Reward for virtue
原文
Why did Hugh's diet not work?
My friend, Hugh, has always been fat,
but things got so bad recently that he decided to go on a diet.
He began his diet a week ago.
First of all, he wrote out a long list of all the foods which were forbidden.
The list included most of the things Hugh loves:
butter, potatoes, rice, beer, milk, chocolate, and sweets.
Yesterday I paid him a visit.
I rang the bell and was not surprised to see that Hugh was still as fat as ever.
He led me into his room and hurriedly hid a large parcel under his desk.
It was obvious that he was very embarrassed.
When I asked him what he was doing,
he smiled guiltily and then put the parcel on the desk.
He explained that his diet was so strict that he had to reward himself occasionally.
Then he showed me the contents of the parcel.
It contained five large bars of chocolate and three bags of sweets!
译文
为什么休的节食计划没有效果呢？
我的朋友休一直都很胖。
但最近情况变得非常糟糕，以至于他决定开始节食。
他一周前开始节食了。
首先，他列出了一份长长的清单，上面列出了所有被禁止食用的食物。
这份清单上列出了休最喜欢的大多数东西。
黄油、土豆、米饭、啤酒、牛奶、巧克力和糖果。
昨天我去拜访了他。
我按响了门铃，看到休还是和以前一样胖，并没有感到惊讶。
他把我带进了他的房间，然后匆忙地把一个大包裹藏在了桌子下面。
很明显，他感到非常尴尬。
当我问他正在做什么时，
他内疚地笑了笑，然后把包裹放在了桌子上。
他解释说，他的饮食控制非常严格，因此偶尔需要奖励自己一下。
然后他向我展示了包裹里的物品。
里面是五块大巧克力和三袋糖果！