一、Making His Mark 刻舟求劍
A man from the state of Chu was taking a boat across a river when he dropped his sword into the water carelessly. Immediately he made a mark on the side of the boat where the sword dropped, hoping to find it later. When the boat stopped moving, he went into the water to search for his sword at the place where he had marked the boat. As we know, the boat had moved but the sword had not. Isn’t this a very foolish way to look for a sword?
楚國有個人坐船渡江時，他不小心把自己的一把寶(bǎo)劍掉落江中。他馬上掏出一把小刀，在寶(bǎo)劍落水的船舷上刻上一個記号 。船靠岸後 ，那楚人立即從船上刻記号的地方跳下水去撈取掉落的寶(bǎo)劍。他怎麽找得到寶(bǎo)劍呢？船繼續行駛，而寶(bǎo)劍卻不會再移動。像他這樣去找劍，真是太愚蠢可笑瞭(le)。
二、To Pull up the Seedlings
Once upon a time, there was an old farmer who planted a plot of rice. After he planted the seedlings, every day he went to the field to watch the seedlings grow. He saw the young shoots break through the soil and grow taller each day, but still, he thought they were growing too slowly. Eventually he got impatient with the young plants and suddenly he hit upon an idea that one by one, he pulled up the young plants by half an inch. The next early morning, the young man couldn’t wait to check his “achievement”, but he was heart-broken to see all the pulled-up young plants dying.
從前，有個農夫 ，種瞭(le)稻苗（seedlings）後，便希望能早早收成 。每天他到稻田時 ，都發覺那些稻苗長得非常慢。他等得很不耐煩 。想瞭(le)又想，他終於(yú)想到一個“最佳方法”，他将稻苗全都拔高瞭(le)幾分。第二天 ，一早起身，他迫不及待地去稻田看他的“成果”。哪知，卻看到所有的稻苗都枯萎瞭(le)。
三、Plugging One’s Ears While Stealing a Bell掩耳盜鈴
Once upon a time, there was a man who wanted to steal his neighbor’s doorbell. However, he knew clearly that the bell would ring and catch the other people’s attention as long as he touched the bell. So he thought hard and suddenly hit on a clever “idea”. He plugged his ears with something, thinking that everything would go well when he stole the bell. Unfortunately to his disappointment, the bell still rang loudly and he was caught on the spot as a thief.
從前，有一個人想偷鄰居門上的鈴 ，但是他知道一碰到鈴 ，鈴就會響起來，被人發現 。他想啊想，終於(yú)他想出一個“妙極”，他把自己的耳朵用東西塞起來，就聽不見鈴聲瞭(le) 。但是當他去偷鈴時，鈴聲仍舊響起來 ，他被别人當場抓住 。
四 、The Fox and the Crow狐狸和烏鴉
One day a crow stood on a branch near his nest and felt very happy with the meat in his mouth. At that time, a fox saw the crow with the meat, so he swallowed and eagerly thought of a plan to get the meat. However, whatever the fox said to the crow, the crow just kept silent. Until the fox thought highly of the crow’s beautiful voice, the crow felt flattered and opened his mouth to sing. As soon as the meat fell down to the ground, the fox took the meat and went into his hole.
有一天,一隻烏鴉站在窩旁的樹枝上嘴裏叼著(zhe)一片肉，心裏非常高興。這時候，一隻狐狸看見瞭烏鴉，饞得直流口水，非常想得到那片肉。但是，無論狐狸說什麽，烏鴉就是不理睬狐狸 。最後 ，狐狸贊美烏鴉的嗓音最優美 ，並(bìng)要求烏鴉唱幾句讓他欣賞欣賞。烏鴉聽瞭狐狸贊美的話，得意極瞭，就唱起歌來。沒想到，肉一掉下來，狐狸就叼起肉 ，鑽回瞭洞 。
五、Draw a Snake and Add Feet to It畫蛇添足
Long long ago, several people had a jar of wine among them and all of them wanted to drink it by himself. So they set a rule that every one would draw a snake on the ground and the man who finished first would have the wine. One man finished his snake very soon and he was about to drink the wine when he saw the others were still busy drawing, so he decided to draw the feet to the snake. However, before he could finish the feet, another man finished and grabbed the jar from him, saying, "Who has ever seen a snake with feet?” The story of "Draw a snake and add feet to It.” tells us going too far is as bad as not going far enough.
