那些給我智慧和勇氣的寓言故事24：鼴鼠和它的媽媽

　　A young mole once boasted to his mother that he could see. Now the mother knew very well that all moles are blind: they live in dark underground burrows and do not need to see where they are going. She decided to find out whether the young mole was lying and she prepared a test. She laid a lump of sweet-smelling soap in front of him.

　　一次，小鼴鼠向媽媽吹噓說(shuō)它能看見東西。媽媽心里很明白，鼴鼠都是看不見的：它們生活在黑暗的地洞里，不需要看見要去往哪里。它決定弄清楚小鼴鼠是否在撒謊，于是準(zhǔn)備試一試。它把一塊香皂放在小鼴鼠面前。

　　“Now, what do you see?”she asked.

　　“看見什么了?”媽媽問(wèn)。

　　The young mole touched the hard soap gently with his nose.

　　小鼴鼠用鼻子輕輕地碰了碰堅(jiān)硬的香皂。

　　“A stone, mother,”he said.

　　“是石頭，媽媽。”它回答道。

　　The mother laughed.

　　媽媽笑了。

　　“You are not only blind like the rest of us,”she said,“but you have no sense of smell either. If you had not boasted about being able to see I would never have found out about that.”

　　“你不但和其他同類一樣看不見，”它說(shuō)，“甚至連嗅覺也沒有。如果不是你吹噓能看見東西，我永遠(yuǎn)也不會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)這一點(diǎn)。”

　　單詞注解

　　oyster ['?ist?] n.牡蠣

　　stall [st?:l] n.攤;棚

　　underground ['?nd?ɡraund] a.地下的;地面下的

　　burrow ['b?r?u, 'b?:r?u] n.洞穴

　　實(shí)用句型

　　We can look after each other whenever the fisherman's net comes along.

　　當(dāng)漁夫的漁網(wǎng)罩過(guò)來(lái)的時(shí)候，我們就可以互相幫助了。

　　He looked for the fish but it was no longer around.

　　它找魚，魚卻不在它旁邊。

　　If you had not boasted about being able to see I would never have found out about that.

　　如果不是你吹噓能看見東西，我永遠(yuǎn)也不會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)這一點(diǎn)。

　　智慧點(diǎn)津

　　Humility often gains more than pride.

　　謙遜常比傲慢受益更多。

　　Don't tell lies. You' ll only get caught out.

　　不要撒謊。撒了謊終究會(huì)被發(fā)現(xiàn)的。