故事类英文小短文
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Covering the Eye with a Leaf
In the State of Chu, there was a man
whose family was
very poor. Even at
night the often dreamt of striking it
rich, but the never worked hard.
One day, when he was leafing through
the book Huainan
Zi, he came across a
line
saying:” When the mantis preys
on the cicada, it relies entirely upon
a leaf to conceal its
body.” He thought
that if one could get such a leaf, one
could become
invisible
。
Thereupon, he ran into the woods,
looking for just such a
leaf among the
branches. He had searched a long time
before he discovered a mantis hiding
itself behind a leaf
and waiting to
catch a cicada. He climbed up the tree at
once, and plucked the leaf. But he was
in such a big hurry
that, out of
carelessness. The leaf dropped to the ground.
There were many, many fallen leaves on
the ground. How
could he identify the
leaf he had plucked
？
So he
had to
put all the leaves into a bamboo
basket and carry them
home.
As soon as he got home, he held up one
leaf after another
in turn to cover
h
is eye, and kept asking his wife:“Can
you
see me?”In the beginning, his wife
always answered:” Yes,
I can.”After a
long time, she began to feel weird: what
was the matter with her husband today?
Why did he keep
holding up a leaf and
asking her the same
question?
。
”
He did this over and over again for one
whole day. In the
end, his wife got
impatient and humoured him by
saying:”
No, I can’t.”
Hearing this, he became wild with joy.
He turned and ran
out to the street.
Holding the leaf in one hand, he grabbed
with the other hand the goods in a
shop. But before he
could withdraw his
hand, he was caught on the spot and
handed over to the local yamen.
Sighing over one’s
Insignificance be
When autumn came, all the water in the
large and small
rivers rose higher and
flowed into the Yellow River.
The
surface of the River at once appeared much wider,
On
one side of the bank, one couldn’t
see the cattle and
sheep on the
opposite side. The River deity Hebo was
therefore immensely proud and
considered himself the
greatest in the
world.
Hero followed the Yellow River
to the North Sea. Then he
looked at
himself and felt he could not see the bounds of
the sea. Then he looked at himself and
felt he was so tiny
and insignificant.
He sighed and said to Hairuo, the deity
of the North Sea.
“Asa the saying goes, a person who has
gained a little
learning tends to
regard himself as the wiset person
under the sky. I am just that kind of
person. Seeing how
broad and great you
are today, I have come to realize
how
insignificant an
d ignorant I am. If I
didn’t meet you ,
I’m afraid I would I
would always be laughed at by people
with knowledge.”
Hairou said:
“We
cannot talk about the sea with a frog at the
bottom
of a well, for the frog is
restricted by its dwelling place;
we
cannot talk about ice with a small insect is
restricted
by the seasons; we cabbit
talk about profound learning
with
superficial persons, for they have too little
knowledge.
Now you have come out of a
small river to the North Sea,
seen the
greatness of it and realized your own
insignificance. Since you have taken
such a modest
attitude, I can then talk
with you about profound
learning.
”
The King of Chu Beats the
Drum
One day, King Li of
the State of Chu announced to the
people: If any emergency occurs in our
country, the drum
will be beaten as a
signal. The moment the people hear
the
drum, they must assemble outside the palace gate
at
once.
One day, King Li
out drunk, when he passed by the drum
stand, he started to beat the drum at
random. When the
people heard the drum,
they ran from all directions to the
palace gate, thinking that some
emergency had occurred
in the country.
They stood all around in a dense mass.
King Li sent someone to tell them:”Just
now the King beat
the drum, but nothing
urgent had happened, it was only
because the King got drunk and when he
passed by the
drum stand, he beat the
drum just for fun.”
All the
people returned to their homes , feeling angry.
A few months later, some emergency
really occurred in
the State of Chu.
The drum outside the palace gate
sounded from early morning until night.
Though the
people heard the drum, they
no longer cared about it and
didn’t
rush to the palace gate.