100个儿童英语小故事: The Great Rooster 大公鸡

 

039 The Great Rooster

There once were two roosters in a town. One was living in a henhouse, and the other was living on top of a high roof. One day, an eggplant and a cucumber¹ in the field talked about the two roosters.

"Which rooster do you think is better, between the one in the henhouse and the one on the roof top?" The cucumber asked first. "Of course, the one on the roof top is better!" The eggplant answered. "He sits on that high roof top and makes himself proud. Don't you think he is great when you see him?"

"But the one on the roof top is made of iron. It just lets us know where the wind blows. If the wind does not blow, he can't even move by himself." "So, do you think the rooster on in the henhouse can climb up to that roof top?" "The one on the roof top is all alone with no children and no hens." "He is the greatest rooster even if he is all alone." The cucumber and eggplant kept arguing.

At that moment, a strong wind came and blew. Both the cucumber and the eggplant could not talk anymore. As it got dark, the wind grew stronger. With it came with rain, and a severe rainstorm started to fall. 

"Help me!" The cucumber and the eggplant trembled because of the storm. They hung on to their vines² as hard as they could because they felt they would pull out. In the henhouse, all the chickens got together and were shivering³.

But the rooster on the top of the roof was very busy while he was showing the directions of the rainstorm. "Shriek⁴, it's from the east. Shriek, it's from the south!" In the middle of the hard rainstorm - the tiles⁵ of the roof were falling down to the ground, and the branches of the trees were breaking into pieces-, he didn't seem to care how severe the rainstorm was.

"Well, that's my rooster!" The eggplant trembled and said. But even before the eggplant finished saying this, the iron rooster on the roof top broke and fell on the ground with a big noise, 'boom⁶!'.

The rainstorm stopped and the next morning came. "Cock-a-doodle-do! Sun is shining!" The rooster of the henhouse, who was shivering all night long, came out of the house first and told everyone the morning had come.

1 cucumber   

n.黄瓜

参考例句：

• This cucumber plant is climbing.这棵黄瓜爬蔓了。
• Let me eat a cucumber.让我吃一根黄瓜.

2 vines   

n.藤本植物，藤( vine的名词复数 )；葡萄树

参考例句：

• Melons grow on vines. 瓜长在藤上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Grape vines overarched the garden path. 葡萄藤在花园小路上方形成了拱形。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 shivering   

adj.颤抖的v.（因寒冷，害怕等）颤抖，哆嗦( shiver的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He was shivering with cold. 冻得他哆嗦开了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He was so cold that he kept shivering. 他冻得直哆嗦。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 shriek   

v./n.尖叫，叫喊

参考例句：

• Suddenly he began to shriek loudly.突然他开始大声尖叫起来。
• People sometimes shriek because of terror,anger,or pain.人们有时会因为恐惧，气愤或疼痛而尖叫。

5 tiles   

n.瓦片，瓷砖( tile的名词复数 )；扁平的小棋子

参考例句：

• The wind dislodged one or two tiles from the roof. 大风从屋顶上刮下了一两片瓦来。
• On both slopes of the roof there are broken tiles. 屋顶的两面斜面都有破瓦片。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 boom   

n.隆隆声；vt.发隆隆声

参考例句：

• The country is having a great boom in industry.这个国家的工业正蓬勃发展。
• Boom!Boom!Boom!A series of explosions shook the valley.轰！轰！轰！一连串爆破声震撼山谷。