Peter joined the army when he was eighteen, and for several months he was taught how to be a good soldier. He did quite well in everything except shooting.

One day he and his friends were practicing their shooting, and all of them were doing quite well except Peter. After he had shot at the target nine times and had not hit it once, the officer who was trying to teach the young soldiers to shoot said, You're quite hopeless, Peter! Don't waste your last bullet too! Go behind that wall and shoot yourself with it!

Peter felt ashamed. He went behind the wall, and a few seconds later the officer and the other young soldiers heard the sound of a shot.

Heavens! The officer said. Has that silly man really shot himself?

He ran behind the wall anxiously, but Peter was all right. I'm sorry, sir, he said, but I missed again.

彼得十八歲那年參了軍，他需要參加幾個(gè)月的學(xué)習(xí)以成為一名好士兵。彼得在其他方面都做得很好，但是射擊不行。

一天他和伙伴們練習(xí)射擊，除了彼得其他人都沒(méi)有問(wèn)題。他射了九次，一次也沒(méi)有命中目標(biāo)。這時(shí)，教新兵射擊的教官說(shuō)：彼得，你看來(lái)是沒(méi)希望了，不要連最后一發(fā)子彈都浪費(fèi)掉！去那堵墻后面用它向自己打一槍吧。

彼得感到非常慚愧。他走到那堵墻后面。幾分鐘后，教官和新兵們聽(tīng)到一聲槍響。

上帝！教官叫起來(lái)，難道那個(gè)笨蛋真的朝自己開(kāi)槍了？

他急忙跑到那堵墻后面，發(fā)現(xiàn)彼得安然無(wú)恙。對(duì)不起，長(zhǎng)官，他說(shuō)，我還是沒(méi)有命中。