The Ant and the Grasshopper

    One cold，frosty day in the middle of winter a colony of ants was busy drying out some grains of corn which had grown damp during the wet autumn weather．A grasshopper¹，half dead with cold and hunger，came up to one of the ants．“Please give me a grain or two from your store of corn to save my life，”he said faintly．“We worked day and night to get the corn in．Why should I give it to you?”asked the ant crossly．“What on earth were you doing all last summer when you should have been gathering² your food？”
    “Oh I didn't have time for things like that，”said the grasshopper．“I was far too busy singing to carry corn about．”
    The ant laughed unkindly．“In that case you sing all winter as far as I am concerned，”he said．And without another word he returned to his work．Plan ahead．You can't rely on other people to look after you．Exercises：
    回答下列问题：
    ①When were the ants busy drying out the corn？
    ②What do you learn from the story？

1 grasshopper   

n.蚱蜢，蝗虫，蚂蚱

参考例句：

• He thought he had made an end of the little grasshopper.他以为把那个小蚱蜢干掉了。
• The grasshopper could not find anything to eat.蚱蜢找不到任何吃的东西。

2 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。