获奖及推荐记录
●入选美国全国教育协会推荐的100本最佳童书
●入选美国全国教育协会“教师们推荐的100本书”
●入选美国全国教育协会“孩子们推荐的100本书”
●通过50个单词可以学会28个元音,词汇有限,想象无限

Green Eggs and Ham is one of Seuss's "Beginner Books", written in a very simple vocabulary for beginning readers. The vocabulary of the text consists of just fifty different words, of which 49 are monosyllabic (the one exception being "anywhere"). It averages 5.7 words per sentence and 1.02 syllables per word, giving it an exceptionally low Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level of −1.3.
《绿鸡蛋和火腿》是苏斯博士创作的系列初级阅读绘本之一,这些初级读物专为初学者设计,力求使用非常简单的词汇讲述完整的故事。这本书仅仅含有50个不同的单词,其中49个单词是单音节(除了anywhere),平均每句5.7个单词,每个单词1.02个音节,弗莱士--金凯德年级水平为−1.3。

小编注:Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level是美国中小学年级水平评定文本的得分。分数越高表示作者的英语写作水平越高,当然对读者的英语阅读水平要求也就越高。计算Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level分数可以用这样的公式:
(.39 x ASL) + (11.8 x ASW) – 15.59
公式中:ASL = 语句平均长度(单词数除以语句数)
ASW = 单词的平均音节数(音节数除以单词数)
弗莱士—金凯德年级水平共分12级,一般的英文文档的分数大约可达 6.0级至8.0级。文档的分数为 8.0 时表示一个八年级水平的人能够理解该文档的内容。从这里我们可想而知,这本《绿鸡蛋和火腿》有多简单啦!

Bennett Cerf, Dr. Seuss's publisher, wagered $50 that Seuss could not write a book using only fifty different words. The bet came after Seuss completed The Cat in the Hat, which used 223 words.
苏斯用223个词汇写完《帽子里的猫》之后,他的出版商贝内特·瑟夫用50个金币和苏斯打赌,要苏斯用50个词汇写一本书,结果苏斯赢了。

The fifty words used are:

a
am
and
anywhere
are
be
boat
box
car
could
dark
do
eat
eggs
fox
goat
good
green
ham
here
house
I
if
in
let
like
may
me
mouse
not
on
or
rain
Sam
say
see
so
thank
that
the
them
there
they
train
tree
try
will
with
would
you

Forty-six of the 50 words (all but car, Sam, train, and try) are of Germanic origin.

这50个单词中的46个(除了car, Sam, train, and try)都是来自日耳曼语。

The tale is in the form of a cumulative tale, with a list of circumstances which gradually increases as the story progresses. Thus, one of Sam's friend's refusals goes:
I would not, could not, in a box.
I could not, would not, with a fox.
I will not eat them with a mouse.
I will not eat them in a house.
I will not eat them here or there.
I will not eat them anywhere.
I do not eat green eggs and ham.
I do not like them, Sam-I-am.
The meter of Green Eggs and Ham is a combination of trochaic and iambic tetrameter; for details, see Dr. Seuss's meters.
这个故事是以递进累积的形式讲述的,随着故事情节的发展逐渐增加情况。例如:山姆的朋友拒绝道:
我不想,也不要在盒子里面吃。
我不想,也不要和狐狸一起吃。
我不要和老鼠一起吃。
我不要在房子里吃。
我既不想在这儿吃,也不想在那儿吃。
我在哪儿都不想吃。
我不喜欢绿鸡蛋和火腿。
我不喜欢它们,“山姆是我”。
《绿鸡蛋和火腿》的韵律是扬抑格和抑扬格的四音步句的组合,详情可以参考苏斯的韵律。

小编注:苏斯博士,可以说是二十世纪最受欢迎的儿童图画书作家,在英语世界里,是家喻户晓的人物。他创作的图画书,人物形象鲜明,个性突出,情节夸张荒诞,语言妙趣横生,是半个多世纪以来孩子们的至爱,同时他的书也被教育工作者推荐给家长,作为提高阅读能力的重要读物。