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April Fools' Day is on the first of April every year. It is a day when people can play tricks, practical jokes and hoaxes on each other. No one really knows the exact origin of this day. The writer Mark Twain famously said: “This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three-hundred and sixty-four days.” In some countries, you have until noon to play your jokes. If you play a trick on someone after midday, you are the April Fool. In other countries, April Fools' Day lasts the whole day. On this day, you never know what or who to believe. Even newspapers and television stations play April Fools' jokes on their readers and viewers. Sometimes people actually think the real news is an April Fools' joke.
每年的4月1日為愚人節。在這一天里，人們可以互相欺騙，互相捉弄。沒有人知道愚人節的確切起源。作家馬克·吐溫曾經寫過一句著名的話：“這天能提醒我們想起剩下364天的樣子。”在一些國家，人們中午才過愚人節。要是在午后捉弄別人，那你就是“April Fool”。在其它一些國家，愚人節活動會持續一天。你不知道這天你能相信什么，有誰可以相信。甚至連報紙和電視臺都會對讀者和觀眾開玩笑。人們有時會認為愚人節這天所播出的新聞最真實。
Some of the most famous April Fools' jokes are quite amazing. My favourite happened in 1957. The BBC showed a documentary of people in Switzerland cutting spaghetti from spaghetti trees. Lots of people contacted the BBC asking how they could grow their own spaghetti trees! Another good one was the “left-handed burger” advertised by Burger King on April 1st, 1998. They said all of the juice would drip out of the right hand side of the burger. Many customers asked the Burger King staff for the traditional right-handed burger. Other classic jokes include the BBC’s 1965 news of “Smell-o-vision” and Google’s 2008 invitation for people to apply to be astronauts to live on the website’s new base on Mars. If you believe that, you’ll believe anything!
許多愚人節笑話十分有趣。我最喜歡1975年的笑話。在BBC的一檔紀錄片中，瑞士人在意大利面樹上切意大利面。許多人隨即聯系了BBC，詢問他們如何種植意大利面樹！另一個有趣笑話是1998年愚人節所推出的漢堡王廣告“左手漢堡”。廣告中稱，所有肉汁都會從漢堡右手邊流出來。許多顧客向工作人員詢問了傳統的“右手漢堡”。其它經典笑話包括BBC在1965年有關“嗅覺電影”的新聞，以及2008年谷歌發出了申請成為航天員，前往火星基地生活的邀請。如果你連這個都相信，那你就無所不信了！
譯文屬可可英語原創，未經允許，不得轉載。
