She got another laugh out of this class when she first met Alansmith, because he insisted: "It's one word, but you can call me Alan." Upon starting lessons, she quickly found that Dim's moniker is a misnomer, because he and his colorful classmate Neon are among her brightest pupils.

Sometimes, students select names based on qualities they aspire to. For example, Leader hopes to become a government official. But while Sin's pseudonym seems to extol evil as her most venerated virtue, she's actually quite nice. One of Carol's colleagues also has a student named Sin in the same section as Lucifer.

On weeknights, Carol tutors 11-year-old Smart, a clever kid who truly lives up to his name.

Like most foreigners, I've encountered several strange pseudonyms outside of Carol's classes. One of my first language-exchange partners was a bartender named Tiger, who took this title from the brand of beer. Because his English was scant, when explaining the meaning of his name, he would curl his fingers in front of his face, bear his teeth and let loose with a guttural growl. His colleague Mouse, however, was meeker in explaining his moniker. The list of odd appellations goes on, and anything goes - just name it.

Vocabulary:

guffaw：哄笑，狂笑

pseudonym：笔名，假名

guttural：喉咙的，喉音的