【英文原文】
Math and highway patrol——公路巡警和数学
Rushing to work, I was driving too fast and as a result was pulled over by the highway patrol. The state trooper noticed that my shirt had the name of a local high school on it. "I teach math there," I explained.
The trooper smiled, and said, "Okay, here's a problem. A teacher is speeding down the highway at 16 m.p.h. over the limit. At $12 for every mile, plus $40 court costs, plus the rise in her insurance, what's her total cost?"
I replied, "Taking that total, subtracting the low salary I receive, multiplying by the number of kids who hate math, then adding to that the fact that none of us would be anywhere without teachers, I'd say zero." He handed me back my license.
"Math was never my favorite subject," he admitted. "Please slow down."
【中文译文】
急匆赶去上班，我开车开得太快了，结果被公路的巡警拦了下来。 这位州警官看到我的衬衣上有当地一所高中的名字在上面。 “我在那教数学”，我解释说。
警官笑了一下， 说，“好的，有一道题。 一位老师在公路上超速16英里行驶。 每英里罚12美元， 外加40美元出庭费，再加上她保险费的增加，最后这个老师要交多少钱？”
我回答， “要算总数的话， 要减去我那少得可怜的工资， 再乘以那些痛恨数学的孩子的数量， 然后再加上一点事实，如果没有教师，我们这些人都不会有什么出息，因此，我会说最后的计算结果是零”。 警察把驾驶证还了给我。
“我从不喜欢学数学”，他承认，“请开慢点”。