英语故事

英语故事

1、The moon and her mother

The Moon once begged her Mother to make her a gown. “How can I?” replied she; “there's no fitting your figure. At one time you're a New Moon, and at another you're a Full Moon; and between whiles you're neither one nor the other.”

2、The cat and the birds

A Cat heard that the Birds in an aviary were ailing. So he got himself up as a doctor, and, taking with him a set of the instruments proper to his profession, presented himself at the door, and inquired afterthe health of the Birds. “We shall do very well,”they replied, without letting him in, “when we've seen the last of you.”

3、The peacock and the crane

A Peacock taunted a Crane with the dullness o f her plumage. “Look at my brilliant colours,” said she, “and see how much finer they are than your poor feathers.” “I am not denying,” replied the Crane, “that yours are far gayer than mine; but when it comes to flying I can soar into the clouds, whereas you are confined to the earth like any dunghill cock.”

4、have a bright future

In the Chinese classic Zhuangzi, there is a legend like this:

Once upon a time, a gigantic fish named Kun lived in the North Sea. No one knew how large it actually was. This fish could change itself into Peng （a roc），a huge bird measuring thousands of kilometers in length. When the bird spread its wings, it looked like huge clouds in the sky. It could, in one stretch, fly from the North Sea to the South Sea on the other side of the globe, and soar up to 90,000 li （45,000 kilometers）in the heaven.

The bird can surely fly over a long distance without stopping. Now people use this idiom to wish others have a successful career or a bright future.

5、The spendthrift and the sw

A Spendthrift, who had wasted his fortune, and had nothing left but the clothes in which he stood, saw a Swallow one fine day in early spring. Thinking that summer had come, and that he could now do with out his coat, he went and sold it for what it would fetch. A change, however, took place in the weather, and there came a sharp frost which killed the unfortunate Swallow. When the Spendthrift saw its dead body he cried, “Miserable bird! Thanks to you I am perishing of cold

myself.”

6、Give up halfway

During the Eastern Han Dynasty （25-220AD），there was a man called Yue Yangzi. Encouraged by his wife, he left home to visit scholars and enrich his knowledge.

A year later, he came back home suddenly

“Why have you returned?” asked his wife in surprise, “You've only spent one year studying with scholars.”

“I come back because I missed you very much,” Yue Yangzi replied.

Without saying anything, his wife took a pair of scissors and went to the loom at which she had worked. Pointing at the half-done brocade, she proclaimed, “This brocade is woven from the finest silk. I wove one strand after another to produce the brocade. Now if I cut it, all my previous work will be wasted. It's the same with your studies. Now, you've stopped halfway. Isn't it the same as cutting the brocade on the loom?

Deeply moved by what she said, Yue Yangzi again left home to continue his studies.

Several years later, he finished his studies and became a learned man.

7、The hounds are killed for food once all the hares are bagged

During the Spring and Autumn Period （770－476 BC），there were two famous senior officials in the State of Yue. Gou Jian, the King of Yue, ignored the advice of Fan Li and blindly launched an attack against the neighboring State of Wu. As a result, he suffered a disastrous defeat. The King of Wu caught him and had him as a slave. Fan Li persuaded him to endure humiliation, pretend to surrender and wait for an opportunity to avenge. Also, Wen Zhong paid many visits to the State of Wu, trying to help restore Gou's confidence. Years later, Gou was set free. With the help of Fan and Wen, the State of Yue rapidly rehabilitated and later annexed the As they had made so much contribution, both Fan and Wen were awarded great riches. Gou Jian even offered half of the state to Fan. However, knowing Gou too well, Fan rejected and decided to live in seclusion. As a hermit, Fan wrote to his friend Wen. In his letter, Fan said, “When all the flying birds have been shot down, the good bow is put away; when all the hares have been bagged, the hounds are killed for food. I suggest you withdraw to avoid disaster.” Taking his advice, Wen pretended to be ill and stopped attending imperial court meetings. But it was too late. Gou Jian believed the slanderous gossip about Wen and ordered Wen to kill himself.

8、

One morning a fox saw a cock.He thought,"This is my breakfast.'' He came up to the cock and said,"I know you can sing very well.Can you sing for me?''The cock was glad.He closes his eyes and began to sing.The fox saw that and caught him in his mouth and carried him away. The people in the field saw the fox.They cried,"Look,look!The fox is carrying the cock away.'' The cock said to the fox,"Mr Fox,do you understand?The people say you are carrying their cock away.T ell them it is yours.Not theirs.'' The fox opened his mouth and said,"The cock is mine,not yours.''Just then the cock ran away from the fox and fled into the tree.

9、

Once there were two mice. They were friends. One mouse lived in the country; the other mouse lived in the city. After many years the Country mouse saw the City mouse; he said, "Do come and see me at my house in the country." So the City mouse went. The City mouse said, "This food is not good, and your house is not good. Why do you live in a hole in the field? You should come and live in the city. You would live in a nice house made of stone. You would have nice food to eat. You must come and see me at my house in the city." The Country mouse went to the house of the City mouse. It was a very good house. Nice food was set ready for them to eat. But just as they began to eat they heard a great noise. The City mouse cried, " Run! Run! The cat is coming!" They ran away quickly and hid. After some time they came out. When they came out, the Country mouse said, "I do not like living in the city. I like living in my hole in the field. For it is nicer to be poor and happy, than to be rich and afraid."

10、Jonesie The Great Lion Hunter

A small village was troubled by a man-eating lion. So its leaders sent a message to the great hunter, Jonesie, to come and kill the beast.

