100个儿童英语小故事: The Bottle Neck 瓶颈

 

050 The Bottle Neck

Once, there was a poor family. They were so poor that they had to live in an attic¹. They had an old birds cage, and it had a jar at the bottom. The jar didn't have a body but it had a mouth. It was standing² upside down and was used as a water bucket for the bird. "Peep³ peep"

The bird in the cage sang a song. Her voice was so pretty. "Bird, I wish I could sing like you." The jar envied the bird's voice. "A long time ago, I used to sing as you do."

In the past, before she was broken, the nickname⁴ of the jar was 'skylark'. When people opened the mouth of the jar, they heard the 'pop' sound as a song. "But look, it was not just a song."

The jar told her the story about how she came to the poor attic. She remembered when she went on a picnic with the old furrier family. It was the day of the ceremony when one pretty daughter of the furrier got engaged. "I still remember the day as vividly⁵ as yesterday."

She told her about when she was put in the middle of flames. And she talked about when she fell on the ground and when she was trapped in the mud. The jar kept talking, but the bird kept singing. "Peep peep" "Don't you think my story is interesting?"

The bird didn't answer and kept singing. The jar started to talk again. She talked about the story when she traveled around the world. She told how she came to the furrier's hands and also a love story of a couple. "I never stopped my journey."

It was true that the jar never stopped its journey. She went to France and America. At last, the jar happened to come back to the house of the furrier's daughter.

The jar wanted to be a really important water bucket for the poor furrier's daughter. But the jar couldn't recognize that the old lady was the furrier's pretty daughter. As times went by, she grew old. Maybe the jar could remember only the first time when she met the daughter.

1 attic   

n.顶楼，屋顶室

参考例句：

• Leakiness in the roof caused a damp attic.屋漏使顶楼潮湿。
• What's to be done with all this stuff in the attic?顶楼上的材料怎么处理？

2 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

3 peep   

n.瞥见，偷看，初现；v.窥视，慢慢露出，吱吱叫

参考例句：

• I took a peep through the keyhole.我从钥匙孔偷看了一眼。
• Let me have just one peep at the letter.让我瞥一眼这封信。

4 nickname   

n.绰号，昵称；v.给...取绰号，叫错名字

参考例句：

• She called me by my nickname.她叫我的外号。
• Why do you fasten such a nickname on her?你为什么给她取这样一个绰号？

5 vividly   

adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地

参考例句：

• The speaker pictured the suffering of the poor vividly.演讲者很生动地描述了穷人的生活。
• The characters in the book are vividly presented.这本书里的人物写得栩栩如生。