Gild the Lily畫蛇添足

“畫蛇添足”最早出自《戰國策·齊策二》，指畫蛇時給蛇添上腳。后比喻做事節外生枝，不但多余無益，反而害事；也比喻虛構事實，無中生有，多此一舉。

In old times， a family in the State ofChu held a 1）sacrificial activity to theirancestors， and after that they rewarded thepeople who helped in the 2）ceremony withthe pot of wine used in it.

There were many helpers but only onepot of wine. Who will drink it？

Then someone suggested， “ L e teveryone draw a snake. Whoever drawsfastest and most lifelike will get the pot ofwine.” All people thought that was a goodidea.

One man drew very fast. He finished itin the blink of an eye， and of course he wasgiven the pot of wine. At this moment， hesaw that the others had not finished yet， sohe wanted to 3）flaunt his skill.

從前，楚國的一戶人家為他們的祖先舉行了祭祀活動，等祭祀完，他們把一壺祭祀時用過的酒給幫忙辦事的人喝。

辦事的人很多，可是酒只有一壺。到底給誰喝呢？

有人提議說：“讓每個人都在地上畫一條蛇，誰畫得最快、最像，就把這壺酒給誰喝。”大家都認為這個辦法很好。

有一個人畫得很快，一轉眼，就把蛇畫好了，理所當然這壺酒應該歸他。可是，這時候，他看別人都沒有畫好，就想再炫耀一下自己的技能。

He said proudly， “How slow you are！Even though I give the snake more feet andyou won’t finish it！” Holding the wine pot inhis left hand， he began to add feet to thesnake with his right hand.

When he was just adding feet to thesnake， another man finished his drawing.He 4）grabbed the wine pot at once， saying，“A snake has no feet. How could youadd feet to it？ The first one who finisheddrawing a snake is me， not you.”

After saying this， the man drank off thewine.

他得意揚揚地說：“你們畫得真慢啊！我就是給蛇再添上腳，你們也追不上我！”他左手拿著酒壺，右手又開始給畫好了的蛇添上腳。

當他正在給蛇畫腳的時候，另一個人卻把蛇畫好了。那個人立刻把酒壺奪了過去，說：“蛇是沒有腳的，你怎么畫上了腳？第一個畫好蛇的是我，不是你！”

說完，那個人就將那壺酒一飲而盡。

1） sacrificial adj. 獻祭的

2） ceremony n. 儀式；典禮

3） flaunt v. 炫耀；賣弄

4） grab v. 攫取；抓住

Fill in the blanks：

1.Whoever draws the snake__________and most__________will get the pot of wine.

2.The man__________feet to the snake ended up with nothing.

Know More

The idiom tells us that we should be practical andrealistic whatever we do， or it may lead a bad ending.

這個成語故事告訴我們：無論做什么都要實事求是，否則會把事情弄砸。

參考答案：

1.fastest; lifelike

2.added