小故事72296.docVIP

414 A slow-witted man walked into a patent office. He walked up to the patent officer and said, Hey, Ive got a new idea for a mouse trap. (Draw a box on the blackboard.) Heres the box. (Draw a hole in the box.) Heres the hole. (Draw a circle in the bottom of the hole) Heres the cheese. (Draw a line across the hole in the box.) Heres the blade. The mouse sticks his head in the hole to get the cheese, the blade drops on his neck and kills him. The patent officer looks at the diagram. He understands that the man is a little slow so he wants to be kind. He explains to the man that he does not think the design is ready to be patented yet. He tells the man, Please, work on it some more. Perhaps I will be able to patent it another time. The slow witted man says thank you and leaves the office. One week later the slow witted man shows up again. (Draw the exact same example on the board in exactly the same way.) The slow witted man says, This is the box, this is the hole, this is the cheese and this is the wire. The mouse sticks his head in the hole to get the cheese, the wire wraps around his neck and kills him. The patent officer, still trying to be kind, makes the same excuse as before. The slow witted man leaves. One week later the slow witted man returns. He approaches the same patent officer and says, (The exact same things) Heres the box. Heres the hole. (This time he draws a zig-zag line across the hole and he does not draw a circle for the cheese.) After completing the zig-zag line, the slow witted man proclaims, and heres the saw blade. The patent officer notices the design and the fact that there is no cheese. He asks the slow witted man, Wheres the cheese. Ah-ha, says the slow witted man. Thats the point. The mouse sticks his head in the hole and says, Where did you put the cheese. (When the mouse speeks you must act like the mouse. Stick your head out as if looking into the trap and swing it back and forth as if looking for the cheese.) The implication