形容诸葛亮
Solve That Problem ---With Humor
感谢师恩的唯美句子
by William D. Ellis
钓鱼手竿
A lot of us lo life’s tougher confrontations by mounting a frontal attack--- when a touch of humor might well enable us to chalk up a win. Consider the ca of a young friend of mine, who hit a traffic jam en route to work shortly after receiving an ultimatum about being late on the job. Although there was a good reason for Sam’s chronic tardiness--- rious illness at home--- he decided that this by-now-familiar excu wouldn’t work any longer. His supervisor was probably already pacing up and down with a dismissal speech reheard.
He was. Sam entered the office at 9:35. The place was as quiet as a locker room; everyone was hard at work. Sam’s supervisor approached him. Suddenly, Sam forced a grin and shoved out his hand. “How do you do!” he said. “I’m Sam Maynard. I’m applying for a job which I understand became available just 35 minutes ago. Does the early bird get the worm?”
The room exploded in laughter. The supervisor clamped off a smile and walked back to his office. Sam Maynard had saved his job--- with the only tool that could win, a laugh.
Humor is a most effective, yet frequently neglected, means of handling the difficult situations in our lives. It can be ud for patching up differences, apologizing, saying “no”, criticizing, getting the other fellow to do what you want without his losing face. For some jobs, it’s the only tool that can succeed. It is a way to discuss subjects so nsitive that rious dialog may start a riot. For example, many believe that comedians on television are doing more today for racial and religious tolerance than are people in any other forum.
在西汉的悠闲生活Humor is often the best way to keep a small misunderstanding from escalating into a big deal. Recently a neighbor of mine had a squabble with his wife as she drove him to the airport. Airborne, he felt mirable, and he knew she did, too. Two hours after she returned home, she received a long-distance phone call. “Person-to-person for Mrs. I. A. Pologize,” intoned the operator. “That’s spelled ‘P’ as in …” In a twinkling, the whole day changed from grim to lovely at both ends of the wire.
An English hostess with a quick wit was giving a formal dinner for eight distinguished guests whom she hoped to enlist in a major charity drive. Austerity was de rigueur in England at the time, and she had drafted her children to rve the meal. She knew that anything could happen--- and it did, just as her son, with the studied concentration of a tightrope walker, brought in a large roast turkey. He successfully elbowed the swinging dining-room door, but the backswing deplattered the bird onto the dining-room floor.
The boy stood rooted: guests stared at their plates. Moving only her head, the hostess smiled at her son. “No harm, Daniel,” she said. “Just pick it up and take him back to the kitchen”--- she enunciated clearly so he would think about what she was saying---“and bring in the other one.”
A wink and a one-liner instantly changed the dinner from a red-faced embarrassment to a conspiracy of fun.
The power of humor to dissolve a hostile confrontation often lies in its unspoken promi: “You let me off the hook, my friend, and I’ll let you off.” The trick is to assign friendly motiv
es to your opponent, to smile just a little---but not too much. Canada’s Governor-General Roland Michener, master of the technique, was about to inspect a public school when he was faced with a truculent picket line of striking maintenance personnel. If he backed away from the line, he would riously diminish his office’s image; if he crosd it, he might put the government smack into a hot labor issue.
While he pondered the matter, more strikers gathered across his path. Suddenly, the graying pencil-line mustache on Michener’s face stretched a little in Cheshirean complicity. “How very nice of you all to turn out to e me!” he boomed. “Thank you. Shall we go in?” The line parted and, by the time the pickets began to chuckle, the Governor-General was striding briskly up the school steps.大型兔
Next time you find yourlf in an ethnically awkward situation, take a lesson from the diplomatic delegates to Europe’s Common Market. In the cour of history nearly every member nation has been invaded or betrayed by at least one of the others, and the Market’s harmony must be constantly buttresd. One method is the laugh bad on nati
onal caricatures. Recently, a new arrival at Market headquarters in Brusls introduced himlf as a Minister for the Swiss Navy. Everybody laughed. The Swiss delegate retorted, “Well, why not ? Italy has a Minister of Finance.”
法考有什么用Of cour, humor is often more than a laughing matter. In its more potent guis, it has a Trojan-hor nature: no one goes on guard against a gag; we let it in becau it looks like a little wooden toy. Once inside, however, it can turn a city to reform, to rebellion, to resistance. Some believe, for instance, that, next to the heroic British RAF, British humor did the most to fend off a German takeover in World War II. One sample will suffice: that famous story of the woman who was finally extracted from the rubble of her hou during the London blitz. Asked, “Where is your husband ?” she brushed brick dust off her head and arms and answered, “Fighting in Libya, the bloody coward !”
