"He‘s a good boy," said Jack‘s father, "and if you let him pass this time, I‘m sure he‘ll improve a lot next year and pass the examinations at the end of it really well."
"No, no, that‘s quite impossible," replied the professor immediately. "Do you know, last month I asked him when Napoleon had died, he didn‘t know!"
"Please, sir, give him another chance," said Jack‘s father. "You see, I‘m afraid we don‘t take any newspaper in our house, so none of us even know that Napoleon was ill."
杰克到一所大學(xué)去學(xué)歷史。第一學(xué)期結(jié)束時(shí),歷史課教授沒讓他及格。學(xué)校讓他退學(xué)。然而,杰克的父親決定去見教授,強(qiáng)烈要求讓杰克繼續(xù)來年的學(xué)業(yè)。
“他是個(gè)好孩子,”杰克的父親說:“您要是讓他這次及格,我相信他明年會(huì)有很大進(jìn)步,學(xué)期結(jié)束時(shí),他一定會(huì)考好的。”
“不,不,那不可能,”教授馬上回答。“你知道嗎?上個(gè)月我問他拿破侖什么時(shí)候死的,他都不知道。”
“先生,請?jiān)俳o他一次機(jī)會(huì)吧。”杰克的父親說:“你不知道,恐怕是因?yàn)槲覀兗覜]有訂報(bào)紙。我們家的人連拿破侖病了都不知道。”