Oneday,whilemarchingacrossthedesertwithhisthirstyarmy,AlexandertheGreatwasapproachedbyasoldierwhokneltonthegroundandofferedhimahelmetfullofwater.
"Isthereenoughwaterfortenthousandmen?"Alexanderinquired.Thesoldierapologeticallyshookhishead,whereuponAlexanderpouredthewaterontheground.
有一天,亞歷山大大帝領着軍隊在沙漠上走,大家都很口渴。有個士兵走到亞歷山大跟前,跪下來,獻上滿滿一頭盔的水。
亞歷山大問:「水足夠一萬人喝嗎?」那士兵一臉無奈神情,搖搖頭。亞歷山大於是把水倒在地上。
【附注】Whereupon是連接詞,常用來帶出某事之後發生的事,可譯作「隨即」或「於是」,例如:FollowingtheChinesecommunists'practice,DonaldTsangdeliberatelyraisedhisvoicewhenhemouthedthebigwords,whereupontheaudiencemechanicallyclappedtheirhands(曾蔭權依照中共習慣,口吐那些豪言壯語時,故意提高聲調,聽眾隨即像機器般拍掌)。和whereupon同義的是thereupon,但thereupon是副詞(adverb),不能把兩個子句(clause)接連。上文例句假如用thereupon改寫,就得分為兩句:...mouthedthebigwords.Thereupontheaudiencemechanicallyclappedtheirhands。
英文不少字都是以「where/there+介系詞」而成的,例如whereat/thereat、whereby/thereby、whereof/thereof、whereon/thereon、whereunto/thereunto等。但除了whereupon/thereupon,這些字現在都不常用,只是在法律文件裏有時還會看見。