我在美国丹维尔博物馆授课的时候.某日,一位老先生打量着我说:“你看起来相当年轻.不过二十五岁吧!”“不!我已经二十九岁.是快三十岁的人了!”我回答。“已经二十九岁……”老先生沉吟了一下说,“我才七十岁,比你还年轻呢!”我不解地问:“为什么七十岁反而比二十九岁年轻呢?”“你没听见我说的吗?我说‘才七十岁’,”老先生爽朗地笑着,“可是你却说‘已经二十九岁’,虽然实际年龄我比你大得多,但在讲那句话的心情上.我却比你年轻啊!” When I was teaching at the Danville Museum in the United States, one old gentleman looked at me one day saying: “You look rather young, but twenty-five!” “No! I am twenty-nine. It’s nearly thirty years old! ”I replied. “Twenty-nine ...” The old man pondered for a moment and said, “I was seventy and younger than yours!” I asked inexplicably: “Why seventy is twenty years older than twenty? You’re nine years old? ”“ Did not you hear me? I said ’only seventy,’ ”the old man smiled heartily,“ but you’re twenty-nine years old. I am a lot older than you, but in my words, I am younger than you! ”