今天TEAM開會,離開會時間還差幾分鐘,大家聊天聊開了,一個同事問大家有沒有看到不久前離開的同事最近在FACEBOOK上貼了一張她和她的GRANDMA的照片,好幾個同事都說看到了,我也是其中一個,說完我又補充到,我說「Pete posted the picture!」. PETE是那位前同事的老公。說完這句話,老闆對我說「你能很快重複一下你剛才說的嗎?」我較快地重複了一下「Pete posted the picture!」 老闆接著說「那你能快速地說Peter Piper picked a peck of picked peppers嗎?」。 我說「What? What? What?」. 大家一起笑了,很顯然這是一個英文繞口令(Tongue Twisters)啊,我說
「Can you repeat it again? My tongue is very fast and very
flexible as well! 」話音剛落,這邊二個男同事瞪大眼睛看著我,那邊幾個女同事捂著嘴在那裡壞笑,我一下子反應過來他們為什麼要笑,我紅了臉,心想「你們這幫流氓!」。
開會結束了,我讓老闆把那個繞口令寫下來,我要練習,他說你如果有興趣,可以練習念整首詩,這首詩是這樣的:
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked;
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where』s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
(originally
published in the 1813 book entitled 「Peter Piper』s Practical Principles of
Plain and Perfect Pronunciation」 by John Harris)。
請不要查字典,多少人知道這裡的peck是啥意思?
另一個同事知道我這個人喜歡音樂喜歡唱歌,於是發了一個Email給我,讀著挺有意思的,在此收藏了。
This one
has more musical intonations…so to speak!
To sit in
solemn silence in a dull, dark dock,
In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock,
Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock,
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!
To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock,
In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock,
Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock,
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!
A dull, dark dock, a life-long lock,
A short, sharp shock, a big black block!
To sit in solemn silence in a pestilential prison,
And awaiting the sensation
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!
(by W.S.
Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan from The Mikado)
我還從心底里感激這幫「流氓」同事!