中英文對照的勵志故事

　　如果可以，我們最好多看一些，提高自己的閱讀能力的同時還能感悟一些人生道理，那麼都有哪些呢?一起來看看吧。

　　：The hidden gold 隱藏的金子

　　There was once a farmer who had a fine olive橄欖樹 orchard果園 . He was very hardworking, and the farm always prospered under his care. But he knew that his three sons despised輕視，看不起 the farm work, and were eager to make wealth, trough adventure.

　　When the farmer was old, and felt that his time had come to die, he called the three sons to him and said, "My sons, there is a pot of gold hidden in the olive orchard. Dig for it, if you wish it."

　　The sons tried to get him to tell them in what part of the orchard the gold was hidden; but he would tell them nothing more.

　　After the farmer was dead, the sons went to work to find the pot of gold; since they did not know where the hiding-place was, they agreed to begin in a line, at one end of the orchard, and to dig until one of them should find the money.

　　They dug until they had turned up the soil from one end of the orchard to the other, round the tree-roots and between them. But no pot of gold was to be found. It seemed as if someone must have stolen it, or as if the farmer had been wandering漫遊，閒逛 in his wits. The three sons were bitterly disappointed to have all their work for nothing.

　　The next olive season, the olive trees in the orchard bore more fruit than they had ever given; when it was sold, it gave the sons a whole pot of gold.

　　And when they saw how much money had come from the orchard, they suddenly understood what the wise father had meant when he said, "There is gold hidden in the orchard. Dig for it, if you wish it."

　　從前有一個農民，他有一座漂亮的橄欖園。他非常勤勞，而且農場在他的照管下蒸蒸日上。可他知道自己的三個兒子瞧不起農活，都迫不及待的想通過冒險發家致富。

　　這個農民上了年歲，感到死期快要來臨時，將三個兒子叫到身邊說：“兒子們，橄欖園裡藏有一罐金子。你們想要，就去挖吧。”

　　兒子們想讓父親告訴他們金子藏在果園的那一塊地方，可他什麼也沒再給他們說。

　　那個農民死後，三個兒子就開始挖地，想找到那罐金子;因為他們不知道金子藏在什麼地方，所以他們一致同意排成一行從果園的一頭開始挖起，知道其中一人挖到金子為止.

　　他們挖啊挖，從果園的一頭一直挖到了另一頭，果樹周圍和果樹之間也都挖到了，可還是沒有找到那罐金子。看來一定是有人已經把那罐金子頭走了，要麼就是他們的父親一直在異想天開。三個兒子對他們白乾了一場，感到大失所望。

　　到了第二年的橄欖季節，果園裡的橄欖樹接出的果子比以往的都多;賣完果子後，三個兒子賺了整整一罐金子。

　　他們從果園裡得到這麼多錢後，突然明白了聰明的父親所說的“果園裡藏有金子，想要就去挖吧”這句話的含義。

　　：Tiresias 泰瑞西斯

　　Tiresias was a blind, darkseeing prophet先知 of Thebes. He was struck with blindness in his youth, because he had spied unwittingly on the goddess Athena. He was wandering in the woods one day when quite unexpectedly he saw anaked maiden bathing in a placid lake. Little did he know that he had offended the virgin goddess. Taken unaware and scarlet with wrath憤怒 , the goddess exclaimed that whoever had the boldness to steal a glance at her naked body was doomed to perpetual永久的 blindness. But when she learned later that the offence was unintentional, it was too late for her to take back what she had said. Taking pity on the poor youth for the loss of his sight, she obtained from Zeus an exceptional long life for him, and from Apollo a divine神聖的 power of prophecy. Besides, she provided him with a marvellous sharpness of ear, so that he could understand the voices of all birds. And she filled his mind with mystic knowledge of things past and of things to come. In short she gave him quite an amount of her own wisdom. He was the first to recognise and welcome Dionysus, god of feast and wine, on the The ban land. When the infant Heracles caught Hera's two serpents巨蛇 in its hands, it was Tiresias who cast the child's fortune and revealed the divine origin and destiny of the boy. When Oedipus abused Tiresias as having had a hand in the murder of Laius, Tiresias had the fearless courage to tell the truth that Oedipus was the murderer. Even in the lower world he continued to prophesy. There he helped Odysseus when the hero came to him for advice. Alive, he was highly respected by all;dead, he enjoyed the generous air and rosy light in the land of the Blest.

