language
16 篇A Play on Words | 文字游戏
Author James Thurber amused himself with wordplay, sharing a story where a nurse's literal answer...
68 阅读The Mystery of the Famous Word Collector | 著名词汇收集者的谜团
The first Oxford English Dictionary's most prolific contributor, William Chester Minor, was revea...
69 阅读The Tower of Babel | 巴别塔
Humanity, united by a single language, sought to build a city and a tower reaching heaven to avoi...
77 阅读A Slingshot Is a Slingshot | “弹”就是“弹”
Hui Zi defends his use of metaphors by demonstrating that explaining an unknown concept (a slings...
63 阅读The Jade and the Mouse | 周人买璞
A story about a misunderstanding caused by the same word having different meanings in two ancient...
66 阅读Strange Names | 奇怪的名字
A father's peculiar choice of names for his sons—"Thief" and "Hit"—leads to a disastrous misunder...
65 阅读The Nitty-Gritty Dictionary | 精要词典
A collection of witty and humorous definitions for common words, playing on double meanings and c...
77 阅读The Bilingual Faucet | 双语水龙头
A customer in Montreal is scalded by a tap marked 'C', assuming it means 'cold'. The manager expl...
51 阅读Taken for Granted | 理所当然
A school's typo on a health form leads to a humorous misunderstanding when a mother literally int...
61 阅读What to Borrow? | 他到底想借什么
Mr. Johnson cleverly asks to borrow a tennis racket after confirming Mr. Smith will be using his ...
58 阅读It Depends | 看情况
A traveler asks if he can catch a train, and the ticket agent humorously replies that it depends ...
56 阅读Lost in Translation | 世界各地的蹩脚英语
A collection of unintentionally humorous English signs from around the world, highlighting common...
63 阅读The Missing Letter | 被遗漏的字母
A humorous tale where the Pope, after mastering languages in heaven to read original scriptures, ...
58 阅读The Train Lesson | 火车上的教训
A boy's crude announcements while playing with his train lead to a two-hour timeout. He returns w...
91 阅读Band Stand | 乐队指挥台
This is a classic English pun that plays on the double meaning of "bandstand" (a platform for a b...
78 阅读Train Delay | 火车晚点
A boy mimics rude train announcements, is punished, then uses polite language upon returning—only...
62 阅读