The Sense of Humor
幽默的意义
The story goes that a certain court jester went too far one day and insulted his king. The king became so infuriated he sentenced the jester to be executed. His court prayed upon the king to have mercy for the man who had served him well for so many years. After a time, the king relented only enough to give the jester his choice as to how he would like to die. The jester replied, “If it’s all the same to you, my Lord, I’d like to die of old age.” Certainly in this case, a good sense of humor saved the man's life.
这是关于一个宫廷小丑的故事。这天,他故事讲的有点儿 过头，得罪了国王。国王非常恼怒，下令将其处死。他的同伴求情，希望国王能够饶过这个服侍他多年的人。后来，国王有些心软了，但只是让他选择如何死而已。小丑回答说：“陛下，如果您不反对的话，我愿意老死。”无庸质疑，出色的幽默感救了这个人的性命。
It’s true for us as well. We may not be faced with a situation where our wit will save us from an execution, but our sense of humor and the ability to laugh at things has proven health benefits that extend and improve our quality of life.
对我们来说，幽默感同样重要。我们可能不会遇到用智慧 来使我们免于处死的情况，但是幽默感和笑对人生的能力却 可以促进身体健康,提高生活质量。
Norman Cousins, in his book ,Anatomy of An Illness，wrote about how he cured himself of cancer by laughing a good part of each day. He rented films of comedies and watched them for hours on end in his hospital room. He had nothing to lose since he’d been diagnosed as terminal.
诺曼·库辛在他的名为《解剖疾病》的书中记录了他如何通过每天大笑一段时间来治愈癌症的故事，他租了一些喜剧电 影，然后在病房里连续看上几个小时。自从被诊断出癌症晚期之后，他对死亡淡然处之。
His “experiment” turned out to be a classic example of the healing powers of laughter. If it worked for Cousins with a life-threatening illness, it can work for us to enhance and protect our health. We should laugh often and heartily. It's good for our body.
他的这个“试验”成为证明大笑的治疗作用的经典例子。如 果幽默对这位面临着死亡危险的库辛起作用的话，那么幽默也会促进和保护我们的健康。我们应该经常大笑，而且是发自内心地大笑，这对我们的健康有好处。
jester ['dʒestə(r)] n. 爱开玩笑的人
infuriate [in'fjuərieit] adj. 狂怒的 v. 激怒
mercy ['mə:si] n. 怜悯,宽恕,仁慈
relent [ri'lent] v. 变宽厚,变温和,动怜悯之心
execution [.eksi'kju:ʃən] n. 实行,完成,执行
anatomy [ə'nætəmi] n. 剖析,解剖学,骨骸
diagnose ['daiəgnəuz] v. 诊断 vi. 判断,诊断(疾病) vt.……
terminal ['tə:minl] n. 终端机,终点,末端 adj.……
heartily ['hɑ:tili] adv. 衷心地,真实地,热心地
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