引导学生欣赏英语语言的幽默
请看下面的对话:
Customer:Waiter,willthepancakebelong?
Waitress:No,sir.Itwillberound.
问者问的是时间,应者答的是形状,风马牛不相及。如果译成汉语,你还能幽默吗?
下面的对话也无法用汉语来“言传”其幽默:
Customer:What’sthat?
Waitress:It’sbeansoup.
Customer:Idon’twanttoknowwhatit’sbeen.Iwanttoknowwhatitisnow.
如果说,我们无法用汉语来传达三个“hasgoneout”所表达的幽默,但是,我们至少可以把它译成意义连贯的汉语。如果我们将后面的对话译成汉语,肯定是“语无伦次”的对话,更不用说将It’sbean和it’sbeen所表达的幽默传达出来。
我们继续欣赏另外一段英语幽默故事。请注意画线单词的含义:OnceaprofessoratGlasgowUniversityputupanotice,whichread,“ProfessorBlackwillmeethisclasstomorrow.”Thismeansthathewasgoingtogivehisstudentsalecturethenextday.
Onenaughtyboyoftheclasssawthenoticeandwipedawaythefirstletteroftheword“class”inthenotice.Thenthesentencebecame“ProfessorBlackwillmeethislasstomorrow”,whichmeanstheprofessorwouldmeethisgirlfriend.Seeingthis,theprofessordidn’ttakeitseriously.He,then,simplyleftoutanotherletteroftheword.Finally,theword“class”wasturnedinto“ass”,whichmeans,asweallknow,“astupiddonkey.”Overall,thestudenthadn’tsurpassedtheteacher.
英语中像这样的文字幽默不胜枚举。我们再来看一看普通高
中课程实验教科书(英语·人教版)模块4第五单元“ReadingForFun”中为我们提供的材料,类似于我们汉语的脑筋急转弯:
1.Whatdoyougetwhenyoucrossacarwithasandwich?
Atrafficjam!
2.Whydidthemanfeedhisdogawatch?
Hewantedawatchdog.
如何才能“意会”这些英语语言的文字幽默,相信我们的学生应该不言而喻了吧!不努力学好英语,我们如何欣赏“Weparkour
carsondrivewaysandwedriveourcarsonparkways!”这句话所蕴含的诙谐和俏皮?
(作者单位江西省景德镇市一中分校)