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 shooting¹.

One day he and his friends were practicing their shooting, and all of them were doing quite well except Peter. After he had shot² 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 bullet³ too! Go behind that wall and shoot yourself with it!

Peter felt ashamed⁴. 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.

彼得十八岁那年参了军，他需要参加几个月的学习以成为一名好士兵。彼得在其他方面都做得很好，但是射击不行。

一天他和伙伴们练习射击，除了彼得其他人都没有问题。他射了九次，一次也没有命中目标。这时，教新兵射击的教官说：彼得，你看来是没希望了，不要连最后一发子弹都浪费掉！去那堵墙后面用它向自己打一枪吧。

彼得感到非常惭愧。他走到那堵墙后面。几分钟后，教官和新兵们听到一声枪响。

上帝！教官叫起来，难道那个笨蛋真的朝自己开枪了？

他急忙跑到那堵墙后面，发现彼得安然无恙。对不起，长官，他说，我还是没有命中。