作为一个司机,驾车时要做到不违章是件不容易的事情。有一位八十多岁的老太太在她三十五年的驾车生涯中却从未因违反驾驶条例而受罚。

　　Mrs Jones was over eighty, but she still drove her old car like a woman half her age. She loved driving very fast, and boasted of the fact that she had never, in her thirty-five years of driving, been punished for a driving offence.

　　Then one day she nearly lost her record. A police car followed her, and the policemen in it saw her pass a red light without stopping.

　　When Mrs Jones came before the judge, he looked at her severely and said that she was too old to drive a car, and that the reason why she had not stopped the red light was most probably that her eyes had become weak with old age, so that she had simply not seen it.

　　When the judge had finished what he was saying, Mrs Jones opened the big handbag she was carrying and took out her sewing. Without saying a word, she chose a needle with a very small eye, and threaded it at her first attempt.

　　When she had successfully done this, she took the thread out of the needle again and handed both the needle and thread to the judge, saying,"Now it is your turn. I suppose you drive a car, and that you have no doubts about your own eyesight."

　　The judge took the needle and tried to thread it. After half a dozen attempts, he had still not succeeded. The case against Mrs Jones was dismissed, and her record remained upbroken.

　　琼斯太太八十多岁了,但她还像只有她一半岁数的妇女那样开着自己的那辆旧车。她喜欢把车开得很快,而且对自己在三十五年的驾车生涯中从未因违反驾驶条例而受罚这一事实颇为自鸣得意。

　　然而有一天,她差一点丧失了这一记录。一辆警车尾随着她,车内的警察见她闯了红灯。

　　琼斯太太被带到了法官那儿。法官严厉地望着她,说她年纪太大不能开车了,还说她闯了红灯的原因很可能就是年老眼花,以致于根本看不到红灯。

　　法官讲完了话,琼斯太太打开随身携带的大手提包,拿出针线包。她默默地挑出了一根针眼非常小的针,一下子就把线穿了过去。

　　她成功地做了这一切以后,又把线从针眼里抽出来,把针和线递给法官说:"现在轮到您了。我估计您也开车的吧,您对您的视力不会怀疑吧。"

　　法官接过针,试着用线穿。他试了六次都没有成功。这样,指控琼斯太太的这个案子被撤消了。她的记录仍然没有被打破。

　　(文/河北李汉峰；英语通高中一年级版2003年第10期；版权归英语辅导报社所有，独家网络合作伙伴新浪教育，未经许可，不得以任何形式进行转载。)