John Smith and his friend Bill Jones were shipwrecked on a
deserted island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
  They had plenty of fish and fruit to eat, but nothing to
read except a book full of jokes.
  Each of the jokes was numbered. At first, to help pass the time,

John and Bill read the jokes to one another; then they told them from memory.
After a year they knew the jokes so well that they just said the number of the joke.
  “Twenty,” John would say, and Bill would roar with laughter.
  Then Bill might say, “Seventy-five,” and John would laugh.
  One day, after they had been on the island for many years,
another man was shipwrecked and lived with them.
  “How do you pass the time?” he asked them.
  “We tell each other jokes.” Bill said, and handed him the
joke book.

  “Tell us a joke,” John said. “Just read out the number.”
  “OK,” the man said. He looked through the book until he
found a joke he thought was very funny. It was number eightythree.
  “I’ve found a good joke,” he said. “Are you ready?”
  “Yes,” Bill and John said.
 “Right,” the man said. “Here it is eighty-three.”
  John and Bill just looked at the man. Their faces did not
move. They did not make a sound.
  “Why didn’t you laugh?” the man asked.
  “You didn’t tell it very well,” Bill said.

                无 趣
  约翰·史密斯和他的朋友比尔·琼斯遭遇海难，漂流到太平洋中部的一
个孤岛上。
  在那里，他们有很多鱼和水果可吃，但除了一本笑话书之外，没有什么
其他读物了。
  每一个笑话都有序号。起初，为了消磨时光，他们彼此读笑话；后来，
他们复述笑话；一年后，他们更熟悉这些笑话了，甚至可以直接说出笑话的
序号。
  约翰要是说：“二十。” 比尔就会狂笑。
  比尔说：“七十五。” 约翰也会大笑。
  他们在岛上居住了很多年后的一天，又有一个人遭遇海难来到这里。
  “你们怎么打发时间啊？”他问。
  “哦，我们彼此讲笑话。”比尔说，并把书递给了他。
  “给我们讲个笑话吧，” 约翰说，“你只要说出序号就行。”
  “好吧，”这个人说。他看了一遍书，直到找到一个他认为很有意思的
笑话，它的序号是八十三。
  “我找到了一个有意思的笑话了，” 他说，“你们准备好了吗？”
  “是的。”比尔和约翰说。
  “那好，”这个人说，“在这里，八十三。”
  约翰和比尔看着这个人。两人脸上没有表情，也没笑。
  “你们为什么不笑呢？”这个人问。
  “你讲得不好。”比尔说。