书城外语笑死你的英文书
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第60章 Logic Reasoning

A fourthgrade teacher was giving her pupils a lesson in logic。

“Here is the situation”she said。“A man is standing up in a boat in the middle of a river,fishing。He loses his balance,falls in,and begins splashing and yelling for help。His wife hears the commotion,knows that he cannot swim,and runs down to the bank。Why do you think she ran to the bank?”

A girl raised her hand and asked,“To draw out all of his savings?”

逻辑推理

小学四年级的教师正在给学生们上一堂逻辑课。

她举了这么一个例子:“有这样一种情况,一个男人在河中心的船上钓鱼,突然失去重心掉进了水里。于是他开始挣扎并喊救命。他的妻子听到了他的喊声,知道他并不会游泳,所以她就急忙跑向河岸。谁能告诉我这是为什么?”

一个女生举手答道:“是不是去取他的存款?”

[注]bank在英语中除了我们平时很熟悉的“银行”之外,还有“河岸”的意思。

splash[spl]n。溅泼声;溅上的斑点vt。使(液体)溅起

例:The children love splashing water over each other。儿童喜欢互相泼水。

yell[jel]n。叫喊,号叫vt。&vi。叫喊,号叫,叫着说

例:This gave them a chance to yell。这给了他们大声喊叫的机会。

commotion[kmun]n。混乱,喧闹,骚动

例:They made a commotion by yelling at each other in the theatre。他们在剧院里相互争吵,引起了一阵骚乱。bank,shore,coast的区别

bank指河岸,河堤,如:I take a walk along the bank every morning。我每天早晨在岸上散步。

shore指湖,海,岸,如:She knew she was near the shore。她知道她离海岸不远了。

coast仅指海岸,如:She is going to set out from the French coast at five o'clock in the morning。她将在早上五点钟从法国海岸出发。

chop logic的含义

chop logic最早出自莎士比亚的名剧《罗密欧与朱丽叶》。logic意为“逻辑,推理”。chop有两个意思,一是“砍、砍断”,这时chop logic就是指“断章取义”。chop的另一个意思是“(突然间)改变、变换、代替”,这时chop logic就是指“偷换概念”。

总之,chop logic就是指“某人在争论时通过断章取义或偷换概念的方式强词夺理地进行诡辩”。如:Tom is a typical bullhead?Eevery time when I try to tell him something he always chops logic with me。(汤姆真是顽固。每次我想告诉他一些事情时,他总是断章取义。)