英語笑話:An Explanation of Tardiness大綱

In some Government offices the clerks， upon arrival in themorning， have to sign their names in anattendance book．This book provides space for signature， time of arrival， andremarks． Ten minutes after the hour an official draws a redline under the last arrival's name， and all those coming subsequently are expected to furnish an explanation of their tardinessin theremarks column．

When a realLondon particular① occurs the numberbelow the line is legion ；the first of them wirtes：Delayedby fog， and the rest scribble aditto．

One morninga foggy oneMr． Jones became a proud father；but even this only caused him to be about eleven minutes late． Proudly he wrote in explanation：Wife had twins，which was followed in due course by the usual string of ditto's！遲到的原因

在一些政府機關裏，每天早晨到達辦公室時職員們都要在一本簽到簿上籤上他們的名字。這本簽到簿留出空格簽名，寫簽到時間，還有備註。上班時間過後十分鐘，一個官員就在最後一個人的名字下面劃一道紅線。以後來的每一個人都必須在備註欄裏註明遲到的原因。

當真正的倫敦大霧出現的時候，紅線以下的名字就很多。第一個遲到的人寫上因大霧延誤時間，其他的人，在下面草草寫上丷（同上）。

一天早上一個大霧迷漫的早晨瓊斯先生驕傲地當上了父親；但即使是這種事也只讓他遲到了十一分鐘。他自豪地寫上他的原因：妻子生了一對雙胞胎，到一定的時候，這個解釋下面照例又跟了一串丷。