英文短故事：Four Friends

Once upon a time in a small village lived four Brahmins named Satyanand, Vidhyanand, Dharmanand and Sivanand. They had grown up together to become good friends. Satyanand, Vidhyanand and Dharmanand were very knowledgeable¹. But Sivanand spent most of his time eating and sleeping. He was considered foolish by everyone. 

 

Once famine struck the village. All the crops failed. Rivers and lakes started to dry up. The people of the villages started moving to other villages to save their lives. 

 

“We also need to move to another place soon or else we will also die like many others," said Satyanand. They all agreed with him. 

 

“But what about Sivanand?" Asked Satyanand. 

 

“Do we need him with us? He has no skills or learning. We cannot take him with us," replied Dharmanand. “He will be a burden on us." 

 

“How can we leave him behind? He grew up with us," said Vidhyanand. “We will share what ever we earn equally among the four of us." 

 

They all agreed to take Sivanand along with them. 

 

They packed all necessary things and set out for a nearby town. On the way, they had to cross a forest. 

 

As they were walking through the forest, they came across the bones of an animal. They became curious and stopped to take a closer look at the bones. 

 

“Those are the bones of a lion," said Vidhyanand. 

 

The others agreed. 

 

“This is a great opportunity to test our learning," said Satyanand. 

 

“I can put the bones together." So saying, he brought the bones together to form the skeleton² of a lion. 

 

“Dharmanand said, “I can put muscles and tissue on it." Soon a lifeless lion lay before them.

 

“I can breathe life into that body." said Vidhyanand. 

 

But before he could continue, Sivanand jumped up to stop him. “No. Don't! If you put life into that lion, it will kill us all," he cried. 

 

“Oh you coward³! You can’t stop me from testing my skills and learning," shouted an angry Vidhyanand. “You are here with us only because I requested the others to let you come along." 

 

“Then please let me climb that tree first,’ said a frightened Sivanand running towards the nearest tree. Just as Sivanand pulled himself on to the tallest branch of the tree Vidhyanand brought life into the lion. Getting up with a deafening⁴ roar, the lion attacked and killed the three learned Brahmins.  

1 knowledgeable   

adj.知识渊博的；有见识的

参考例句：

• He's quite knowledgeable about the theatre.他对戏剧很有心得。
• He made some knowledgeable remarks at the meeting.他在会上的发言颇有见地。

2 skeleton   

n.骨骼，框架，骨干，梗概，提要

参考例句：

• A long illness made a skeleton out of him.长期的卧病使他骨瘦如柴。
• Her notes gave us just the bare skeleton of her theory.她的笔记只给我们提供了她的理论的梗概。

3 coward   

n.懦夫，胆小鬼

参考例句：

• The newspapers had unjustly labelled him as a coward.那家报纸不公正地称他为懦夫。
• I was basically a dreadful coward.从根本上说，我非常胆小怕事。

4 deafening   

adj. 振耳欲聋的, 极喧闹的 动词deafen的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The noise of the siren was deafening her. 汽笛声震得她耳朵都快聋了。
• The noise of the machine was deafening. 机器的轰鸣声震耳欲聋。