英語(yǔ)寓言故事：畫蛇添足

　　寓言故事是文學(xué)體裁的一種。含有諷喻或明顯教訓(xùn)意義的故事。它的結(jié)構(gòu)簡(jiǎn)短，多用借喻手法，使富有教訓(xùn)意義的主題或深刻的道理在簡(jiǎn)單的故事中體現(xiàn)。

　　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(shí)幾個(gè)人分一壺酒。他們都想獨(dú)自喝完那壺酒，所以就定了一個(gè)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(gè)人很快就把蛇畫好了。他正打算喝這壺酒時(shí)，看見別人都還在忙著畫，就決定給蛇再畫上幾只腳。結(jié)果，他的蛇腳還沒加完，另一個(gè)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(zhǎng)腳的蛇?"。這個(gè)故事告訴我們這樣的道理：做得過分和做得不夠都是不對(duì)的。

　　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(guó)有個(gè)人坐船渡江時(shí)，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(gè)記號(hào)。船靠岸后，那楚人立即從船上刻記號(hào)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(huì)再移動(dòng)。像他這樣去找劍，真是太愚蠢可笑了。

　　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(shí)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

　　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(gè)人想偷鄰居門上的鈴，但是他知道一碰到鈴，鈴就會(huì)響起來，被人發(fā)現(xiàn)。他想啊想，終于他想出一個(gè)"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(dāng)他去偷鈴時(shí)，鈴聲仍舊響起來，他被別人當(dāng)場(chǎng)抓住。