橡樹和蘆葦

Once upon a time， there lived a huge oak tree. The oak tree was proud that it was the biggest and strongest in the world. “Despite any hardships， I can survive till the end. There is nothing as powerful as me.”

One day， a severe windstorm began. Watching the other trees fall down one by one， the oak tree was triumphant， “Ill be fine.”

However， the oak tree collapsed when the windstorm was blowing. Flowing on the water， the oak tree thought， “How did I end up like this？”

As it was swept away by the river， the oak tree passed a field of reeds. The reeds were standing there without being broken. “Oh， Mr Reed！ How did you survive the windstorm with your fragile body？” The oak tree envied the reeds.

One of the reeds kindly said to the oak tree flowing down， “Mr Oak Tree， you showed that you were the strongest in the world， right？ The windstorm brings down anything with an air of importance.”

“We never think highly of ourselves， but lower our heads when we come across a windstorm. If you had lowered your head without being so proud， you would have survived the rainstorm.”

從前，有一棵巨大的橡樹。橡樹覺得自己是世界上最大最強壯的樹，因此非常驕傲。“不管是什么困難，我都能安然度過。沒有什么比我更強大。”

一天，突然起了一場風暴。看著其他的樹一棵一棵地倒下，橡樹油然而生一種勝利感。“我會沒事的。”

然而，橡樹還是被風暴吹倒了。橡樹隨水漂流著，心想：“我怎么就這樣結束了此生？”

當被河水沖走時，橡樹路過了一片蘆葦叢。那里的蘆葦并沒有被吹倒。“哦，蘆葦先生！你這么脆弱，是如何躲過風暴的？”橡樹很羨慕蘆葦。

蘆葦親切地對漂流而過的橡樹說：“橡樹先生，你自夸是世界上最強壯的，對嗎？風暴會把任何趾高氣揚的人打到的。”

“我們從來不會自以為是，當風暴來襲時，我們會謙卑地低下頭。如果當時你低下頭，你也會在風暴中存活下來。”

Vocabulary

proud adj. 驕傲的;自豪的

survive v. 生存;存活

collapse v. 倒下，昏倒

envy v. 羨慕;忌妒