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■4月1日是西方民間傳統節日愚人節，兩名女孩試戴愚人節鬼臉面具，感受愚人節氣氛。 資料圖片
April is coming soon, and it naturally reminds us of the special day about fools. Now, what is the name of this day - is it April Fool's Day, or April Fools' Day? In fact, it can be either: we usually use the former one in the UK, and the latter one in the US. In Britain, we can also say All Fools' Day(note the position of the apostrophe), or just April Fool.
So many heads
Like Chinese, there are many words that we can use to say that a person is a 'fool'. They are quite rude words, and we should use them very carefully, if at all. But it helps to at least know them. Many of them ends with 'head'. Here is an incomplete list: airhead, beefhead, blockhead, blunderhead, bonehead, dunderhead, fathead, hardhead, jughead, knothead, knucklehead, lunkhead, muttonhead, meathead, pinhead, saphead, softhead, thickhead.
In the list, the first part of each word means: air(the mixture of gases we breathe in), beef(the meat of cattle), block(a piece of wood), blunder(a stupid mistake), bone(a hard part that forms the body's skeleton), fat(big and thick), hard(not soft), jug(a water container), knot(a join by tying strings together), knuckle(a joint in the fingers), mutton(the meat of lamb), meat(the flesh of animals being eaten), pin(a thin piece of metal to hold things together), sap(juice), soft(not hard), thick(not thin). You may notice that we did not mention 'dunder' and 'lunk', since they don't have any meaning on their own.
One hard riddle
The word 'fool' can act as a noun, but it can also be a verb, meaning 'to make somebody a fool', 'to trick somebody'.
The renowned American mathematician-cum(= and)-logician Raymond Smullyan starts his famous book What Is the Name of This Book? with the following interesting story:
My introduction to logic was at the age of six. It happened this way: On April 1, 1925, I was sick in bed with grippe(= an acute infectious viral disease), or flu, or something. In the morning my brother Emile(ten years my senior) came into my bedroom and said: "Well, Raymond, today is April Fool's Day, and I will fool you as you have never been fooled before!" I waited all day long for him to fool me, but he didn't. Late that night, my mother asked me, "Why don't you go to sleep?" I replied, "I'm waiting for Emile to fool me." My mother turned to Emile and said, "Emile, will you please fool the child!" Emile then turned to me, and the following dialogue ensued(= resulted):
Fooled or not
E: "So, you expected me to fool you, didn't you?" R: "Yes." E: "But I didn't, did I?" R: "No." E: "But you expected me to, didn't you?" R: "Yes." E: "So I fooled you, didn't I?"
Well, I recall lying in bed long after the lights were turned out wondering whether or not I had really been fooled.
What do you think? Do you think Raymond has been fooled or not?
Questions
1. A large size of paper for writing on can be called a 'fool____'?
2. A machine, method or plan that is so reliable that it cannot be failed can be said to be 'fool_____'?
3. A person showing a lack of care about danger can be said to be 'fool_____'?
Answers
1. foolscap,
2. foolproof,
3. foolhardy. ■MT Ness
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