【生词预览】

effectiveness效用，dealer商人，watch-dog监察人员，

【笑话原文】

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."

【中文译文】

广告的效力

一群商人正热烈地讨论在电视上做广告。他们中没有人做过，所以每个人都有自己的想法。

此时，格雷先生进来了。格雷是一个汽车经销商，他曾经做过一次广告。

“你们在讨论什么？”格雷先生问。

“广告有用不？”其中一位商人问。

“噢，有用，而且见效非常快。”格雷先生说，“我曾经发布了一条广告，要招聘一个值班员，报酬是100美金。”

“你招聘到人了吗？”

“没，但是那个晚上我的三辆车被偷走了。”

【词汇讲解】

1. come by这个词组，我们来学习一下它的两种意思：

pay a visit 来访，拜访。I'll come by after work and see if you need any help. 我下班后会再来拜访，看看你有什么需要帮忙的地方。

acquire 获得，得到。A good assistant is hard to come by. 要得到一个好助手很困难。

2.dealer商人。除此之外，它还有“行为者”的意思：a plain dealer质朴的人；“打交道的人”：a dealer with the Devil与魔鬼打交道的人

3.watch-dog看门狗／监察人员。还可以作形容词，是“监察人组织的”的意思：a watch-dog committee监察委员会。a watch-dog organization监督机构

4.offer出价。offer还有很多含义，比如“奉献”：offer oneself to God把自己奉献给上帝。“呈现”：John offered an embarrassed, almost hurt expression.约翰的脸上现出一种窘迫乃至自尊心受到伤害的表情。

5.reward报酬／奖赏。get nothing in reward for one’s kindness好心不得报答；The fireman received a reward for saving the child’s life.因为救了小孩的命，消防员得到一笔奖金。

6.steal偷窃／用不正当手段取得。steal away sb.’s heart获取某人的欢心；steal away the business抢走生意；They’ve stolen our liberty.他们夺走了我们的自由。