【课文】

It has never been explained why university students seem to enjoy practical

jokes more than anyone else. Students specialize in a particular type of

practical joke: the hoax. Inviting the fire brigade to put out a nonexistent

fire is a crude form of deception which no self-respecting student would ever

indulge in. Students often create amusing situations which are funny to everyone

except the victims. When a student recently saw two workmen using a pneumatic

drill outside his university, he immediately telephoned the police and informed

them that two students dressed up as workmen were tearing up the road with a

pneumatic drill. As soon as he had hung up, he went over to the workmen and told

them that if a policeman ordered them to go away, they were not to take him

seriously. He added that a student had dressed up as a policeman and was playing

all sorts of silly jokes on people. Bo