To smile

English test

2008-01-10

A new young monk arrives at the monastery.  He is assigned to help the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand. He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript.  

So, the new monk goes to the head abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up. In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies.  

The head monk says, "We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son." So, he goes down into the dark caves underneath the monastery where the original manuscript is held as archives in a locked vault that hasn't been opened for hundred of years. Hours go by and nobody sees the old abott. So, the young monk gets worried and goes downstaris to look for him. He sees him banging his head against the wall, and wailing "We forgot the 'R'. We forgott the 'R'!"  His forehead is all bloody and bruised and he is crying uncontrollably. The young monk asks the old abott, "What's wrong, father?" With a chocking voice, the old abott replies:  "The word is 'CELEBRATE'."