100个儿童英语小故事: Mother Holle 霍勒妈妈

 

071 Mother Holle

Once upon a time, there lived a widow with two daughters. One was a beautiful and diligent¹ stepdaughter, and the other was her ugly and lazy real daughter.

One day, the stepdaughter broke the mirror of her stepmother while cleaning the house. "Oh, no! What can I do?" The stepdaughter shed frightened tears thinking of the angry face of her stepmother. Then a strange sound came from the inside of the broken mirror.

"Please come in. You may come in." The stepdaughter peeped hesitantly into the mirror, at which moment the girl lost her wits in the glare² of the shining light.

"Ah, where am I?" When she came to her senses, she was standing³ in a garden filled with shining sunlight and beautiful flowers. The girl kept walking dreamily among the flowers.

After a while, pieces of bread shouted out to the girl from a hot oven. "Wow! It's hot! It's too hot. Please take us from the oven." The girl took out all the pieces of bread from the oven despite the blazing⁴ heat, and kept walking.

"My arms are painful as they hold something heavy. Please shake my arms." A tree with apples hung in thick clusters⁵ begged the girl, crying, "My apples are fully⁶ ripened⁷ and are ready to eat. Please shake my arms by all means."

The girl stopped walking and shook the apple tree. The fruit dropped down from the apple tree as if it were raining. The girl collected all the apples that fell down.

Finally, she arrived at a small inn. The girl knocked on the door carefully saying, "Knock--knock! Is there anyone here?" Suddenly, the door was flung⁸ wide open, and an old lady appeared. The girl was frightened and tried to run away.

But the old lady said, "You don't have to be afraid of me. Would you like to live with me? You only have to shake off my bedding cleanly like flying feathers. Then the feathers will become the snow which is fallen on the ground. I am Mother Holle."

The girl did the housekeeping work very hard, and the bedding was shaken off with flying feathers like snowflakes. And although the old lady treated the girl very nicely, one day the child dropped tears saying, "I want to go home. I miss my stepmother and stepsister." The girl begged the old lady saying, "Dear Grandmother, please let me go home." The old lady then said smiling at her, "All right, you have indeed worked hard until now. I will let you go home."

The old lady stood in front of the mirror holding her hands, and said, "Pretty Girl, you may find your way home after you pass through this mirror. And you can take these with you as you have worked hard." At that moment, gold and silver money and valuables were showered down into the breast of the girl from heaven. The grateful child said, "Thank you, Grandmother." Finally, she arrived back at home.

"Mother, Mother!" The stepmother was surprised to see the girl bringing in a great load of gold and silver money and valuables. The girl told her what happened, and upon hearing the story, the stepmother believed that her real daughter might have such luck as well.

The stepmother deliberately⁹ broke the mirror which was held by her real daughter. There was a sound from the mirror saying, "Please come in. You may come in." The stepmother pushed her rather ugly and lazy real daughter into the mirror. She also happened to walk among the fields like her younger sister.

Pieces of bread shouted out to her from an oven saying, "Wow! It's hot. It's too hot. Please take us out of the oven." But the girl kept walking saying, "Hum! I am busy. And I may get hurt if I touch hot pieces of bread." A crying apple tree begged her, and saying, "My arms are too painful. Please shake my arms." But the girl kept walking again saying, "It is indeed troublesome. I don't want to have any fruit like an apple."

Finally, an inn appeared. "Ah, this is the place!" The door was open, and an old lady appeared saying, "It is good to have someone to work for me. All you have to do is to shake off my bedding." The girl agreed to do so, but was tired of working after one or two days.

The girl spent every day idly without working hard to shake off the bedding. The threshing old lady was not satisfied with the lazy girl. Then she said, "My Girl, you may stop working for me and return home. Here is the compensation¹⁰ for your work."

Gladly, the girl waited for gold and silver money and valuables in front of the mirror. "Mother, Mother!" The lazy girl called to her mother. Upon seeing her daughter returned home, the mother of the girl shouted in dismay¹¹. "Oh, no!" There were all sorts of dirty insects and worms attached to the body of the lazy girl, who was forced to live with those dirty insects and worms attached to her body all her life.

1 diligent   

adj.勤勉的，勤奋的

参考例句：

• He is the more diligent of the two boys.他是这两个男孩中较用功的一个。
• She is diligent and keeps herself busy all the time.她真勤快，一会儿也不闲着。

2 glare   

vi.怒目而视，发射强光；n.强光，怒视，炫耀

参考例句：

• Don't glare at me like that,you deserved the scolding.不要那么瞪着我，你本该受到训斥的。
• The glare from the fire lit up the sky.火光照亮了天空。

3 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

4 blazing   

a.强烈的，燃烧的，炫目的

参考例句：

• A huge fire was blazing in the fireplace. 壁炉中火烧得正旺。
• a blazing hot day 大热天

5 clusters   

n.（果实、花等的）串( cluster的名词复数 )；簇；（人、物等的）群；组v.（使）集中( cluster的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• These small particles agglomerate together to form larger clusters. 这些颗粒聚结形成较大的团。
• Sometimes several clusters of white clouds drift across the blue sky. 蔚蓝色的天空中，时而飘过几朵白云。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

7 ripened   

v.成熟，使熟( ripen的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They're collecting the ripened reddish berries. 他们正采集熟了的淡红草莓。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The branches bent low with ripened fruits. 成熟的果实压弯了树枝。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 flung   

（尤指生气地）扔( fling的过去式和过去分词 )； 猛动（身体或身体部位）； 粗暴地（向某人）说； 气势汹汹地（对某人）说

参考例句：

• expeditions to the far-flung corners of the world 去世界偏远地方的探险
• Someone had flung a brick through the window. 有人把一块砖扔进了窗户。

9 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

10 compensation   

n.补偿（或赔偿）的款物，补偿，赔偿

参考例句：

• Workers who have been unfairly dismissed may claim compensation.被无理开除的工人可以要求补偿。
• Equal compensation should be given to men and women for equal work.男女同工应同酬。

11 dismay   

n.灰心，沮丧，惊愕；vt.使沮丧，使惊愕

参考例句：

• The enemy retreated in perfect dismay.敌人沮丧地退去。
• I am filled with dismay at the news.我对这个消息极为震惊。