英語(yǔ)故事：苛政猛于虎

　　In ancient times, at the foot of Mount Tai surrounded by mountains, one often heard of tales of tigers devouring people

　　One day, Confucius and his disciples4 passed by Mount Tai. As they walked along, his disciples talked about what they had heard and seen.

　　Suddenly, they heard someone weeping in the distance. They went over and saw a young woman who, with her head covered with a white kerchief, wore white cotton clothes, trousers, shoes and stockings. She was kneeling in front of a new grave and weeping bitterly. The disciples didn't know what to do. Confucius ordered one of them to go forward and ask: "Who has died? Why are you weeping in such sorrow?"

　　The woman raised her head, wiped her red and swollen eyes, sobbed and answered intermittently: "In the past, my father-in-law was devoured by a tiger. Later, my husband was devoured by a tiger too. Now my son has also been bitten to death by a tiger."

　　Confucius' disciple asked worriedly: "The tiger harmed the lives of three generations of your family. Why didn't you leave this place earlier and move to somewhere else?"

　　The woman sobbed, saying: "There are tigers here, but there are no exorbitant taxes, levies or heavy corvee here!" When Confucius heard this, he turned to his disciples and said: "Remember, tigers devour people, but tyranny is fiercer than tigers!"

　　古代，在群山環(huán)抱的泰山腳下，常常聽(tīng)到老虎吃人的事情。

　　有一天，孔子帶著弟子路過(guò)泰山。弟子們一邊走，一邊談?wù)撝?jiàn)所聞。

　　1 devour

　　v.吞沒(méi);貪婪地注視或諦聽(tīng)，貪讀;使著迷

　　參考例句：

　　Larger fish devour the smaller ones.大魚(yú)吃小魚(yú)。

　　Beauty is but a flower which wrinkle will devour.美只不過(guò)是一朵，終會(huì)被皺紋所吞噬。

　　2 devouring

　　吞沒(méi)( devour的現(xiàn)在分詞 ); 耗盡; 津津有味地看; 狼吞虎咽地吃光

　　參考例句：

　　The hungry boy was devouring his dinner. 那饑餓的孩子狼吞虎咽地吃飯。

　　He is devouring novel after novel. 他一味貪看小說(shuō)。

　　3 disciple

　　n.信徒，門(mén)徒，追隨者

　　參考例句：

　　Your disciple failed to welcome you.你的徒弟沒(méi)能迎接你。

　　He was an ardent disciple of Gandhi.他是甘地的忠實(shí)信徒。

　　4 disciples

　　n.信徒( disciple的名詞復(fù)數(shù) );門(mén)徒;耶穌的信徒;(尤指)耶穌十二門(mén)徒之一

　　參考例句：

　　Judas was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. 猶大是耶穌十二門(mén)徒之一。 來(lái)自《簡(jiǎn)明英漢詞典》

　　"The names of the first two disciples were --" “最初的兩個(gè)門(mén)徒的名字是——” 來(lái)自英漢文學(xué) - 湯姆歷險(xiǎn)

　　5 swollen

　　adj.腫大的，水漲的;v.使變大，腫脹

　　參考例句：

　　Her legs had got swollen from standing up all day.因?yàn)檎煺局碾p腿已經(jīng)腫了。

　　A mosquito had bitten her and her arm had swollen up.蚊子叮了她，她的手臂腫起來(lái)了。

　　6 sobbed

　　哭泣，啜泣( sob的過(guò)去式和過(guò)去分詞 ); 哭訴，嗚咽地說(shuō)

　　參考例句：

　　She sobbed out the story of her son's death. 她哭訴著她兒子的死。

　　She sobbed out the sad story of her son's death. 她哽咽著訴說(shuō)她兒子死去的悲慘經(jīng)過(guò)。

　　7 intermittently

　　adv.間歇地;斷斷續(xù)續(xù)

　　參考例句：

　　Winston could not intermittently remember why the pain was happening. 溫斯頓只能斷斷續(xù)續(xù)地記得為什么這么痛。 來(lái)自英漢文學(xué)

　　The resin moves intermittently down and out of the bed. 樹(shù)脂周期地向下移動(dòng)和移出床層。 來(lái)自辭典例句

　　8 devoured

　　吞沒(méi)( devour的過(guò)去式和過(guò)去分詞 ); 耗盡; 津津有味地看; 狼吞虎咽地吃光

　　參考例句：

　　She devoured everything she could lay her hands on: books, magazines and newspapers. 無(wú)論是書(shū)、雜志，還是報(bào)紙，只要能弄得到，她都看得津津有味。

　　The lions devoured a zebra in a short time. 獅子一會(huì)兒就吃掉了一匹斑馬。

　　9 exorbitant

　　adj.過(guò)分的;過(guò)度的

　　參考例句：

　　More competition should help to drive down exorbitant phone charges.更多的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)有助于降低目前畸高的電話收費(fèi)。

　　The price of food here is exorbitant. 這兒的食物價(jià)格太高。

　　10 levies

　　(部隊(duì))征兵( levy的名詞復(fù)數(shù) ); 募捐; 被征募的軍隊(duì)

　　參考例句：

　　At that time, taxes and levies were as many as the hairs on an ox. 那時(shí)，苛捐雜稅多如牛毛。

　　Variable levies can insulate farmers and consumers from world markets. 差價(jià)進(jìn)口稅可以把農(nóng)民和消費(fèi)者與世界市場(chǎng)隔離開(kāi)來(lái)。

　　忽然，聽(tīng)到遠(yuǎn)處傳來(lái)哭聲。大家便走了過(guò)去，一看原來(lái)是一個(gè)年輕的婦女，頭上包著白色的頭巾，身上穿著白布衣褲，腳上套著白布鞋襪，正跪在一座新墳前面痛哭。弟子們不知如何是好，孔子叫弟子上前詢問(wèn)：“死了誰(shuí)?你為什么哭得這么傷心?”

　　婦女抬起頭來(lái)，擦著紅腫的眼睛，抽泣著斷斷續(xù)續(xù)地回答：“從前，我的公公被老虎吃掉了。后來(lái)，我的丈夫又被老虎吃掉了。如今，我的兒子也被老虎咬死了。”

　　孔子的弟子著急地問(wèn)道：“老虎傷害了你家三代人的性命，你為什么不早點(diǎn)兒離開(kāi)這里，搬到別處去呢?”

　　婦女哭著說(shuō)：“這里有老虎，但是沒(méi)有苛捐雜稅和繁重的搖役啊!孔子聽(tīng)到這兒，回過(guò)頭來(lái)，對(duì)弟子們說(shuō)：“你們記住，老虎吃人，可是苛政比老虎還要兇猛啊!”