英文笑话：你停止打你老婆了吗?

This story is told of a browbeating¹ counsel，who habitually² endeavored to terrorize his opponent's witnesses．

One witness rather tended to preface his replies with lengthy³ explanations．

“I want‘yes’or‘no，’”thundered counsel．“There is no need for you to argue the point！”

“But there are some questions which cannot be answered by‘yes’or‘no，’”mildly responded the witness．

“There are not！” snapped the lawyer．

“Oh，” said the witness，“answer this then：“Have you ceased beating your wife？”

这个故事讲的是一个咄咄逼人的辩护律师，他惯于尽量去恐吓对方的证人。

有一个证人有点倾向于在回答问题之前做冗长的解释。

“我要你回答‘是’或者‘不是’，”辩护律师怒喝道： “你没有必要就这个问题进行争论。”

“可是有些问题无法用‘是’或者‘不是’来回答。”这位证人温和地回敬他。

“不存在这样的问题！”律师厉声打断他。

“噢，”证人说：“那么请你回答这个问题：“你停止打你老婆了吗？”

1 browbeating   

v.（以言辞或表情）威逼，恫吓( browbeat的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Mr Zha urges America to refrain from browbeating China into accepting distant targets for future reductions. 查先生敦促美国不要威胁中国为今后减少排放而去接受这遥远的目标。 来自互联网

2 habitually   

ad.习惯地，通常地

参考例句：

• The pain of the disease caused him habitually to furrow his brow. 病痛使他习惯性地紧皱眉头。
• Habitually obedient to John, I came up to his chair. 我已经习惯于服从约翰，我来到他的椅子跟前。

3 lengthy   

adj.漫长的，冗长的

参考例句：

• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。
• The professor wrote a lengthy book on Napoleon.教授写了一部有关拿破仑的巨著。