捕鼠器

捕鼠器

作者：陶杏

来源：《中学生英语·学生综合天地》2011年第09期

A little mouse living on a farm saw the farmer and his wife putting a mousetrap (老鼠夹) in the house one day. The mouse ran to the farmyard warning(提醒) everyone, “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mous etrap in the house!”

A chick said, “Mr. Mouse, I can tell you that this trap is set for you and it has no consequence (后果) to me and I won’t be bothered (打扰) with it.” The mouse turned to the pig. “I am so sorry, Mr. Mouse, but the trap has nothing to do with me either!” the pig said. The mouse then turned to the bull, “Mr. Mouse, I won’t be bothered with it either.” the bull said. The mouse felt very sad that no one would help him or be concerned (担心) for him.

That night they all heard the trap catching its prey (猎物). The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she could not see that it was a venomous (有毒的) snake whose tail had been caught by the trap. The snake bit her. She caught a bad fever and the farmer knew the best way to treat a fever was with chicken soup. He took his knife to the farmyard to get the ingredient (原料).

The wife got sicker and friends and neighbors took turns coming to see her. The farmer had to feed them, so he butchered (屠宰) the pig. The farmer’s wife did not get better. Later she died and many friends and relatives (亲戚) came to her funeral (葬礼). The farmer had to butcher the bull to feed all of them.

So next time when we hear that one of our teammates is facing a problem and think it has nothing to do with us, let’s remember that when anyone of us is in trouble, we are all at risk.

一天，一只住在农场里的小老鼠看到农场主和他的妻子放了一个老鼠夹在家里。于是它跑到农场的院子里向每一个动物提醒道：“屋里有一个老鼠夹！屋里有一个老鼠夹！”

一只小鸡说：“老鼠先生，我敢说老鼠夹是专为你设置的，不会给我带来任何后果，我用不着担心。”老鼠转向猪。“我也很抱歉，老鼠先生，老鼠夹和我也没有任何关系。”小猪说道。老鼠又去跟牛讲。牛对它说：“老鼠先生，我也不用担心这个。”老鼠感到很沮丧，因为没有谁愿意帮助它，也没有谁为它担心。

那天晚上大家都听到了夹子夹住猎物的声音。农夫的妻子急忙跑过去看是什么被夹住了。黑暗中她看不见是一条毒蛇的尾巴被夹住了。她被毒蛇咬了一口，发起了高烧。农夫知道最好的退烧办法是喝鸡汤，于是他拿着刀走进院子去取做汤的原料。

农夫的妻子病得更重了，朋友和邻居们轮流来看她。农夫必须招待他们，所以就把猪杀了。农夫的妻子还是没有好转，最后还是死了，很多朋友和亲戚来参加她的葬礼，农夫只有杀牛来招待他们。

所以，下一次当我们听到同伴中的一员遇到麻烦时，不要想这不关自己的事,请记住：如果我们中任何一个人遇到麻烦，我们都将处于危险之中。