背诵为王 第 一 册 第 78 课

             78                A Clever Servant

Once upon¹ a time, there lived a rich man. He had a servant. He and the servant loved wine and good food very much. Each time the rich man left his home; the servant would drink the wine and eat up all the nice food in the house. The rich man knew what his servant did, but he had never caught his servant doing it.

One morning, when he left home, he said to the servant, "Here are two bottles of poison² and some nice food in the house. You must take care of them."With these words, he went out.

When the rich man was away from his home, the servant enjoyed a nice meal.

When the rich man came back, he couldn's find his food and wine. He became very angry. So he asked the servant, "Where are my wine and food?"The servant said a cat had eaten up the food. He was afraid to be punished³ so he drank the poison to kill himself.

   servant 仆人 

   poison 毒药 

                                 聪明的仆人

  从前，有一个有钱人，他有一个仆人，他和他的仆人都喜欢好酒和美食。每当富人离开家后，仆人就喝酒，吃光家里所有好吃的东西。富人知道仆人的所作所为，但他从来没有当场抓住过。 

  一天早上，当富人离开家时，他对仆人说：“家里有两瓶毒药和一些好吃的食物。你必须好好照看它们。”说完，他就走了。 

  当富人离开家后，仆人尽情享受了一顿美味大餐。富人回来后，找不到食物和酒，他很生气。他问仆人：“我的酒和食物到哪里去了？”仆人说有一只猫吃光了所有食物，他怕受到惩罚就喝下了毒药以结束自己的性命。