五年级英语小故事

五年级英语小故事

1.To Pull up the Seedlings to Help Them Grow

Once upon a time, an old farmer planted a plot of rice. Everyday he

went to the field to watch the seedlings grow. He saw the young shoots break through the soil and grow taller each day. But still, he thought

they were growing too slowly. He got impatient with the young plants.

"How could the plants grow faster?" He tossed in bed during the night and could not sleep. Suddenly he hit upon an idea. He had an idea not wait for daybreak. He jumped out of the bed and dashed to the field. By the moonlight, he began working on the rice seedlings. One by one, he pulled up the young plants by half an inch. When he finished pulling, it was already morning. Straightening his back, he said to himself, "What a wonderful idea! Look, how much taller the plants have grown one night!" With great satisfaction, he went back home. He told his son what he had done in a triumphant tone. His son was shocked. Now the sun had risen.

The young man was heart-broken to see all the pulled-up young plants dying.

People now use " Ba Miao Zhu Zhang" to describe the behavior of those who are too eager to get something done only to make it worse. The idiom is a bit like the English proverb "Haste makes waste" ------to spoil things by excessive enthusiasm.

拨苗助长

从前，有个农夫，种了稻苗后，便希望能早早收成。每天他到稻田时，发觉那些稻

苗长得非常慢。

他等得不耐烦，心想：“怎么样才能使稻苗长得高，长很快呢?

想了又想，他终了想到一个“最佳方法”，就是将稻苗拨高几分。

经过一番辛劳后，他满意地扛锄头回家休息。心想：明天稻苗长得一定更高了。

隔天早晨．一早起身，他迫不及待地起去稻田看他的“成果”。

哪知，他跑到稻田时，却看到所有的稻苗都枯萎了。

2.Sunday Seven

Long ago there were two hunchbacks. One was kind but the other was mean and spiteful. The two hunchbacks cold not work in the village because everybody made fun of them; therefore they went into the hills to cut wood. That is, the kind one cut all the wood since the mean and spiteful one was very lazy and was always telling his companion;

"Ay!, how sick I am today. It is better if you go and cut the wood this week." His partner, being kind-hearted, would go into the mountains and do all the work week after week.

One day, when the mean one had stayed at home as usual, the good woodcutter worked very hard and was very tired. Since his house was far away, he decided to camp near a small spring. About midnight, the woodcutter heard someone singing. At first he thought that somebody had camped near by but when he had listened to what

was being sung, he realized that the voices he heard were not human.

Very cautiously he arose and silently walked to the place where the singing came from. Imagine his surprise when he saw a group of fairies singing and dancing around a blazing fire.

Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday three,

Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday three.

That was all the fairies sang, they repeated the same line over and over again. It seemed that it was the only song they knew. The woodcutter then decided that he would talk to them. Naturally, as soon as he heard them singing again, he went near the fire and the fairies saw him at once.

"What do you want, oh mortal?" asked the fairies. "Why do you come to bother us?"

"Because I can help you. Listen tome and you will see that your song will sound better this way." Then he sang: