AN APRIL FOOL'S JOKE: THE NOODLE HARVEST

"A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees." (William Blake)

      April Fool's Day, or April 1st, is known in many countries as a day for playing jokes on others. It is usually a time when children make fun of each other, but sometimes other people can get caught in the fun too.

      One of the most famous jokes in England took place on British television in 1957. It was a Monday night when there were always many serious programmes on the television. One of them was called Panorama (全景), This show explored problems and progress all over the world, so nobody was surprised when it began with a report on the excellent noodle harvest in south Switzerland. The programme mentioned two reasons for the good crop: an unusually warm winter and the disappearance of the insect that attacked the noodle crop every year. The reporter showed many noodle trees with the farmers pulling noodles off them and putting them into baskets. The people watching were told that they may not have heard of noodles from this part of the world because noodles were grown as part of small family businesses.      

The programme makers realized that people might wonder why noodles were always the same size so they explained that "it was the result of many years' patient research with the trees to produce noodles of exactly the same length." But even so they explained, the life of a noodle farmer was not easy. "The last two weeks of March are an anxious time for noodle farmers. There is always a chance of very cold weather spoiling their crop. Then it is difficult for them to get top prices on the world markets."

      Many people in England believed this story. They rang the BBC to find out how to grow their own noodle tree. They were told to "place a piece of noodle in a tin of tomato sauce (调料) and hope for the best." This may seem very silly, but in the 1950s very few British people travelled abroad for their holidays and even fewer of them ate noodles. So it seemed possible to imagine that noodles grew on trees 1ike apples, pears and nuts. People also trusted the Panorama programme for its careful research and serious information. So they were shocked to find the next day that they had all believed an April Fool's joke. Even today the report of the noodle harvest is remembered as one of the best April Fool's jokes ever!