中國(guó)十二生肖的故事

A long time ago in China， there lived the Jade Emperor（玉皇大帝）. He wanted to find a way* to know the time， so he let the animals have a race to choose（選擇） 12 animals for each year.*

The rat and the cat couldn’t swim， so the ox* carried them on his back. They swam across（橫過(guò)） the river. Then the rat pushed the cat into the water and jumped onto the land. So the first year is the year of the rat， and the second year is the year of the ox.

閱讀小助手：

He wanted to find a way to know the time， so he let the animals have a race to choose 12 animals for each year. 他想找一個(gè)測(cè)量時(shí)間的方法，所以他讓動(dòng)物們進(jìn)行一次賽跑，以選出十二種動(dòng)物作為年份的名字。

Then the tiger arrived*. He was the third one. The rabbit couldn’t swim. But he was very clever. He put some big stones in the river and jumped on the stones. Then he jumped onto the land after the tiger. So the fourth year is the year of the rabbit.

And then the dragon* flew down from the sky. He was late because he had to make some rain for the people to drink. So the fifth year is the year of the dragon.

arrive /E5raIv/ v. 到達(dá)

dragon /5drA^En/ n. 龍

Suddenly（突然）， the Jade Emperor heard the sound of a horse. But he saw the snake wriggle（蠕動(dòng)而行） out of the grass in front of the horse. So the sixth year is the year of the snake， and the seventh year is the year of the horse.

Then the sheep， the monkey and the rooster crossed the river together（一起）. The monkey was on the back of the sheep， and the rooster was on the head of the monkey. So the sheep is the eighth， the monkey is the ninth， and the rooster is the tenth.

Later（稍后）， the dog arrived. He was the eleventh. At last， the pig got to the land. So the last year is the year of the pig. When the cat jumped out of the water， he had no chance（機(jī)會(huì)） to be on the list（名單）. So he hated（憎恨） the rat very much.

That’s the story of the Chinese Zodiac.

十二生肖是中國(guó)傳統(tǒng)文化的重要部分，早在我國(guó)的東漢時(shí)期，人們就開(kāi)始用十二生肖來(lái)紀(jì)年了。十二年一個(gè)周期循環(huán)。今年正好輪到蛇年。而且十二生肖也是民間藝術(shù)作品表現(xiàn)的一種重要題材。例如我們過(guò)年時(shí)張貼的年畫(huà)和剪紙，就有不少與十二生肖有關(guān)的圖案。下面我們來(lái)欣賞一組十二生肖的剪紙吧！