英语趣味故事（9）

Nicole

“You Failed!”

“你没及格！”

　

　　When I was at the university I studied very hard. But a lot of my friends did very little work. Some did just enough to pass exams. Others didn't do quite enough. Fred Baines was one of them. He spent more time playing games in the club than working in the library.

　　Once, at the end of term, we had to take an important test in chemistry. The test had a hundred questions. Beside each question we had to write“True”or “False”.While I was studying in my room the night before the test, Fred was watching television. Fred usually worried a lot the night before a test. But on that night he looked perfectly calm. Then he told me of his plan.“It's very simple. There are a hundred questions and I have to get sixty correct to pass the test. I'll take a coin into the examination room. I haven't studied a chemistry book for months, so I'm sure I'll just toss the coin. If the coin comes down on my hand with the right side up, I write“True”.If it rests with the other side up, I write“False”.That way, I'm sure I'll get sixty questions right.”

　　The next day Fred came cheerfully into the examination room. He sat tossing a coin for half an hour andhanded in his paper one hour earlier than the rest of us.

　　The next day, he saw the chemistry professor in the corridor.

　　“Oh, good,”he said.“Have you got the results of the test? What mark did I get?”

　　The professor looked at him and smiled.

　　“Ah, it's you, Baines. Just a minute.”

　　Then he reached into his pocket and took out a coin. He threw it in the air, caught it in his hand and looked at it.

　　“I'm terribly sorry, Baines,”he said,“You failed.”