【生词预览】

perplexed困惑的，lade with装满，errand差事

【笑话原文】

The Perplexed Clerk

Heavily laden with groceries, my wife asked a young clerk at the grocery store to accompany her to her car. Arriving there, she opened the doors and, without thinking, sat down in the back seat to check off her list of errands. A moment later the perplexed clerk walked around the car to my wife.

“Lady,” he said firmly. “I don’t mind helping you load your groceries, but I really got to draw the line at driving you home.”

【中文译文】

困惑的店员

我太太买了一大堆杂货，就请杂货铺的年轻店员棒她把东西送到她车上。倒了那里，她打开车门，便不假思索地坐到后排座位上，查看她的办事清单。过了一会儿，那个困惑的店员从车后绕过来，语气坚定地对我太太说：“我很乐意帮你装车，但是我实在是不能把你送回家。”

【词汇讲解】

1.perplexed困惑的;糊涂的。Gary looked rather perplexed. 加里看起来相当困惑。I am perplexed to know what to do.我不知道怎么做才好。

2.lade with用…装满。 The farmers laded the truck with hay.农民用稻草装满卡车。

3.check off清点。还有“登记”的意思： He checked their names off as they went aboard the plane. 在他们登上飞机时, 他登记上了他们的姓名。还可以指 “对…不再加以考虑“：After considering all five possibilities, we checked off the second one.考虑了所有的五种可能以后, 我们把第二种可能排除掉了。

4.errand差事。I have a few errands to do in the town.我在城里有些差事要办。也有”差使“的意思：I have no time to run errands for him.我没有时间为他跑腿。

5.load装上车。 The goods are hard to load.这些货物装起来会很困难的。也可以单指“装”： This camera loads easily.这架照相机装胶卷很容易。

6.draw the line划清界线。