For several nights the hunter lay in wait for the lion, but it never appeared. Finally, he told the village chief to kill a cow and give him its hide. Draping the skin over his shoulders, he went to the pasture to wait for the lion.

In the middle of the night, the villagers woke to the sound of blood-curdling shrieks coming from the pasture. As they carefully approached, they saw the hunter on the ground, groaning in pain. There was no sign of the lion.

"What happened, Jonesie? Where is the lion?" asked the chief.

"Forget the damn lion!" he howled. "Which one of you idiots let the bull loose?"

11、Weather Predict

A film crew was on location deep in the desert. One day an old Indian went up to the director and said, "Tomorrow rain." The next day it rained.

A week later, the Indian went up to the director and said, "Tomorrow storm." The next day there was a hailstorm.

"This Indian is incredible," said the director. He told his secretary to hire the Indian to predict the weather.

However, after several successful predictions, the old Indian didn't show up for two weeks.

The Indian shrugged his shoulders. "Don't know," he said. "Radio is broken."

12、

It doesn't matter where you are coming from.All that matters is where you are going.

Your decision to be,have and do something out of ordinary entails facing difficulties that are out of the ordinary as well.Sometimes your greatest asset is simply your ability to stay with it longer than anyone else.

You cannot control what happens to you,but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you,and in that,you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.

Those people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and to their lives will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future.

The more you seek security ,the less of it you have.But the more you seek opportunity,the more likely it is that you will achieve the security that you desire.

Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others.Unsuccessful people are always asking,"What's in it for me?"

All successful people,men and women,are big dreamers.They imagine what their future could be,ideal in every respect,and then they work every day toward their distant vision,that goal or purpose.

13、

A man was going to the house of some rich person. As he went along the road, he saw a box of good apples at the side of the road. He said, "I do not want to eat those apples; for the rich man will give me much food; he will give me very nice food to eat." Then he took the apples and threw them away into the dust.

He went on and came to a river. The river had become very big; so he could not

go over it. He waited for some time; then he said, "I cannot go to the rich man's house today, for I cannot get over the river."

He began to go home. He had eaten no food that day. He began to want food. He came to the apples, and he was glad to take them out of the dust and eat them.

Do not throw good things away; you may be glad to have them at some other time.

14、

There was once a farmer who had a fine olive（橄榄树）orchard（果园） . He was very hardworking, and the farm always prospered under his care. But he knew that his three sons despised（轻视，看不起）the farm work, and were eager to make wealth, trough adventure.

When the farmer was old, and felt that his time had come to die, he called the three sons to him and said, "My sons, there is a pot of gold hidden in the olive orchard. Dig for it, if you wish it."

The sons tried to get him to tell them in what part of the orchard the gold was hidden; but he would tell them nothing more.

After the farmer was dead, the sons went to work to find the pot of gold; since they did not know where the hiding-place was, they agreed to begin in a line, at one end of the orchard, and to dig until one of them should find the money.

They dug until they had turned up the soil from one end of the orchard to the other, round the tree-roots and between them. But no pot of gold was to be found. It seemed as if someone must have stolen it, or as if the farmer had been wandering（漫游，闲逛）in his wits. The three sons were bitterly disappointed to have all their work for nothing.

The next olive season, the olive trees in the orchard bore more fruit than they had ever given; when it was sold, it gave the sons a whole pot of gold.

And when they saw how much money had come from the orchard, they suddenly understood what the wise father had meant when he said, "There is gold hidden in the orchard. Dig for it, if you wish it."

15、

A young shoemaker left his village. Along the way, he found some ants, who were very sad because a bear had destroyed their anthill（蚁冢，人群密集的地方） . The shoemaker helped them rebuild it, and the ants offered to return the favor.

The shoemaker followed his way and found some bees with the same problem as the ants. The young man also helped them, and the bees promised to help him in the future.

Further along, the shoemaker learned that the king’s daughter was in the castle of a witch（巫婆，女巫） . The young man decided to rescue her. But the witch locked him up in a stinking（发恶臭的，非常讨厌的）dunge on with a sack of sand mixed with seeds and told him that if he wasn’t able to separate the two, she would cut off his head at dawn.

The young man thought about his death. But his friends the ants came and helped him pass the test. The witch was astounded. Then she took him to a room where there were thirteen maidens with their faces covered: the shoemaker had to discover which one was the princess.

The young man became discouraged but he saw a bee that landed on... the sweetest one, the true princess. When the shoemaker uncovered her face, the witch was changd into a crow（乌鸦） . The young people fell in love and lived surrounded by animals and poppies.

16、The Young Thief and His Mother

Long ago, there were a mother and a son living in a house. She worked hard everyday, but they were always poor.

One day, her son stole his friend's bag. "Mom, what do you think of this bag?" His mother praised her son rather than scolding him. "It looks great!"

The next time, he stole an overcoat. She praised him again when he stole it.

A few years later, he grew up to be a young man. He stole jewelry and brought them to his mother. "How beautiful!" This time, she did not scold her son again.

Then, because he was elated by his mother, he started to steal more expensive things. One day, the police caught him. Before putting him in jail, he begged the police to meet his mother. They took him to his mother.

As soon as he saw his mother, he bit her earlobe. "Ouch! What's the matter with you?" She finally scolded him. Her son answered. "If you had given me a scolding like that when I stole the first bag, I could not have become a thief."

She collapsed as she looked at her son heading to prison. "If I only could turn back time, I would scold him severely." She regretted that she always praised him, whatever he did.