【生詞預覽】

effectiveness效用，dealer商人，watch-dog監察人員，

【笑話原文】

The Effectiveness of Advertisement

Some businessmen were talking about advertising on TV excitedly. As none of them had ever done it before, every one had his point of view.

At this moment, Mr. Grey came by. Grey was a car dealer and he had once made an advertisement.

"What are you talking about?" Mr. Grey asked.

"Does advertisement work or not?" one of the businessmen asked.

"Oh, yes, it works very fast," Mr. Grey said. " I once advertised for my watch-dog and offered a reward of $100."

"Did you get the dog back?"

"No, but that very night three of my cars were stolen."

【中文譯文】

廣告的效力

一群商人正熱烈地討論在電視上做廣告。他們中沒有人做過，所以每個人都有自己的想法。

此時，格雷先生進來了。格雷是一個汽車經銷商，他曾經做過一次廣告。

“你們在討論什么？”格雷先生問。

“廣告有用不？”其中一位商人問。

“噢，有用，而且見效非常快。”格雷先生說，“我曾經發布了一條廣告，要招聘一個值班員，報酬是100美金。”

“你招聘到人了嗎？”

“沒，但是那個晚上我的三輛車被偷走了。”

【詞匯講解】

1. come by這個詞組，我們來學習一下它的兩種意思：

pay a visit 來訪，拜訪。I'll come by after work and see if you need any help. 我下班后會再來拜訪，看看你有什么需要幫忙的地方。

acquire 獲得，得到。A good assistant is hard to come by. 要得到一個好助手很困難。

2.dealer商人。除此之外，它還有“行為者”的意思：a plain dealer質樸的人；“打交道的人”：a dealer with the Devil與魔鬼打交道的人

3.watch-dog看門狗／監察人員。還可以作形容詞，是“監察人組織的”的意思：a watch-dog committee監察委員會。a watch-dog organization監督機構

4.offer出價。offer還有很多含義，比如“奉獻”：offer oneself to God把自己奉獻給上帝。“呈現”：John offered an embarrassed, almost hurt expression.約翰的臉上現出一種窘迫乃至自尊心受到傷害的表情。

5.reward報酬／獎賞。get nothing in reward for one’s kindness好心不得報答；The fireman received a reward for saving the child’s life.因為救了小孩的命，消防員得到一筆獎金。

6.steal偷竊／用不正當手段取得。steal away sb.’s heart獲取某人的歡心；steal away the business搶走生意；They’ve stolen our liberty.他們奪走了我們的自由。