中国故事45 | The Mysterious Animal 黔驴技穷|animal|中国故事|翻译|老虎|驴子

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45、The Mysterious Animal

黔驴技穷

从前，贵州没有驴，有一人从外地带了一头驴来到贵州，将驴拴在家旁边的树上。第二天，一只饥饿的老虎看到了这头驴，老虎从未见过驴，觉得驴看上去十分强壮，于是不敢轻举妄动，偷偷躲在树后观望。老虎一步步靠近驴，试探驴的反应，逐渐发现驴没有任何强大的技能。那天夜里，老虎饱餐一顿，扬长而去。

A very long time ago, there were no donkeys in the province of Guizhou. Most people there did not know what a donkey looked like or what a donkey could do.

One day, a government official returned to Guizhou from a trip. With him, he had a donkey that he had bought to carry his luggage. He didn’t have a stable at his house for the donkey. His house was next to the woods at the bottom of a mountain. So instead of a stable, he used a rope to tie the donkey to a tree near his house.

The next day, a hungry tiger crept out of the woods. He was looking for his next meal and saw the donkey. At first the tiger thought it was a horse. But as he got closer, he realized that it wasn’t.

“What is this strange, gray animal?” he said to himself. “I have never seen one before!” Curious, he crept a little closer.

“Oh my, it looks delicious!” he cried. He was happy to have found something to eat. But he was also afraid. The animal looked big and strong, and the tiger was afraid that it would hurt him.

So, he decided to hide behind a tree and spy on the donkey. He wanted to see what it did. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so scary after all!

Soon, the tiger’s stomach started to growl with hunger. “If I do not eat soon, I will faint!” he thought.

He quickly decided that it was safe to go out. The donkey hadn’t done much. All it had done was eat some grass around the tree.

The moment the tiger took a step forward, however, the donkey reacted. It brayed loudly. It screeched.

The tiger immediately jumped back behind the tree. He was terrified! He had never heard such a noise before. “I’m too young to die!” he shouted.

His stomach growled again. He needed to eat something! So again, he waited and spied on the donkey. Perhaps it wouldn’t turn out to be so bad after all.

The tiger quickly got used to the donkey’s brays. He realized that they were merely sounds. They didn’t mean anything, and the donkey wasn’t doing anything else. So, he came out again.

This time, he walked in circles around the donkey to look at it more carefully. When it still didn’t do anything scary, he decided to do something else. He wanted to see what it would do when it was angry. So, he used one paw and touched the donkey.

Immediately, the donkey kicked its two back legs. Its back legs were very strong, and those kicks probably would have hurt—a lot. At first, the tiger was surprised. He had not expected those kicks. But quickly his surprise turned into a smile. The donkey couldn’t do anything else. All it knew how to do was bray and kick! It was not a scary animal after all.

That night, the tiger went to bed with a full stomach.

The End

The idiom “the donkey from Guizhou has run out of tricks” comes from this story. Today, people use it to describe someone who has no skills left. Someone who has done everything they can.

Question: Have you ever been afraid of an animal?

核心词汇

luggage n. 行李

stable n. 马厩，牛棚，羊棚

creep (crept) v. 爬行，匍匐; 缓慢地行进

spy v. 暗中监视（或窥视、侦探、刺探）

growl v. 作隆隆声; 嘟哝; 愤愤不平地抱怨; 低声咆哮着说; 粗鲁地说出

faint v. 头晕，昏过去

react v. 做出反应，反应

bray v. 发出驴叫似的声音; 发嘟嘟声

screech v. 发出尖叫声，发出尖锐刺耳的声音

immediately adv. 立即，马上