A nursery school teacher was delivering a school bus full of kids home one day when a fire truck zoomed past. Sitting in the front seat of the fire truck was a Dalmatian dog. The children started discussing what the dog's duties might be.

"They use him to keep crowds back," said one youngster.

"No," said another, "he's just for good luck."

A third child concluded. "No silly, they use the dogs to find the fire hydrant!"

有一天，一位护理学校的老师老师正驾驶着坐满孩子的校车，送他们回家，这时候，一辆消防车呼啸而过。在消防车的前座上有一只达尔马提亚犬。于是孩子们开始讨论这只狗的职责可能是什么。
“他们用它来让人们离得远一点，”一个小孩说到。
“不，”另一个说，“它是用来求好运的。”
这时候第三个小孩说。“别傻了，其实他们是想用用这狗来找消防栓的。”
生词：
zoom past：呼啸而过
fire hydrant：消防栓

那为什么会有只小狗坐在消防车上呢？

这是因为远在十八世纪时代，马车用作消防车，投入灭火战斗。狗是马的天然朋友，当时的消防队员相信，马有时看到火灾会惊慌失措，而往往是狗能使它们安静下来。因此，消防协会把狗作为自己吉祥物的标记就不无道理了。