古時幾個人分一壺酒。他們都想獨自喝完那壺酒，所以就定瞭(le)一個規矩：每人在地上畫一條蛇，誰畫得最快，這壺酒就歸誰。有一個人很快就把蛇畫好瞭(le) 。他正打算喝這壺酒時，看見别人都還在忙著(zhe)畫 ，就決定給蛇再畫上幾隻腳。結果 ，他的蛇腳還沒加完，另一個人已經把蛇畫好瞭(le) 。那人一下把酒壺奪瞭(le)過去，說：“有誰見過長腳的蛇？”。這個故事告訴我們這樣的道理 ：做得過分和做得不夠都是不對的。
On a vacation trip, Duke Huan of the state of Qi came to the ruin of the capital of Guo Shi, which perished long ago.
Seeing the desolate and bleak prospects of broken tiles, collapsed walls, and clusters of weeds, he could not help asking the local people about the reason of the ruin of Guo Shi.
They replied, “Guo Shi was fond of doing good deeds, and averse to evildoing, which led to the perdition.”
When the Duke could not understand the answer, people explained, “Though he liked doing good, he had never been able to do so; though he hated evildoing, never could he help not participating. That caused the ruin of his capital.”
齊桓公出遊途中 ，來到已經滅亡許久的郭氏都城的廢墟 。
看到瓦礫殘垣 、雜草叢生的蕭條景象 ，忍不住問當地百姓郭氏滅亡的原因。
百姓們回答說："郭氏由於喜愛善行善事 。厭惡邪惡醜行而導緻滅亡。"
齊桓公不能理解這種回答，百姓們便解釋說："郭氏雖然喜愛善行善事，但從來都不能做到；盡管厭惡邪惡醜行，卻總是忍不住參與其中。這就是他的都城變成廢墟的原因。"
A mouse once took a bite out of a bull’s tail as he lay dozing. The bull jumped up in a rage and, with his head low to the ground, chased the mouse right across the yard. The mouse was too quick for him, however, and slipped easily into a hole in the wall.
The bull charged the wall furiously again and again, but although he bruised his head and chipped his horns, the mouse stayed safely inside his hole. After a time the bull gave up and sank down to rest again.
As soon as the bull was asleep, the little mouse crept to the mouth of the hole, pattered across the yard, bit the bull again -- this time on the nose -- and rushed back to safety. As the bull roared helplessly the mouse squeaked: “It’s not always the big people who come off best. Sometimes the small ones win, you know.”
有一次，公牛躺著打盹 ，一隻老鼠咬瞭他的尾巴 。公牛怒氣沖沖地跳起來，低著頭追老鼠，一直追過院子。然而，老鼠跑得比他快多瞭，從容地鑽到牆洞裏去瞭。
公牛一次又一次地猛撞牆壁 ，盡管頭撞腫瞭 ，角撞裂瞭，老鼠卻安然待在洞裏。過瞭一會兒，公牛不撞瞭，倒下歇著。
公牛剛睡著，小老鼠就爬到洞口，嗒嗒地跑過院子，又咬瞭公牛一口 ，這回咬瞭鼻子，又跑回安全的地方去。當公牛毫無辦法地吼叫時，老鼠吱吱叫道 ：
“大人物並不總占上風。有時小人物也會取勝。”
A boy was in the fields when he was stung by a nettle . He ran home to tell his mother what had happened. “I only touched it lightly,” he said, “and the nasty thing stung me.”
It stung you because you only touched it lightly, his mother told him. “Next time you touch a nettle grasp it as tightly as you can. Then it won't sting you at all.”
