花木兰为了替爷从军而女扮男装逾十二载，凯旋归来后，不爱武装爱红妆，还自己一个女儿身，令她的战友们目瞪口呆。
“脱我战时袍，著我旧时裳。当窗理云鬓，对镜贴花黄。出门看火伴，火伴皆惊惶。同行十二年，不知木兰是女郎。”
这种意外结局的情节颇具戏剧性的张力，因而为作家，编剧，导演们所青睐。除了被用在戏剧性情节外，英语文字中也经常使用这种技巧。它有点类似中国相声中的“包袱”，制作悬念和误导，不断加剧读者的紧张，直到最后一刻，抖出包袱，令这种积聚的紧张如坐过山车一样从高峰冲下低谷，产生了一种精神上的突然松弛和释放。这种高度紧张后的释然会令人发出一种“意料之外，情理之中”的会心之笑，

Keep Vancouver clean------throw your trash in Richmond.
保持温哥华的清洁--------把垃圾扔到列治文去。
A good wife always forgives her husband when she is wrong.
好妻子总是在自己犯错时原谅老公。
Our next speaker will not bore you with a long speech-------he can do it with a short one.
下一位发言嘉宾不会用长篇大论来烦大家--------他用简短发言就能让你烦。
All I want is a husband who’s good looking, kind, and sensitive. I don’t think that’s too much to ask for a millionaire.
我想找的老公不外就是长得帅，心地好，善解人意。我这么要求一个百万富翁不会过份吧？
I can do anything at 80 that I could do at 18------which just goes to show you how pathetic I was at 18.
我到了八十岁还能干我十八岁时干的事--------由此可见我十八岁那年是多么没用！
He made his father a millionaire------of course his father used to be a multi-millionaire.
他使他爹成为百万富翁-------不过他爹原来可是个千万富翁哦。


(原载温哥华《环球华报》周三教育版）