那些給我智慧和勇氣的寓言故事12：園丁與烏龜

　　One early morning, an old gardener found his garden in a mess and lots of his flowers missing. He was so angry that he shouted,“Who dares to mess up my garden? Who has done this?”

　　一天早晨，一個老園丁發(fā)現自己的花園里一片零亂，花兒也少了很多。老園丁很生氣，他嚷道：“是誰把我的花園搞得一團糟!是誰干的!”

　　In order to protect his remaining flowers from being destroyed, he decided to lock the garden gate in the evening.

　　為了不讓花兒再遭到破壞，老園丁便在夜里把柵門緊緊地關了起來。

　　The next morning, the old gardener discovered some of his flowers missing again. The angry old gardener decided to find out how that happened.

　　第二天一早，老園丁發(fā)現花兒又少了。氣憤的老園丁決定要查個水落石出。

　　When night came, he sat quietly to watch his garden. Soon he saw a tortoise moving slowly into the garden. Once inside, it opened its mouth so wide that it took only one bite to swallow the whole flower.

　　到了晚上，老園丁靜靜地守在花叢中。這時，他看到一只烏龜慢慢地爬進花園里。烏龜進來后，張開大嘴，一口就把一朵花兒吃掉了。

　　The gardener shouted,“I've caught you this time!”

　　“這回我可抓住你了。”老園丁喊了起來。

　　The tortoise quickly said,“Please forgive me!”But the old gardener shook his head,“no way.”“My kind lord, if you really want to punish me,”continued the poor tortoise,“I will not resist because I am the one that is guilty. But, no matter what you decide, please do not drown me in the water. It is too painful to die that way.”

　　烏龜哀求道：“饒了我吧!”但是老園丁搖著頭說：“門兒都沒有。”“仁慈的老先生，如果你非要處死我不可，”烏龜裝出一副可憐的樣子，“我也只好認命了，畢竟是我做了錯事，理應受到懲罰?？墒?，你用什么方法處死我都行，就是別淹死我，因為淹死實在是太難受了。”

　　“Since you have destroyed so many of my beautiful flowers, I must punish you!”said the old gardener and he immediately threw the tortoise into a lake next to his garden.

　　“你毀了我那么多漂亮的花兒，我必須懲罰你!”話音未落，老園丁就把烏龜扔到了花園旁的湖里。

　　After a while, the tortoise surfaced and swam about happily. The old gardener then realised that he had been tricked because the tortoise was not afraid of the water.

　　不一會兒，烏龜從湖里冒出頭來，自由自在地游來游去。老園丁這才意識到自己被騙了，因為烏龜根本就不怕水。

　　單詞注解

　　absorbed [?b's?:bd] adj.被……吸引住的;專心致志的;全神貫注的

　　starve [?b's?:bd] v.(使)挨餓;饑餓

　　plump [pl?mp] a.(指動物、人)圓胖的;豐滿的

　　swallow ['sw?l?u] v.吃掉;吞，咽

　　resist [ri'zist] v.抵抗;對抗

　　painful ['peinfl] a.疼的;痛苦的

　　實用句型

　　The king sympathized with the farmer and he instructed his prime minister to give the farmer a big sum of money.

　　國王聽了，很同情這個農夫的處境，他命令首相給了農夫一大筆救濟金。

　　Who dares to mess up my garden?

　　是誰把我的花園搞得一團糟!

　　智慧點津

　　Life is impermanent, wisdom is eternal.

　　生命無常，智慧永存。

　　A fall into the pit, a gain in your wit.

　　吃一塹，長一智。