讀點好英文:The Big Oven 大火爐

The Big Oven 大火爐

Once upon a time a man had a big house, and in the house there was a big oven；but this man's family was small-only himself and his wife.

When winter came, the man tried to keep his oven going all day, so that the entire stock of his firewood was consumed in a month. Now, with nothing to feed the fire, it was cold in the house.

Then the man began to break up his fences, and use the boards for fueI. When he had burnt up all of his fences, the house, now without any protection against the wind, was colder than ever, and still they had no firewood.

Then the man began to tear down the ceiling of his house, and burn that in the oven. A neighbour noticed that he was tearing down his ceiling, and said to him，“Why, neighbour, have you lost your mind, pulling down your ceiling in winter?You and your wife will freeze to death！”

But the man said，“No, brother, you see I am pulling down my ceiling so as to have something to heat my oven with. We have such a curious one；the more I heat it up, the colder we are！”

The neighbour laughed, and said，“Well, then, after you have burnt up your ceiling, then you will be tearing down your house. You won't have anywhere to live；only the oven will be left, and even that will be cold！”

“Well, that is my misfortune，”said the man，“All my neighbours have enough firewood for all winter；but I have already burnt up my fences and the ceiling of my house, and have nothing left.”

The neighbour replied，“All you need is to have your oven rebuilt.”

But the man said，“I know well that you are jeaIous of my house and my oven because they are larger than yours, and so you advise me to rebuild it.”

So he turned a deaf ear to his neighbour's advice, and burnt up his ceiling, then his whole house, and in the end had to go and live with strangers.

從前，有個人擁有一幢大房子，里面有個大火爐，可他家人口少——只有他和妻子。

冬天來了，他想盡辦法不讓火爐熄滅，一個月就把所有的柴火燒光了。現(xiàn)在，沒什么可以燒的了，屋子里冷得要命。

然后，他開始拆籬笆，把木板拿來當(dāng)柴燒。燒掉了籬笆，房子沒有了擋風(fēng)的屏障，比以前更冷了，可他們還是沒有柴燒。

接下來，他開始拆屋里的天花板，放進爐子里燒。一個鄰居看到他拆天花板后，對他說：“哎呀，鄰居，你瘋了嗎？大冬天拆天花板，你和你妻子會被凍死的。”

可是，他卻說：“不，老兄，我拆天花板是為了燒爐子。我們的爐子真是怪，越燒越冷。”

鄰居笑著說：“哦，你燒完天花板就會拆房子了。那時你就沒地方住了，只剩下那個火爐，可連它也是冰冷的?！?/p>

“哎，這是我的不幸啊，”他說，“所有的鄰居都有足夠的柴火過冬，而我已經(jīng)燒掉了籬笆和天花板，什么也不剩了。”

鄰居回答道：“你只要重砌個爐子就行了?！?/p>

可是，他說：“我很清楚，你是嫉妒我的房子和爐子，因為都比你家的大，所以你勸我重砌個爐子。”

結(jié)果，他把鄰居的勸告當(dāng)作耳旁風(fēng)，燒掉天花板后，把房子也燒掉了。最后，他不得不和陌生人住在一起。