故事类英文小短文

1、In the State of Chu, there was a man whose family was very poor. Even at night the often dreamt of striking it rich, but the n ever worked hard.One day, when he was leafing through the book Huainan Zi, he came across a line sa ying: ” When the mantis preys on the cicada, it relies entirely upon a le

2、af to conceal its body. ” He thought that if one could get such a leaf, one could become in visible。Thereup on, he ran into the woods, look ing for just such a leaf among the bran ches. He had searched a long time before he discovered a mantis hiding itself behind a leaf and wait ing to catch a cica

3、da. He climbed up the tree at on ce, and plucked the leaf. But he was in such a big hurry that, out of careless ness. The leaf dropped to the ground.There were many, many falle n leaves on the ground. How could he identify the leaf he had plucked? So he had toput all the leaves into a bamboo basket

4、and carry them home.As soon as he got home, he held up one leaf after ano ther in tur n to cover hiseye, and kept ask ing his wife:“ Canyou see me? ” In the beg inning, his wife always an swered:'Yes, I can. ” After a long time, she began to feel weird: what was the matter with her husba nd toda

5、y? Why did he keep hold ing up a leaf and ask ing her the same questi on?。”He did this over and over aga in for one whole day .In the end, his wife got impatie nt and humoured him by say ing: No, I can ' t. ”Hear ing this, he became wild with joy. He tur ned and ran out to the street. Holdi ng t

6、he leaf in one hand, he grabbed with the other hand the goods in a shop. But before he could withdraw his hand, he was caught on the spot and han ded over to the local yame n.Whe n autum n came, all the water in the large and small rivers rose higher and flowed into the Yellow River. The surface of

7、the River at once appeared much wider, On one side of the bank, one couldn' t see the cattle andsheep on the opposite side. The River deity Hebo was therefore imme nsely proud and con sidered himself the greatest in the world.Hero followed the Yellow River to the North Sea. Then he looked at him

8、self and felt he could not see the bounds of the sea. Then he looked at himself and felt he was so tiny and in sig nifica nt. He sighed and said to Hairuo, the deity of the North Sea.“ Asa the say ing goes, a pers on who has gained a little learning tends to regard himself as the wiset pers on un de

9、r the sky. I am just that kind of pers on. Seeing how broad and great you are today, I have come to realize how in sig ni fica nt and ignorant I am. If I did n' t meet you ,I ' m afraid I would I would always be laughed at by people with knowledge. ” Hairou said:“ We cannot talk about the se

10、a with a frog at the bottom of a well, for the frog is restricted by its dwelling place; we cannot talk about ice with a small in sect is restricted by the seas ons; we cabbit talk about profo und lear ning with superficial pers ons, for they have too little kno wledge. Now you have come out of a sm

11、all river to the North Sea, see n the great ness of it and realized your own in sig ni fica nee. Si nce you have take n such a modest attitude, I can the n talk with you about profo und lear ning.”One day, Ki ng Li of the State of Chu announ ced to the people: If any emerge ncy occurs in our coun tr

12、y, the drum will be beate n as a sig nal. The mome nt the people hear the drum, they must assemble outside the palace gate at on ce.One day, King Li out drunk, whe n he passed by the drum sta nd, he started to beat the drum at ran dom. Whe n the people heard the drum, they ran from all directions to

13、 the palace gate, thi nking that some emerge ncy had occurred in the coun try. They stood all around in a dense mass.King Li sent some one to tell them:” Just now the King beatthe drum, but nothing urge nt had happe ned, it was only because the King got drunk and whe n he passed by the drum sta nd,

14、he beat the drum just for fun.”All the people returned to their homes , feeli ng an gry.A few mon ths later, some emerge ncy really occurred in the State of Chu. The drum outside the palace gate soun ded from early morning until night. Though the people heard the drum, they no Ion ger cared about it

15、 and did n' t rush to thepalace gate.An old horse knows the wayOne spri ng, Guan Zhong and xi peng followed Huan Gong, King of the State of Qi, i n an expediti on aga inst the State of Gu back. They lost their way, Guan Zhong said:“Old horses are wise animals who know their way. Let them lead th

16、e way for us! ”Thereup on, they let several old horses lead in front and the army followed behi nd. Fin ally they found their way home.When the army entered the hills, they ran out of water. The n Xi Peng said:” In win ter, the ants stay on thesouth side of a hill, and in summer, on the north side.

17、There is sure to be water source un der their n est.Thereup on, the soldiers exerted stre nu ous efforts to dig the gro und. Sure eno ugh, they found water un der the ants n est.Men of great lear ning like Gua n Zhong and Xi Peng, whe n coming across difficulties, would also seek help from horses an

18、d ants of lower intelligence than human beings to find a way out.It had bee n three years since King Zhua ng of Chu asce nded the throne, but he had n either issued a decree nor dealt with any state affairs. Furthermore, there no deeds worth mentioning. All the civil and military officials of the co

19、urt couldn ' t understand what was the matter.One day, a military official quietly asked King of Chu in the carriage. “ Your Majesty, I heard that in the south, there was a big bird dwelling in the hills. Three years passed, it neither flew nor cried. Could Your Majesty tell me the reason. ”King

20、 Zhuang of Chu smiled and answered:” It didn ' t spreadits wi ngs to fly for three years in order to grow full- fledged. It didn ' t c ry for three yearsin order tocarefully observe the con diti ons of the people in the world.This bird, once it flies, will soar high into the sky; onceit crie

21、s, it will startle the world with a sin gle cry.”Ano ther half a year passed before King Zhua ng of Chu bega n to pers on ally admi nister state affairs. He abolished ten outmoded rules and regulatio ns, issued nine new policies, senten ced five mini sters to death for their evil deeds and promoted

22、six pers ons with real tale nts. From the n on, the State of Chu became stron ger and stron ger.Wang yuqi was a well-known expert in driving carriages in the State of Zhao.Whe n Xia ng Zi of Zhao heard of this, he asked Wang to teach him to drive a carriage. Not long after, xia ng Zi of Zhao thought

23、 he had already mastered the skills, and suggested a race against Wang. He didn' texpect that after he had cha nged horses three times in successi on, he still lost the race to Wang.Xia ng Zi of zhao was flustered and exasperated. He said to Wang: “in teaching me to drive, have you held anything back and not taught me all your skills?”Heari ng this, Wang smiled and said:“ You ought to believethat I have taught you all the skills in driving a carriage.But, whe n your High ness was rac ing aga inst me, you always tried to keep in front of me. On