say？ Virginia not understand.
地球疑问
弗吉尼亚和客人约翰逊刚刚看完DVD影片《决战猩球》。
约翰逊：嗯，类人猿进化成和人类一样？我想不太可能。
弗吉尼亚：当然，某一物种或某一群物种的进化不一定增加其复杂性。
约翰逊：对，如果会增加复杂性，那海里的鱼现在就应该长了四肢，住在陆地上了。
弗吉尼亚：没错。因为海底的生态环境仍然为水族提供了无尽的生存机会，所以很多鱼仍然是水栖动物。
约翰逊：还有，最先进的物种，比如人类和类人猿，是数百万年前物竞天择的压力和基因突变两者结合作用下的产物。这种结合未必会再次发生。
弗吉尼亚：对，《决战猩球》采用了另类推论，认为当今类人猿的演化途径和人类是相同的。
约翰逊：科学家们已经广泛地接受了以下观点：约在500万到800万年以前，人类和类人猿分别进化成为目前我们所知道的这两个物种。
弗吉尼亚：是啊，类人猿和我们来自同一祖先，他们可以算是我们的表兄弟姐妹呢！
约翰逊：科学家们目前主要争论的焦点是，化石纪录中的哪个物种才是所谓的“失去的一环”。
弗吉尼亚：约翰逊说什么？弗吉尼亚不懂。