有什么事特別簡單你還得解釋

That women have periods no matter what countrythey're from.

無論哪個國家的女人都有月經(jīng)。

Yes.

是的。

Someone actually didn't know this. And no, it wasn'ta 5-year-old boy. It came from a supposedly well-educated female classmate, that was 16 years old atthat time.

有人就不懂，當然這個人不是5歲的小男孩。這個問題來自一個應該受過良好教育的女同學，當時她16歲。

She was hosting a German exchange student and couldn't understand why she'd laughed somuch at her question: “Do girls have periods in Germany too?”

她家里有一個德國交換生，而且她不明白為什么對方聽到她的問題“德國女孩也有月經(jīng)嗎?”會笑得前仰后合。

I had to explain to her why the girl had thought she was kidding and that geography wasn't aperiod determining factor.

我就跟她解釋為什么對方以為她在開玩笑，而且地域也不是決定月經(jīng)時間的因素。

I couldn’t make this up.

這個事真不是我能編出來的。

A worker in my office made a copy of a document before faxing the document.

我辦公室里的一個職員發(fā)傳真之前先把文件復制一份。

She was assuming that the original physical document itself was sent over the phone linesand she would therefore need to copy the original before sending it because the originalwould disappear from our fax, and reappear at the receiving fax.

她以為源文件能從電話線發(fā)出去，會從我們的傳真機里消失，然后出現(xiàn)在接受文件的傳真機里，所以她發(fā)傳真之前需要復制一份。

But didn’t she notice the original when it reappeared in the output tray? No, she didn’t. Shestacked the originals in the feeder tray, punched in the number and walked away.

但難道源文件再次出現(xiàn)在接紙盤上時她沒看見嗎?她沒看見。她把源文件放在送稿托架上撥完號就走了。

Over the course of a week, or so, other workers noticed that the output tray was filling up withpreviously sent faxes. As a courtesy, they scooped them up and filed them away, assuming itwas just an oversight or the sender was called away. Until someone noticed that the file folderhad a copy of the original already in it.

一周左右的時間里其他職員注意到接紙盤上堆滿了發(fā)完傳真的文件。大家出于禮貌把文件收起來堆在一邊，以為只是有人一時疏忽或者發(fā)傳真時被叫走了。直到有人發(fā)現(xiàn)文件夾里還有一份源文件的復印件。

That’s when the matter was brought to my attention. With a little eaves-dropping, we finallyfigured out who our very cautious sender was. That’s when I sent “the memo.”

我這時才注意到這件事。簡單竊聽之后我們最終知道了這個非常謹慎的發(fā)傳真的人是誰，然后我發(fā)了一個“備忘錄”。

Dear Everyone:

親愛的各位：

A quick housekeeping item for you. When sending a fax, please remember to retrieve theoriginal document from the output bin so you may return it to the file. It is no longernecessary to make a file copy of the original. Thank you for your attention.

快速管家消息：發(fā)傳真時請記得從出紙槽拿走源文件以便放回文件夾，沒必要復制源文件。謝謝配合。

That did the trick. A few days later, the guilty worker appeared in my office to identify herself, express regret at her “stupidity,” and thank me for not having called her out specifically.

這招奏效了。幾天以后，那個內(nèi)疚的職員來我辦公室承認是她所為，而且對自己的“愚蠢行為”表示很后悔，還感謝我沒有特別點她的名字。

All’s well that end well.

皆大歡喜。