As a young Oxford don, I was chairman of the panel assessing the preliminary examination that students took at the end of their first year. We failed the son of a particularly noxious third-world dictator. There was an opportunity for him to resit at the end of the summer. I waited in trepidation for a threat or an offer from a distant land. None came. Presumably the tyrant dealt with his son's problem in a more appropriate way, since the boy passed on the second occasion.
我年輕時曾在牛津(Oxford)任教,擔任過預備考試評估小組的主席,學生們會在第一學年結束時參加這個考試。我們曾給一位男生打出不及格的分數,他爸爸是第三世界一位臭名昭著的獨裁者。學校給了這位男生在暑期結束時參加補考的機會。我曾惴惴不安地等待那個遙遠國度向我發出威脅,或給我開出條件,但什么都沒等到。那位暴君大概用一種更恰當的方式解決了兒子的問題,因為這位男生在補考中過關了。