Questão 7

(ITA - 2001 - 1a Fase)

In April we asked our readers: is there humor in the workplace? Perhaps engineering is too serious to be funny - or is it? Here is one response:

ENGINEER IN HELL

To the editor:
An engineer dies and reports to the pearly gates. St. Peter checks his dossier and says, "Ah, you're an engineer - you're in the wrong place."
So the engineer reports to the gates of hell and is let in. Pretty soon, the engineer gets dissatisfied with the level of comfort in hell, and starts designing and building improvements. After a while, they've got air conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and the engineer is a pretty popular guy. One day St. Peter calls Satan up on the telephone and says with a sneer, "So, how's it going down there in hell?"
Satan replies,"Hey, things are going great! We've got air conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and there's no telling what this engineer is going to come up with next."
St. Peter replies, "What? You've got an engineer? That's a mistake - he should never have gotten down there; send him up here." Satan says, "No way. I like having an engineer on the staff, and I'm keeping him."
St Peter says, "Send him back up here or I'll sue."
Satan laughs uproariously and answers, "Yeah, right. And just where are YOU going to get a lawyer?"

H.D.
Mt Vernon, Iowa, USA

Quais frases, numeradas de I a IV, teriam o significado mais próximo a "Send him back up here or I'll sue", que se encontra no penúltimo parágrafo do texto?

I. If you don't send him back up here, I'll sue.
II. If you send him back up here, I'll sue.
III. Unless you send him back up here, I won't sue.
IV. I will sue, unless you send him back up here.