英语听力精选进阶版 11270

 

32Aesop's Fables¹  The Dog and his reflection

By Tony Payne

When Patch was young he was a good dog. He was warm and soft and had the sweetest breath, and he licked the tip of your nose if you let him.

And because he was so good he was allowed to stay in the farm kitchen. The other farm dogs lived outside in a kennel².

But just because a dog is warm and soft and good when he's a puppy, and licks the tip of your nose if you let him, it doesn’t mean he will grow up like that.

Once, when Patch was a fully³ grown up dog he pulled the cloth off the table and all the family’s dinner crashed to the floor. 

He had eaten it all up before the farmer 's wife came running in.

'Bad dog!' scolded the farmer 's wife.

He barked at the children and bit their legs when they rode their bikes.

'Bad dog!' cried the children.

He pulled up all the flowers outside the kitchen door, dug five holes in the lawn and did his business in the farmer 's hat.

'Bad dog!' yelled the farmer.

So Patch was sent outside with the other dogs. And because people only said ‘bad dog!’ to him, every-one forgot he 'd once been called Patch. Now he was called simply, 

'Bad Dog'.

At feeding time every dog had their own bowl of biscuits and scraps⁴ from the table, but Bad Dog would get to them first. 

He would growl⁵ and snarl⁶ and turn up his lips to show how sharp his teeth were.

The other dogs had to wait, lick-ing their mouths until Bad Dog had finished eating. When he had eaten all the meat and the gravy⁷, and all the dog biscuits from the bowls, all that was left was dry bread and carrots and broccoli⁸, and lots of other things that farmers eat but dogs don' t.

But then one day he went too far. 

The smell of roast meat was waft-ing out from the kitchen. Bad Dog ran in, snatched the huge bone with the meat still on and ran off with it.

'Bad Dog,' screamed the farmer, running after him.  'Come back with that meat now, or you'll never come back again! '

Bad Dog took no notice. This was a whole big bone with the meat still on, not scraps, and he wanted it more than anything.

So Bad Dog ran away with it.

He ran for a long time until at last he came to a little bridge. This would be a good place to stop and eat his stolen dinner.

He looked over the side of the bridge.

And had such a shock!

Below him in the still water was another dog. A big, fierce, ugly dog - and this dog had a bone with all the meat on too!

Bad Dog had to have it. Two joints⁹ of meat! His lips turned back in a snarl, and so did the lips of the other dog. He opened his mouth to growl…And so did the other dog!

And the bone fell from Bad Dog 's jaws¹⁰ into the water and was taken away by the stream.

It had been his own reflection in the still water he had seen, and now instead of two bones he had nothing.

Bad Dog felt sad. He had lost everything that was important.

'From now on, ' he said to himself,  'I shall try and be better. I shall be good instead of bad and nice instead of nasty. Then one day......everyone will love me again.'

And that is what happened.

If you are too greedy, he realised, it 's easy to end up with nothing.

1 fables   

n.寓言( fable的名词复数 )；神话，传说

参考例句：

• Some of Aesop's Fables are satires. 《伊索寓言》中有一些是讽刺作品。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Little Mexican boys also breathe the American fables. 墨西哥族的小孩子对美国神话也都耳濡目染。 来自辞典例句

2 kennel   

n.狗舍，狗窝

参考例句：

• Sporting dogs should be kept out of doors in a kennel.猎狗应该养在户外的狗窝中。
• Rescued dogs are housed in a standard kennel block.获救的狗被装在一个标准的犬舍里。

3 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。

4 scraps   

油渣

参考例句：

• Don't litter up the floor with scraps of paper. 不要在地板上乱扔纸屑。
• A patchwork quilt is a good way of using up scraps of material. 做杂拼花布棉被是利用零碎布料的好办法。

5 growl   

v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣

参考例句：

• The dog was biting,growling and wagging its tail.那条狗在一边撕咬一边低声吼叫，尾巴也跟着摇摆。
• The car growls along rutted streets.汽车在车辙纵横的街上一路轰鸣。

6 snarl   

v.吼叫，怒骂，纠缠，混乱；n.混乱，缠结，咆哮

参考例句：

• At the seaside we could hear the snarl of the waves.在海边我们可以听见波涛的咆哮。
• The traffic was all in a snarl near the accident.事故发生处附近交通一片混乱。

7 gravy   

n.肉汁；轻易得来的钱，外快

参考例句：

• You have spilled gravy on the tablecloth.你把肉汁泼到台布上了。
• The meat was swimming in gravy.肉泡在浓汁之中。

8 broccoli   

n.绿菜花，花椰菜

参考例句：

• She grew all the broccoli plants from seed.这些花椰菜都是她用种子培育出来的。
• They think broccoli is only green and cauliflower is only white.他们认为西兰花只有绿色的，而菜花都是白色的。

9 joints   

接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语）

参考例句：

• Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on gas mains. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在煤气的总管道上了。
• Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on steam pipes. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在蒸气管道上了。

10 jaws   

n.口部；嘴

参考例句：

• The antelope could not escape the crocodile's gaping jaws. 那只羚羊无法从鱷鱼张开的大口中逃脱。
• The scored jaws of a vise help it bite the work. 台钳上有刻痕的虎钳牙帮助它紧咬住工件。