100个儿童英语小故事: The Happy Family 幸福的家庭

 

031 The Happy Family

There was a butterbur leaf in a country of the south. A lot of butterbur trees with big leaves looked very nice. A snail¹ was living on a back of a butterbur leaf. The snail ate the butterbur leaves and lived peacefully moving from one leaf or stem² to another.

Two snails³ were living on a back of the butterbur leaves. These two had never been out of the butterbur wood, but they knew that there was a different world out of the forest.

Birds always felt impatient⁴ when they saw the snails. "Hey, why are you that lazy? Try to walk faster." When the birds complained, one snail said, "That's because we are not in a hurry."

"Why don't you just stop crawling⁶ around here and go some other places?" "We have a roof and it's full of food here." "If you like staying here that much, do as you want." The short-tempered bird flew away to the sky. But the snails did not envy⁷ the bird that could fly everywhere freely⁸.

"Even she has wings, she has no house, it must be very uncomfortable." "If it rains or something scary⁹ comes up, how can she hide her head and legs?" The two snails her felt pity for the bird.

They were just lonely because they were only two. One day, they found a little snail crying on the back of a butterbur leaf. "What a pity! What's happened?" "Hey little snail, where are you from?" The two snails asked the crying little snail.

The little snail cried and said he was searching for his dad, mom and his brothers for a few days. "Oh dear! Stop crying. I will be your dad." "And I will be your mom. Come on!" The two snails took him to a big special butterbur leaf where they were always living.

A few days later, the little young snail ate delicious food and recovered slowly. Even his mom and dad were surprised that the baby snail could crawl⁵ very quickly and play far away from the leaf. "Sweet heart, you don't need to crawl very fast. Always walk slowly." She showed him slow crawling.

When it rained, funny sounds came from the splashing¹⁰ raindrop on the butterbur leaf. "Do you like it? It sounds like a drum, doesn't it?" The husband snail was proud of himself as if he made the sound. "Wow, it's funny." The baby snail was very happy.

The baby snail is old enough to marry now. His Mom and Dad searched for his bride crawling from one butterbur leaf to another. A ladybug heard it and visited them. "I know a great one."

Mom and dad snails were happy to hear that and asked. "Does she have a house?" "It's not just a house. She has her own wonderful castle with 700 hallways¹¹. She is the queen ant." The ladybug told them proudly.

"Thank you for your kindness, but our baby will be eaten by ants if he marries to the queen ant." The mom snail rejected the ladybug's kindness. After a while, a fly taught them there was a young woman snail right next to her.

The snail family decided¹² the woman snail would be the baby snail's bride. The night of the wedding, six fireflies shone beautiful bluish light on the ceremony. The snail family lived together happily and peacefully ever after.

1 snail   

n.蜗牛

参考例句：

• Snail is a small plant-eating creature with a soft body.蜗牛是一种软体草食动物。
• Time moved at a snail's pace before the holidays.放假前的时间过得很慢。

2 stem   

n.茎，干，船首，词干，血统；vt.堵住，阻止，抽去梗；vi.起源于，发生

参考例句：

• Cut the stem cleanly,just beneath a leaf joint.把茎切整齐点，正好切在叶根下。
• The ship was in a blaze from stem to stern.整艘船从头到尾都着火了。

3 snails   

n.蜗牛；迟钝的人；蜗牛( snail的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I think I'll try the snails for lunch—I'm feeling adventurous today. 我想我午餐要尝一下蜗牛——我今天很想冒险。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Most snails have shells on their backs. 大多数蜗牛背上有壳。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 impatient   

adj.不耐烦的，急躁的；热切的，急切的

参考例句：

• He was so impatient that I could hardly hold him back.他是那样急躁，我简直拉不住他。
• With an impatient gesture he thrust the food away from him.他不耐烦地把吃的东西猛地推开。

5 crawl   

vi.／n.爬行，匍匐行进；缓慢(费力)地行进

参考例句：

• We learn to crawl before we learn to walk.我们学会走路之前先要学会爬。
• She slowed the car to a crawl.她把车开得很慢。

6 crawling   

n.表面涂布不均v.爬( crawl的现在分词 )；（昆虫）爬行；缓慢行进；巴结

参考例句：

• You should be ashamed of yourself, crawling to the director like that. 你那样巴结董事，应该感到羞耻。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Stubborn, self-confident Guo Zhenshan has never gone crawling to anyone. 坚强、自信、有气魄的郭振山，实在说，永远也不会向人低三下四啊！ 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 envy   

vt.羡慕，忌妒；n.羡慕，忌妒

参考例句：

• I envy your ability to work so fast.我真羡慕你，能干得这么快。
• I was filled with envy at their adventurous lifestyle.我很羨慕他们敢于冒险的生活方式。

8 freely   

adv.自由地，随便地，无拘无束地

参考例句：

• She was unable to keep back her tears,and wept freely.她抑制不住泪水，痛痛快快地哭了起来。
• A liquid flows freely and has no fixed shape.液体能自由流动，无固定形态。

9 scary   

a.引起惊慌的；害怕的

参考例句：

• What animal do you think is the most scary?你认为什么动物最可怕？
• Are you afraid of scary movies?你害怕恐怖电影吗？

10 splashing   

v.使（液体）溅起( splash的现在分词 )；（指液体）溅落；击水声

参考例句：

• Water was splashing down from a large hole in the roof. 雨水从房顶上的一个大洞里倾泻下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The children love splashing water over each other. 儿童喜欢互相泼水。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 hallways   

n.走廊，过道，门厅( hallway的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The school's hallways were adorned with beautiful streamers and banners. 学校的走廊装饰著漂亮的彩带和标语。 来自互联网
• The lobby and hallways always smells like delicious flowers. 大堂和走廊一直闻起来像是布满了可口的花朵。 来自互联网

12 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。