民间故事英文.doc

- 2003 documentpandoras boxonce up a time, a long time ago, zeus ordered hephaestus (aphrodites husband) to make him a daughter. it was the first woman made out of clay. hephaestus made a beautiful woman and named her pandora.zeus sent his new daughter, pandora, down to earth so that she could marry epimetheus, who was a gentle and lonely man.zeus was not being kind. he was getting even. epimetheus and prometheus were brothers. zeus was mad at one of the brothers, prometheus, for giving people fire without asking zeus first.zeus gave pandora a little box with a big heavy lock on it. he made her promise never to open the box. he gave the key to pandoras husband and told him to never open the box. zeus was sure that epimetheus curiosity would get the better of him, and that either epimetheus orhis brother would open the box.pandora was very curious. she wanted to see what was inside the box, but epimetheus said no. better not. you know your father, epimetheus sighed, referring to zeus. hes a tricky one. one day, when epimetheus lay sleeping, pandora stole the key and opened the box.out flew every kind of disease and sickness, hate and envy, and all the bad things that people had never experienced before. pandora slammed the lid closed, but it was too late. all the bad things were already out of the box. they flew away, out into the world.epimetheus woke up at the sound of her sobbing.i opened the box and all these uglythings flew out, pandora cried. i tried to catch them, but they all got away!pandora opened the box to show him how empty it was. but the box was not quite empty. one tiny bug flew quickly out before pandora could slam the lid shut again.hello, pandora, said the bug, hovering just out of reach. my name is hope. with a nod of thanks for being set free, hope flew out into the world, a world that now held envy, crime, hate, and disease C and hope. echo and heraone day, zeus tore into the woods, looking for aplace to hide. his wife, hera, was after him again. would he never learn to stopflirting with the nymphs who lived deep in the woods? apparently not. spottingecho, he asked her to help him escape the eagle eye of his wife. one did notturn down a request from zeus, not and live to tell about it.when hera tore into the woods after zeus, echosidetracked her with chatter and gossip. for some time, this worked well forzeus.when hera figured out what was going on, she punishedecho by denying her much of her beautiful voice. all echo could do forever after was repeat the last few sounds she heard.1. an apple of discordan apple of discordiliad(argonaut)(peleus)(thetis)(olympus)(eris)(hera)(athena)(aphrodite)(zeus)(paris)-(helen)1032an apple of discordany subject of disagreement and contention;the root of the trouble;dispute2(marcus juninus justinus)eg: he throwing us an apple of discord,we soon quarrelled again.the dispute about inheriting estate formed an apple of discord between them.this problem seems to be an apple of discord between the soviet union and the usa.2. the heel of achilles the achilles heelthe heel of achillesiliadiliad(styx)(hector)(apollo)the heel of achilles,the achilles heela weak point in something that is otherwise without fault;the weakest spoteg:the shortage of fortitude is his heel of achilles.his achilles heel was his pride-he would get very angry if anyone criticized his work.3.helen of troy3. helen of troy iliadhelen(menelaus)1180(agamemnon)102(odusseus)helen of troy19?helen of troyhelen of troya beautiful girl or woman;a beauty who ruins her countrya terrible disaster brought by sb or sth you like best4. the trojan horsethe trojan horseequns trojanus.*10(odusseus)20the trojan horsethe hidden danger;the covert wreckers;to engage in underhand activitieseg:the superpowers are always sending the trojan horses to many countries in the world.they are defeated only because of the trojan horse in their country.5. greek gift(s)greek gift(s)(publius virgilius maro,70-19)(aeneis)82(laocoon)timeo danaos,et dona ferenteso.danaosi fear the greeks ,even when bringing gifts.greek gifts.greek gifta gift with some sinister purposes of the enemy;one given with intent to harm;a gift sent inorder to murder sbwhen the fox preaches,take care of your geese-eg:he is always buying you expensive clothes,im afraid they are greek gifts for you.to meet waterlooto meet waterlooits greek to megreek kalendskalendscastle in spaincastle in airset the thames on firefrom china to perubetween scylla and charybdiscaenyspelorumspoil egyptiansdo in rome as romans docarry coals to newcastledeleau a la riviere6. a penelopes webthe web of penelopea penelopes webthe web of penelope2(ithaca)10penelopea chaste womanwith a penelope faitha penelopes webthe tactics of delaying sth on purposel;the task that can never be finishedeg:mr jones made a long speech at the meeting.everyone else thought it a penelopes web.my work is something like the penelopes web,never done,but ever in hand.7. swan songlong, long ago, rain stopped falling in china. the people prayed for rain to the jade emperor, for it was he who looked after everything in heaven, on the land and in the sea, but no matter how much they prayed, rain did not fall.four dragons lived in the east china sea in those days. they swam to shore to see what was happening, and saw people tearing grass from the caked ground, for the people had nothing else left to eat.we must do something, long dragon said, and yellow dragon nodded. we must help them ourselves, said pearl dragon, for the jade emperor will never answer their prayers.they suddenly thought of a way to help. they started swimming this way and that, scooping up water with their bodies. then all four leapt into the sky. black dragon flew to the north, long dragon flew to the west, pearl dragon flew to the southernmost tip of china, and yellow dragon flew to the very center of the vast country. all at once, they let the water fall from their mouths, arms, legs, and even their tails.the people down below looked up, but they could not see the dragons. they could only see the rain falling from the sky - drops of rain more beautiful than any jewel. rain! they cried joyfully, and all the people and animals ran out into the rain and started to dance.when the jade emperor saw the rain, he was furious