The hare and the tortoise The hare was once boasting of his speed before the other animals. "I have never been beaten," he said, "when I run at full speed, no one is faster than me." The tortoise said quietly, "I will race with you." "That is a good joke," said the hare. "I could dance around you the whole way." The race started. The hare darted almost out of sight at once. He soon stopped and lay down to have a nap. The tortoise plodded on and on. When the hare awoke from his nap, he saw the tortoise was near the finish line, and that he had lost the race.

　　兔子向动物们夸耀他的速度，“我从来没有失败过，”他说，“当我奔跑时，没有人比我更快。” 乌龟平静地说：“我要与你比赛。”“真是笑话，我可以边玩边和你赛跑。”兔子说。 比赛开始了，一眨眼工夫，兔子已经跑得不见了踪影，但是他觉得自己跑得快，对比赛掉以轻心，躺在路边睡着了。 乌龟慢腾腾地却持续不停地走，当兔子一觉醒来，他看到乌龟已经快到终点线了。兔子输了比赛。

　　Giving the Seeding a Hand Long long ago, in ancient China, there lived a farmer .He was worried about his seeding growing too slowly . One day ,he went to the farmland and pulled up the seeding one by one .When he returned home ,he was very exhausted.“I am tired out today，”he said to his family ,“I helped the seeding to grow.“ His son was surprised . He hurried to the fields to see what had happened .It turned out that all the seeding had shriveled up.

　　拔苗助长

　　从前，有一个农民总是担心自己种的秧苗长得太慢。 一天，他到田里把秧苗一个一个地拔了起来，当他回到家时，十分兴奋，“我今天很累，”他对家人说到，“我再帮秧苗长大。” 他的儿子很奇怪就跑去田里看到地发生了什么。一看所有的秧苗都枯萎了

　　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.

　　【译文】

　　一个人正朝着一个富人的房子走去，当他沿着路走时，在路的一边他发现一箱好苹果，他说：“我不打算吃那些苹果，因为富人会给我更多的食物，他会给我很好吃的东西。”然后他拿起苹果，一把扔到土里去。

　　他继续走，来到河边，河涨水了，因此，他到不了河对岸，他等了一会儿，然后他说：“今天我去不了富人家了，因为我不能渡过河。”

　　他开始回家，那天他没有吃东西。他就开始去找吃的，他找到苹果，很高兴地把它们从尘土中翻出来吃了。