職場笑話：2、 An explanation of tardiness 遲到的原因

2. An explanation of tardiness

In some Government offices the clerks, upon arrival2 in the morning, have to sign their names in an "attendance book". This book provides space for signature3, time of arrival, and "remarks".

Ten minutes after the hour an official draws a redline under the last arrival's name, and all those coming subsequently4 are expected to furnish5 an explanation of their tardiness in the "remarks" column.

When a real "London particular6" occurs the number "below the line" is legion; the first of them writes: "Delayed by fog," and the rest scribble a "ditto7".

One morning—a foggy one—Mr. Jones became a proud father; but even this only caused him to be about eleven minutes late. Proudly he wrote in explanation, "Wife had twins." which was followed in due course by the usual string of "ditto's"!

Notes:

1. tardiness 遲到

2. arrival 到達(dá)

3. signature 簽名

4. subsequently 隨后

5. furnish 供給，裝飾

6. London particular 倫敦大霧

7. ditto 我也是，同上

遲到的原因

在英國一些政府機(jī)關(guān)里，每天早晨到的辦公室時(shí)職員們都要在一本“簽到簿”上簽上他們的名字。這本簽到簿留出空格簽名，寫簽到時(shí)間，還有“備注”。

上班時(shí)間過后十分鐘，一個(gè)官員就在最后一個(gè)人的名字下面劃一道紅線，這之后到達(dá)的每一個(gè)人都必須在“備注”欄里注明遲到的原因。

當(dāng)真正的“倫敦大霧”出現(xiàn)時(shí)，“紅線以下”的名字就很多。第一個(gè)遲到的人寫上“大霧延誤了時(shí)間”，其他人都在下面草草寫上“同上”。

一天早上——一個(gè)大霧彌漫的早晨——瓊斯先生驕傲地當(dāng)上了父親；但即使是這種事，也只讓他遲到了11分鐘，他驕傲地寫上了他的原因：“妻子生了一對(duì)雙胞胎?！辈欢嗑?，這個(gè)解釋下面照例跟了一串“同上”。

Useful link:

一說到倫敦，人們就會(huì)想到“霧都”這個(gè)稱號(hào)。上世紀(jì)60年代之前，倫敦成為“霧都”是世人共知的，因?yàn)樗?jīng)常霧氣繚繞，迷茫一片，能見度很低。如今，倫敦上空基本難見濃煙迷霧了。經(jīng)過近30年對(duì)污染的治理，倫敦已經(jīng)從根本上“趕走了”污染源。