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.

　　兔子向動物們夸耀他的速度，“我從來沒有失敗過，”他說，“當我奔跑時，沒有人比我更快。” 烏龜平靜地說：“我要與你比賽。”“真是笑話，我可以邊玩邊和你賽跑。”兔子說。 比賽開始了，一眨眼工夫，兔子已經跑得不見了蹤影，但是他覺得自己跑得快，對比賽掉以輕心，躺在路邊睡著了。 烏龜慢騰騰地卻持續不停地走，當兔子一覺醒來，他看到烏龜已經快到終點線了。兔子輸了比賽。

　　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.

　　拔苗助長

　　從前，有一個農民總是擔心自己種的秧苗長得太慢。 一天，他到田里把秧苗一個一個地拔了起來，當他回到家時，十分興奮，“我今天很累，”他對家人說到，“我再幫秧苗長大。” 他的兒子很奇怪就跑去田里看到地發生了什么。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.

　　【譯文】

　　一個人正朝著一個富人的房子走去，當他沿著路走時，在路的一邊他發現一箱好蘋果，他說：“我不打算吃那些蘋果，因為富人會給我更多的食物，他會給我很好吃的東西。”然后他拿起蘋果，一把扔到土里去。

　　他繼續走，來到河邊，河漲水了，因此，他到不了河對岸，他等了一會兒，然后他說：“今天我去不了富人家了，因為我不能渡過河。”

　　他開始回家，那天他沒有吃東西。他就開始去找吃的，他找到蘋果，很高興地把它們從塵土中翻出來吃了。