還記得小時(shí)侯嗎?牙齒掉了之后爸爸媽媽怎么幫我們處理的? 是不是下面的牙齒往房頂上扔,而上面掉的牙齒要往床底下扔呢? 他們還說(shuō)這樣的話新牙齒就會(huì)長(zhǎng)出來(lái)…… 那么外國(guó)人是怎樣對(duì)待掉下來(lái)的牙齒的呢？
且看下面的這一小段文字：

One summer day, when Bush invited some of the press corps to his vacation home for a barbecue, the young daughter of TV director Jack Gallivan went swimming in the Bushes' pool and lost her tooth. Noticing Katie Gallivan crying, Bush asked her what had happened. When he heard, he knew from his own children what that meant: no proof under the pillow for the Tooty Fairy! He called and aid to bring him a Presidential note card bearing an etching of his Kennebunkport house. Bush made a small X on the card and wrote:

"Dear Tooth Fairy, Katie's tooth came out where the X is. It really did -------- I promise. George Bush"

It fulfilled the best prerequisites for inspirational note writing: it was short on verbiage and long on empathy. And most important, it dried Katie's tears.

what is tooth fairy? 想知道什么是牙仙女嗎？ 看看下面的：

tooth fairy：
Children in America save each one of their first set teeth as they fall out because of a folk belief that a tooth fairy will come in the night to collect the tooth from under the child's pillow and leave money in its place(25cents). Katie thinks she is deprived of this opportunity because she can't find her tooth. Former President George Bush has marked the place on the picture of his property where the tooth was lost. Then he vouches for the truth of the statement that the tooth was lost there so the little girl can put the card under her pillow and still receive the money from the Fairy. The money is as important as evidence of a magical visit as for its finacial worth.

譯文：
某個(gè)夏日，布什邀請(qǐng)一些新聞界人士到他的度假地參加野外燒烤宴會(huì)。電視臺(tái)的總監(jiān) Jack Gallivan 的小女兒去布什的游泳池游泳，她的一顆牙齒掉入了游泳池。發(fā)現(xiàn)katie在哭泣，布什便問(wèn)她發(fā)生了什么事情。他聽(tīng)說(shuō)后 從自己的孩子身上明白了此事意味著什么。她沒(méi)有放在枕頭下的證明了！ 他叫助手給他取來(lái)了一張印有他的Kennebunkport屋蝕刻的總統(tǒng)便箋。布什在上面打了個(gè)小差，還寫(xiě)道：
“親愛(ài)的牙仙女： katie的牙齒掉落在打叉的地方。確實(shí)如此，我保證。 ------- 喬治 布什”
這張堪稱(chēng)靈感之作的便條具備最成功的前提：言簡(jiǎn)意賅。最重要的是它抹干了katie的眼淚。