The Fox and the Crow “狐貍和烏鴉”
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,一只烏鴉站在窩旁的樹枝上嘴里叼著一片肉，心里非常高興。這時候，一只狐貍看見了烏鴉，饞得直流口水，非常想得到那片肉。但是，無論狐貍說什么，烏鴉就是不理睬狐貍。最后，狐貍贊美烏鴉的嗓音最優(yōu)美，并要求烏鴉唱幾句讓他欣賞欣賞。烏鴉聽了狐貍贊美的話，得意極了，就唱起歌來。沒想到，肉一掉下來，狐貍就叼起肉，鉆回了洞
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，所以就定了一個規(guī)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了。他正打算喝這壺酒時，看見別人都還在忙著畫，就決定給蛇再畫上幾只腳。結果，他的蛇腳還沒加完，另一個人已經(jīng)把蛇畫好了。那人一下把酒壺奪了過去，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."
郭氏之墟
齊桓公出游途中，來到已經(jīng)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?shù)匕傩展蠝缤龅脑颉?/p>
百姓們回答說："郭氏由于喜愛善行善事。厭惡邪惡丑行而導致滅亡。"
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;盡管厭惡邪惡丑行，卻總是忍不住參與其中。這就是他的都城變成廢墟的原因。"
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劍掉落江中。他馬上掏出一把小刀，在寶劍落水的船舷上刻上一個記號。船靠岸后，那楚人立即從船上刻記號的地方跳下水去撈取掉落的寶劍。他怎么找得到寶劍呢?船繼續(xù)行駛，而寶劍卻不會再移動。像他這樣去找劍，真是太愚蠢可笑了。
To Pull up the Seedlings to Help Them Grow “拔苗助長”
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(nóng)夫，種了稻苗(seedlings)后，便希望能早早收成。每天他到稻田時，都發(fā)覺那些稻苗長得非常慢。他等得很不耐煩。想了又想，他終于想到一個“最佳方法”，他將稻苗全都拔高了幾分。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了。
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(fā)現(xiàn)。他想啊想，終于他想出一個“妙極”，他把自己的耳朵用東西塞起來，就聽不見鈴聲了。但是當他去偷鈴時，鈴聲仍舊響起來，他被別人當場抓住。