Face danger boldly.
有個男孩子在地裏玩耍，被荨麻刺痛瞭 。他跑回家去，告訴媽媽出瞭什麽事 。
“我不過輕輕地碰瞭它一下，”他說，“那讨厭的東西就把我刺痛瞭。” “你隻輕輕地碰瞭它一下，所以它才刺痛你，”媽媽對他說，“下一回你再碰到荨麻，就盡量緊緊地抓住它 。那它就根本不會刺痛你瞭。”要敢於面對危險。
A man once bought a brilliantly-coloured parrot. Instead of locking it up in a cage or chaining it to a perch, he allowed it to fly free all over the house. The parrot was delighted at this and flapped from room to room, shrieking and screaming with happiness. At last he settled on the edge of a rich curtain.
"Who on earth are you ?" said a cross voice from below. "Stop that terrible noise at once."
The parrot saw a cat staring up at him from the carpet.
"I’m a parrot. I’ve just arrived and I 'm to make as much noise as I can," he said.
"Well, I’ve lived here all my life," replied the cat."
I was born in this very house and I learned from my mother that it is best to keep quiet here."
"Keep quiet then, "said the parrot cheerfully. "I don't know what you do around here, but I know my job. My master bought me for my voice and I'm going to make sure he hears it."
Different people are valued for different things.
從前，有人買瞭一隻毛色鮮豔的鹦鹉。他沒有把鹦鹉關在籠子裏，也沒有用鏈條把他拴在栖木上，而讓他在家裏自由自在地飛來飛去。鹦鹉對此非常高興，撲動翅膀，從一間屋子飛到另一間屋子，愉快地尖聲叫著，最後停在華麗的帷幔的邊上。
你到底是誰？從下面傳來怒氣沖沖的說話聲，馬上住嘴，别發出那難聽的聲音。
鹦鹉看見地毯上有一隻貓擡頭看著他 。我是鹦鹉。我剛到，我要使勁地吵吵。他說，那你就一聲不響吧，鹦鹉歡快地說，我不知道你在這兒幹什麽，可我知道我的活兒。主人爲瞭我的聲音才買我，我一定得讓他聽到。
不同的人因有不同的特點(diǎn)而受重視(shì)。
A man once had four sons who never stopped quarreling with one another.
He was always telling them how much easier life would be if they worked together but they took absolutely no notice of him. One day he decided to show them what he meant.
He called all the sons together and put a tightly tied bundle of sticks on the floor in front of them.
"Can you break that?" he asked the youngest son. The boy put his knee on the bundle but though he pressed and pulled with his arms he could not bend the wood. The father asked each son in turn to try to break the bundle, but none of them could do it .
Then he untied the string and scattered the sticks.
"Now try," he said. The boys broke the sticks easily in their hands.
"Do you see what I mean?" asked the father. "if only you stand together no one can hurt you. If you all disagree the whole time and insist on going your separate ways, the first enemy you meet will be able to destroy you."
United we stand; divided we fall.
從前有一個人，他有四個兒子。兒子們不斷地争吵。他一再告誡他們說，如果他們一起幹活兒，生活會舒适得多，但他們絲毫不理會他的意見。有一天，他決定通過示範把自己的意思告訴他們。
他把四個兒子都叫來，又把一捆紮得很緊的細樹枝放在他們面前的地上。
你能折斷這個嗎？他問最小的兒子。小夥子用膝蓋頂住，兩隻手又壓又拉，都不能把那捆樹枝弄彎。父親讓别的兒子挨個兒試試，看他們是否能把那捆樹枝折斷，但誰也做不到。然後，他解開繩子，把樹枝撒開。試試吧。他說。四個小夥子用手輕輕一撅，樹枝就斷瞭。
你們明白我的意思瞭嗎？父親問，隻要你們聯合起來，誰也不能傷害你們。如果你們老吵架，一定要各行其是，那麽你們一遇到敵人，就會被打敗。
合則存，分則敗。
來源 | 網絡
