A man walked into a doctor’s examining room.
  “Stick out your tongue,” the doctor said.
  The man stick out his tongue and the doctor looked at it
quickly.
  “OK, you can put your tongue back now,” the doctor said.
  “It’s clear what’s wrong with you. You need more exercise.”
  “But, doctor,” the man said, “I don’t think...”
  “Don’t tell me what you think,” the doctor said. “I am the
doctor, not you. I know what you need. I see hundreds of people
like you. None of them get any exercise. They sit in offices all
day and in front of the television in the evening. What you need
is to walk quickly for at least 20 minutes a day.”

  “Doctor, you don’t understand,” the patient said. “I ...”
  “I don’t want to hear any excuses,” the doctor said. “You
must find time for exercise. If you don’t, you will get fat and have
health problems when you are older.”
  “But I walk every day, ” the patient said.
  “Oh, yes, and I know what kind of walking that is. You walk
a few feet from your house to the train station, a few more feet
from the station to your office, and a few more feet from your
office to a restaurant for lunch and back. That’s not real walking.
I’m talking about a walk in the park for twenty minutes every
day.”
  “Will you listen to me, doctor?” the patient shouted, getting
angry with this doctor who thought he knew everything.
  “I’m a mailman,” the patient went on, “and I walk for seven
hours every day!”
    For a moment the doctor was silent. Then he said quietly,
“Stick your tongue out again, will you?”

         不称职的医生
  一个病人走进医生的检查室。
  “伸出你的舌头。”医生说。
  病人伸出了舌头，医生看了一下。
  “好了，收回去吧。”医生说。
  “我知道你得了什么病，你需要多锻炼身体。”
  “但是，医生，”病人说，“我认为不是……”
  “不要告诉我你怎么想的，”医生说，“我是医生。我知道你需要什
么。我检查过几百个像你这样的病人。他们中没有一个人爱运动。他们白天
坐在办公室，晚上坐在电视机前。你们所需要的只是每天至少走20分钟。”
  “医生，你不明白，”病人说，“我……”
  “我不想听任何解释，”医生说，“你必须找时间锻炼一下。如果你不
锻炼，老了就会发胖，而且存在许多健康问题。”
  “但是我每天都走呀！”病人说。
  “噢，是的，我知道。你只不过是从家走到火车站，再从火车站走到办
公室，又从办公室走到餐馆吃午饭，然后返回。那不是真正的运动，我说的
是每天在公园里至少走20分钟。”
  “你能先听我说吗？医生！”病人气愤地喊道。
  “我是一名邮递员，”病人继续说，“我每天至少要走7个小时！”
  医生沉默了一会儿，说：“再伸出你的舌头好吗？”