Pull Up the Seedlings to Help Them Grow

◎供稿：王靜云

“揠苗助長”指把苗拔起來，幫助其成長，比喻違反事物的發展規律，急于求成，反而把事情弄糟。

Long ago,someone in the State of Song thought that the1)seedlingshe planted were not growing,so he was very anxious.How could he make his seedlings grow taller?

One day,he went to his field to pull up the seedlinɡs one by one.He came home out of breath from2)exhaustion,and said,“I’m really tired today! Because I manaɡed to let seedlinɡs ɡrow taller once for all!”His son ran to the field,only to find that all his seedlinɡs were dead.

Many people in the world make such a stupid mistake.Those who help the crops grow,which not only does no good,but kills the crops.

1) seedlinɡ [?si?dl??] n.幼苗

2) exhaustion [?ɡ?z??st??n] n.筋疲力盡

從前，宋國有個人以為自己種的禾苗不長了，心里非常著急。怎樣才能讓禾苗長高呢？

一天，他到田里去把禾苗一株一株地拔高，累得氣喘吁吁地回家，對他家里人說：“今天可真把我累壞了！因為，我總算讓禾苗一下子就長高了！”他的兒子跑到田里一看，禾苗全部死了。

世上有很多人都會犯這種愚蠢的錯誤。那些一廂情愿地去“幫助”“莊稼”生長，即揠苗助長的人，不僅沒有從這種做法中獲得益處，反而害死了“莊稼”。

Questions:

1.Why did the farmer pull the seedlings up?

2.What happened to the seedlings after the farmer pull them up?

3.What can you learn from the story?

Know More

The synonymous idioms of“pull up the seedlings to help them grow”are:“more haste,less speed”,“run counter to one’s desire”and“eager for quick success and instant benefit”.

和“揠苗助長”同義的成語有：“欲速則不達”“適得其反”“急功近利”。