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The person who hires one of these boats is the kind of person who likes to stay under the trees. He likes to travel early in the morning or late at night, when there are not many people about to look at him. When he sees someone he knows, he gets out of the boat and hides behind a tree. I remember that some friends and I hired one of these boats one summer…
租这种游船的人都是性格温和的人，喜欢停在树荫之下。他们大多清晨或者黄昏之后才划船，因为那会儿，没有多少人看他们。他们一旦看见熟人，就会跳出船，躲到树后面去。我还记得有一年夏天，我和几个朋友也租了那样一条船……
We had written to ask for a boat, and, when we arrived at the boathouse, we gave our names. The man said, "Oh, yes." And then he called out to another man," Jim, fetch 'The Queen of the Thames'."
我们预先写信去订了一条船。我们到了船坞，报上自己的姓名。那个人说：“哦，对了。”接着，他又叫出来另一个人，“吉姆，去把那艘‘泰晤士河皇后号'拖来。”
Five minutes later, Jim came back with a very old piece of wood. He had clearly just dug it up from a hole in the ground. When he dug it up, he had damaged it very badly.
五分钟之后，吉姆拖着一截古老的烂木头回来了。很显然是他刚才从地底下挖掘出来的，而且挖掘出土的时候还碰坏了许多地方。
We asked Jim what it was.
我们问吉姆这玩意是什么。
"It's 'The Queen of the Thames'," he answered.
“是‘泰晤士河皇后号'，”他回答说。
We laughed at this, and then one of us said, "All right. Now go and fetch the real boat."
我们大声笑话着，然后其中一人说：“行了，快去把真船拖过来吧！”
They said that this was the real boat…
可他们说，这的确是条真真正正的游船。
