看笑話學英語：廣告的效應，三輛車被偷走

　　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."

　　廣告的效力

一羣商人正熱烈地討論在電視上做廣告。他們中沒有人做過，所以每個人都有自己的想法。

此時，格雷先生進來了。格雷是一個汽車經銷商，他曾經做過一次廣告。

“你們在討論什麼?”格雷先生問。

“廣告有用不?”其中一位商人問。

“噢，有用，而且見效非常快。”格雷先生說，“我曾經發布了一條廣告，要招聘一個值班員，報酬是100美金。”

“你招聘到人了嗎?”

“沒，但是那個晚上我的三輛車被偷走了。”

　　【註釋】

笑話中出現了come by這個詞組，我們來學習一下它的兩種意思：

1. pay a visit 來訪，拜訪

例：I'll come by after work and see if you need any help. 我下班後會再來拜訪，看看你有什麼需要幫忙的地方。

2. acquire 獲得，得到

例：A good assistant is hard to come by. 要得到一個好助手很困難。