看笑话学英语：广告的效应，三辆车被偷走

The Effectiveness of Advertisement

Some businessmen were talking about advertising on TV excitedly. As none of them had ever done it before, every one had his point of view.

At this moment, Mr. Grey came by. Grey was a car dealer and he had once made an advertisement.

"What are you talking about?" Mr. Grey asked.

"Does advertisement work or not?" one of the businessmen asked.

"Oh, yes, it works very fast," Mr. Grey said. " I once advertised for my watch-dog and offered a reward of $100."

"Did you get the dog back?"

"No, but that very night three of my cars were stolen."

广告的效力

一群商人正热烈地讨论在电视上做广告。他们中没有人做过，所以每个人都有自己的想法。

此时，格雷先生进来了。格雷是一个汽车经销商，他曾经做过一次广告。

“你们在讨论什么?”格雷先生问。

“广告有用不?”其中一位商人问。

“噢，有用，而且见效非常快。”格雷先生说，“我曾经发布了一条广告，要招聘一个值班员，报酬是100美金。”

“你招聘到人了吗?”

“没，但是那个晚上我的三辆车被偷走了。”

【注释】

笑话中出现了come by这个词组，我们来学习一下它的两种意思：

1. pay a visit 来访，拜访

例：I'll come by after work and see if you need any help. 我下班后会再来拜访，看看你有什么需要帮忙的地方。

2. acquire 获得，得到

例：A good assistant is hard to come by. 要得到一个好助手很困难。