Aesop at Play

    An Athenian seeing Aesop in a crowd of boys at play with nuts，stopped and laughed at him for a madman．As soon as the sage——One who was good at laughing at others rather than one who was prone¹ to be laughed at—perceived this，he placed an unstrung bow in the middle of the road；“Hark you，wise man，”said he，“unriddle what I have done．”
    People gathered around them．The man racked his brains for along time，but could not make out the reason of the question put for-ward．At last he gave up．Upon this，the bow，if you always keep it bent；but if you loosen² it，it will be fit for use when you want it．Exercises：
    回答下列问题：
    ①Why did an Athenian laugh at Aesop？
    ②What did Aesop do when he knew someone laughed at him？
    ③Did the Athenian understand the intention of Aesop？
    ④What did Aesop mean by doing that？

1 prone   

adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的

参考例句：

• Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
• He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。

2 loosen   

vt.放松，松开，解除（便秘等），放宽；vi.变松，松弛

参考例句：

• I must take some exercise and loosen up my muscles.我必须活动活动使肌肉放松些。
• The medicine may loosen your cough.这种药能减轻你的咳嗽。