　　泰瑞西斯是位只能看見黑暗的底比斯先知。由於他年輕時不小心窺見了女神雅典娜，他的雙目失明。一天，他在森林裡漫步時，意外地看見一位全身裸露的仙女正在平靜的湖水中沐浴。他不知道他已經冒犯了這位貞潔的女神。因莫名其妙地被人個一清二楚，女神勃然大怒。她詛咒道：誰膽敢偷看她的玉體，誰就必將永遠變瞎。但當後來她得知泰瑞西斯並非有意冒犯她時，再想收回她的咒語已經不可能了。出於憐憫，她從宙斯那裡替這位貧窮的，喪失了視力的年輕人爭取到了長壽;又從阿波羅那裡要來了神聖的預言本領;並且，她賦予他神奇敏銳的雙耳，這樣他就可以明白各種鳥語。此外，雅典娜給了他魔術般的本領，使他既知過去，也能預測未來。總而言之，她使他擁有了她自身智慧中的很大一部分。在底比斯，是泰瑞西斯第一個認出了宴會神、也是酒神的狄俄尼索斯，並向他表示歡迎。當海格克斯還是個嬰兒，用手抓起赫拉的兩條毒蛇時，也正是泰瑞西斯卜算出了這個孩子的未來並預示出他的出身及其命運。當奧狄浦斯指責泰瑞西斯參與謀殺了拉伊俄斯時，泰瑞西斯勇敢地講出了事實真相：奧狄浦斯才是凶手。即使到了地獄，他依然預測未來。在那兒，當奧德修斯前去徵求他的意見時，泰瑞西斯幫助了他。活著的時候，他受到人們的普遍敬重;死後，在不萊斯特這塊土地上，他享受著無比清新的空氣和玫瑰般絢麗多彩的陽光。

　　：The shoemaker's adventure 鞋匠奇遇

　　A young shoemaker left his village. Along the way, he found some ants, who were very sad because a bear had destroyed their anthill蟻冢，人群密集的地方 . The shoemaker helped them rebuild it, and the ants offered to return the favor.

　　The shoemaker followed his way and found some bees with the same problem as the ants. The young man also helped them, and the bees promised to help him in the future.

　　Further along, the shoemaker learned that the king’s daughter was in the castle of a witch巫婆，女巫 . The young man decided to rescue her. But the witch locked him up in a stinking發惡臭的，非常討厭的 dunge on with a sack of sand mixed with poppy罌粟 seeds and told him that if he wasn’t able to separate the two, she would cut off his head at dawn.

　　The young man thought about his death. But his friends the ants came and helped him pass the test. The witch was astounded. Then she took him to a room where there were thirteen maidens with their faces covered: the shoemaker had to discover which one was the princess.

　　The young man became discouraged but he saw a bee that landed on... the sweetest one, the true princess. When the shoemaker uncovered her face, the witch was changd into a crow烏鴉 . The young people fell in love and lived surrounded by animals and poppies.

　　一個年輕鞋匠離開他所在的村子。沿途中看到一些螞蟻，螞蟻們很傷心，因為熊破壞了他們的家。於是這個鞋匠幫助它們重修了蟻丘，螞蟻們說將來會回報他的幫助。

　　鞋匠上路繼續前行，發現一些蜜蜂遭遇到和螞蟻一樣的狀況。於是這個年輕人也幫助了蜜蜂們，蜜蜂承諾將來也會幫助這位年輕人。

　　又走了很遠，鞋匠聽說國王的女兒困在女巫的城堡裡，年輕人決定去營救她。但女巫把他鎖在惡臭的糞土堆旁，還扔給他一麻袋混合在一起的沙子和罌粟種子。告訴他如果不能夠在黎明前把這些區分開來，就要在黎明時砍掉他的腦袋。

　　年輕人想著他要死了。這時他的朋友螞蟻來了，幫助他通過了這個考驗。女巫大吃一驚，接著她把年輕人帶到了一個房間，裡面有蒙著面紗的是三個少女：鞋匠必須從中找出真正的王妃。

　　年輕人有些灰心了，但這時他看到了一隻蜜蜂降落在一個人身上……那人就是真正的王妃。當鞋匠揭開她的面紗，於是女巫變成了一隻烏鴉。年輕人跟公主墜入愛河，動物們和罌粟花都圍繞著他們。