It is well that the commonest fruit should be also the best. Of the virtues of the orange I have not room fully to speak. It has properties of health giving, as that it cures influenza and establishes the complexion. It is clean, for whoever handles it on its way to your table, but handles its outer covering, its top coat, which is left in the hall. It is round, and forms an excellent substitute with the young for a cricket ball. The pip can be flicked at your enemies, and quite a small piece of peel makes a slide for an old gentleman.

　　But all this would count nothing had not the orange such delightful qualities of taste. I dare not let myself go upon this subject. I am a slave to its sweetness. I grudge every marriage in that it means a fresh supply of orange blossom, the promise of so much golden fruit cut short. However, the world must go on.

　　With the orange we do live year in and year out. That speaks well for the orange. The fact is that there is an honeaty about the orange which appeals to all of us. If it is going to be bad—for the best of us are bad sometimes—it begins to be bad from the outside, not from the inside. How many a pear which presents a blooming face to the world is rotten at the core. How many an innocent-looking apple is harbouring a worm in the bud. But the orange has no secret faults. Its outside is a mirror of its inside, and if you are quick you can tell the shopman so before he slips it into the bag.

　　參考譯文：

　　說來也巧，這種最普通的水果恰恰是最好的水果。論其優(yōu)點，難盡其詳。柑橘有益于健康，比如，可以治療流感，滋養(yǎng)皮膚。柑橘干凈衛(wèi)生，不管是誰把它端上餐桌，也只觸到它的表皮，即它的外衣，吃完以后便被丟在餐廳。柑橘是圓的，孩子們拿它當板球玩是再好不過了。柑橘核可用來彈射你的對手，一小片橘皮也能讓一個老者滑個趔趄。

　　但是，如若不是柑橘有甜美可口的味道，上述一切便不足為奇。我真不敢縱談它的美味，我被柑橘的美味所傾倒。每一個婚禮都使我感到痛惜，它意味著一束鮮橘花—未來金黃色果實的夭折。無奈，人類還得繼續(xù)繁衍。

　　我們年復一年地吃著柑橘生活，這就證明了柑橘的好處。事實上，是柑橘誠實的品格令我們所有的人羨慕不已。如果它開始變壞的話—即使我們之中最優(yōu)秀者有時也會變壞—它是從外表而不是從內(nèi)里開始的。有多少梨子，在向人們展現(xiàn)容光煥發(fā)的笑容時，內(nèi)里已經(jīng)腐爛。有多少看上去純潔無暇的蘋果，剛剛發(fā)芽就已經(jīng)包藏蛀蟲。而柑橘從不隱藏瑕疵。它的外表就是它內(nèi)心的寫照。假如你反應快，不等售貨員把壞橘子放進紙袋兒，你就能把它指出來。