螃蟹的职业

The Crab¹'s Occupation




Once a crab was wondering what occupation was the most suitable for him. After thinking for a long time, he decided² to become a barber. It seemed a nice occupation for a crab. But soon he found that as a barber he was not busy because no guests came into his shop. So he went to the shore with his scissors. There he found an octopus³ taking a nap.


“Hello, Mr. Octopus,” he called to him.


The octopus woke up and said, “What?”


“I'm a barber, sir. Can I help you?”


“Look at me carefully. Can you see any hair on my head?”


The crab looked at his head carefully. His head had no hair on it; he was as bald as an egg.


Then he went into the mountains. In the mountains the crab saw a raccoon(浣熊) taking a nap.


The crab called to the raccoon.


“Hello, Mr. Raccoon.


The raccoon woke up and said, “What?”


“I'm a barber, sir. Can I help you?”


As the raccoon was mischievous⁴, he thought of playing a trick on him.


“All right,” said the raccoon, “I'll let you cut my hair. But you must make a promise before cutting. You must promise to cut my father's hair after cutting mine.”


“Very well, sir.”


Then the crab began to cut the raccoon's hair. You know a crab isn't a big animal. A raccoon is many times as big as a crab. The raccoon's body is covered with hair. So the crab made slow progress. The crab worked very hard and finished his work at the end of the third day.


“Now, cut my father's hair as you promised.”


“By the way, how big is your father?”


“He is almost as big as that mountain.


The crab was surprised and thought the raccoon's father was too big for him to cut by himself.


So the crab made all his children barbers. Not only his children but also his grandchildren and great-grandchildren and all new-born crabs⁵ were made barbers.


And so, even a small crab which you see on the beach has his own scissors.

1 crab   

n.螃蟹，偏航，脾气乖戾的人，酸苹果；vi.捕蟹，偏航，发牢骚；vt.使偏航，发脾气

参考例句：

• I can't remember when I last had crab.我不记得上次吃蟹是什么时候了。
• The skin on my face felt as hard as a crab's back.我脸上的皮仿佛僵硬了，就象螃蟹的壳似的。

2 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。

3 octopus   

n.章鱼

参考例句：

• He experienced nausea after eating octopus.吃了章鱼后他感到恶心。
• One octopus has eight tentacles.一条章鱼有八根触角。

4 mischievous   

adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的

参考例句：

• He is a mischievous but lovable boy.他是一个淘气但可爱的小孩。
• A mischievous cur must be tied short.恶狗必须拴得短。

5 crabs   

n.蟹( crab的名词复数 )；阴虱寄生病；蟹肉v.捕蟹( crab的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• As we walked along the seashore we saw lots of tiny crabs. 我们在海岸上散步时看到很多小蟹。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The fish and crabs scavenge for decaying tissue. 鱼和蟹搜寻腐烂的组织为食。 来自《简明英汉词典》