【生词预览】

watering hole夜总会，shot烈酒，ritual习惯

【笑话原文】

An Alcohol Tester

I stopped at my favorite watering hole after a hard day’s work to relax. I noticed a man next to me order a shot and a beer. The man drank the shot, chased it with the beer and then looked into his shirt pocket. This continued several times before my curiosity got the best of me.

I leaned over to the guy and said, “Excuse me, I couldn’t help but notice your little ritual. Why in the world do you look into your shirt pocket every time you drink your shot and beer?”

The man replied, “There’s a picture of my wife in there, and when she starts looking good, I’m heading home! ”

【中文译文】

酒精测试仪

忙了一天，我在我最喜欢的夜总会里轻松一下。我注意到旁边的男子要了一瓶烈酒和一瓶啤酒。他喝了一口烈酒，紧接着又喝了一口啤酒，然后往他的衬衣口袋里看了一下。他这样反复好几次以后，我实在忍不住，凑到他面前问他：“不好意思打扰一下。我实在忍不住注意你的习惯。你究竟为什么每次喝一口烈酒，紧接着喝一口啤酒，然后又往衬衣口袋里看一下？”那个男子回答说：“那里有我老婆的一张照片。当她开始变得好看的时候，我就该回家了。”

【词汇讲解】

1.watering hole 夜总会。这是比较口语化的表达，夜总会也可以说是night club. watering hole 也可以指水坑、海滨胜地或者像夜总会这样的公众聚谈场所，比如 a watering hole for artists 艺术家聚会场所

2.shot烈酒。down one’s glass in one shot把杯中酒一饮而尽。shot还可以指“一针见血的评语”：That remark was a shot at me.那话是针对我说的。也可以指影片、照片：There’s a shot of us all together.我们有一张大家在一起的合影。

3.curiosity好奇心。Out of curiosity, he walked into the house.出于好奇，他走进了那所房子。还可以指“奇物、古玩”：That old chair is quite a curiosity.那张旧椅子是稀奇之物。“奇特性”：The curiosity of the room was that it had no windows.这个房间的奇特之处就在于它没有窗户。

4. get the best of 得胜。在文中的意思就是“在我的好奇心得胜前，旁边男人的古怪行为一直在继续”，换言之，“古怪的行为让我充满了好奇心”。 The facts he cited helped him to get the best of the argument.他所列举的事实帮他在辩论中取胜了。Heart disease can get the best of us.心脏病可能会压倒我们。

5.ritual习惯。make a ritual of one’s household duties把家务作为自己每天的例行公事。也可以用来表示比较正式的程序、礼仪等等：the ritual of the law法律程序；Our society has many rituals of greeting, farewell, and celebration.我们的社会有许多关于招呼、告别和庆祝的程式。

6.head使朝着特定方向行进。也有“位于…顶部”的意思：She will head the cast.她将担任主角。His address headed the letter.他的地址在信的上端。