It was a celebratory mood at NASA—they had just made the most important achievement of a lifetime. As they were uncorking a bottle of champagne, the head scientist at NASA asked everyone to be quiet as he was receiving a congratulatory phone call from the President of the United States. He picked up a special red phone, and spoke into it. “Mr. President,” he said with a broad smile on his face, “After twelve years of hard research and billions of dollars spent, we have finally found intelligent life on Mars.” He listened for a second, and his smile gradually disappeared, replaced by a frown. He said, “But that's impossible... we could never do it... yes, Mr. President,” and hung up the phone. He addressed the crowd of scientists staring at him curiously. “I have some bad news,” he said, “the President said that now that we've found intelligent life on Mars...he wants us to try to find it in the Congress.”
在美國(guó)航空航天署到處都充滿了喜慶的氣氛。他們剛剛?cè)〉昧艘簧凶钪匾某删?。正?dāng)他們要打開(kāi)香檳酒的時(shí)候,美國(guó)航空航天署的首席科學(xué)家讓大家安靜,因?yàn)樗用绹?guó)總統(tǒng)打來(lái)的賀電。他拿起一個(gè)專(zhuān)門(mén)的紅色電話,滿臉笑容地說(shuō):“總統(tǒng)先生,經(jīng)過(guò)12年的刻苦研究,花費(fèi)了幾十億美金,我們終于在火星上找到了有智慧的生命。”他聽(tīng)了一會(huì)兒,笑容漸漸消失了,皺起了眉頭。他說(shuō):“不過(guò),這不可能……我們永遠(yuǎn)都做不到……是,總統(tǒng)先生。”說(shuō)完掛上了電話。他對(duì)一大幫好奇地盯著他看的科學(xué)家們說(shuō):“我告訴大家一個(gè)壞消息。總統(tǒng)說(shuō),因?yàn)槲覀円呀?jīng)在火星上找到了有智慧的生命,他希望我們?cè)趪?guó)會(huì)里也能找到。”