365个英语简短小故事-348. Shut Your Mouth

“Shut your mouth,” Ginger¹ said as she looked at Errol. He was looking at a green parrot squawking in a tree.

“I didn’t even say anything,” he objected. She knew that he hadn’t said anything; she meant that his mouth was hanging half open.

“You do that all the time,” she said. “You look silly. Sometimes I look around to see if people are looking at you. They must think that I'm your caregiver.”

He apologized, saying he’d try to keep his mouth closed when he was looking at parrots. “Not just when you’re looking at parrots. Whenever you’re not using your mouth for talking, you should keep your mouth closed. Look at me,” she said. She demonstrated² his “open mouth” position while looking at the parrot. “See how dumb³ I look?” she said.

He laughed. “You look as smart and pretty with your mouth open as you do with your mouth closed,” he said.

Since they’d already been dating for four years, he asked, why hadn’t she said anything before now? She said that she hadn’t wanted to hurt his feelings before. But now that she’d decided⁴ that they weren’t going to get married, and maybe they weren’t even going to continue dating, she felt it was okay to be completely⁵ honest with him.

He asked her if there were other things she had not told him.

“Your underarms smell,” she said, “even after you take a shower.” He told her that the musky smell was actually attractive⁶ to some women. “Well, feel free to share it with them,” she said.

He hoped she wasn’t serious about that, but he decided against asking her.

 

1 ginger   

n.姜，精力，淡赤黄色；adj.淡赤黄色的；vt.使活泼，使有生气

参考例句：

• There is no ginger in the young man.这个年轻人没有精神。
• Ginger shall be hot in the mouth.生姜吃到嘴里总是辣的。

2 demonstrated   

举行示威游行（或集会）( demonstrate的过去式和过去分词 )； 示范。展示； 显示； 论证

参考例句：

• All of those demonstrated the correctness of his analysis. 这一切都证明了他分析的正确性。
• The fireman demonstrated great courage in saving the child. 那位消防队员在抢救孩子的过程中，表现了极大的勇气。

3 dumb   

adj.哑的；不会说话的；笨的；愚蠢的

参考例句：

• She is very kind to the dumb children.她对哑童非常好。
• It was dumb of you to say that.你说这种话太愚蠢了。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 completely   

adv.完全地，十分地，全然

参考例句：

• She never completely gave up hope.她从不完全放弃希望。
• I feel completely in the dark on this question.这件事使我感到茫然。

6 attractive   

adj.有吸引力的；引起注意的

参考例句：

• Bright colours are attractive to children.鲜艳的颜色对儿童有吸引力。
• The food has an attractive taste.这食品的味道很诱人。