精選英語小故事

一些有趣的英語故事，能提高我們閱讀英語的興趣，從而提高英語的閱讀能力，今天本站小編在這裏爲大家分享一些精選英語小故事，歡迎大家閱讀!

In the days of king Arthur there lived a ploughmanand his wife. They had lived together happily fortwenty years, but they had no child. The greatmagician Merlin had sympathy for them, and causedthe couple to have a little boy no bigger than hisfather’s thumb. They loved him dearly and namedhim Tom Thumb. Tom had a number of absurdadventures because of his tiny size. He was onceswallowed with grass by a cow, but fortunately hiscry surprised the cow, so that the cow opened hermouth and let him fall out. Another adventure happened when he was out in the field drivingthe cattle along. He fell into a furrow, and a great black raven picked him up and carried himaway in her beak until she dropped him into the sea. Then a great fish swallowed him up. Butthe fish was soon caught up and brought to the court of King Arthur. The cook found Tominside the fish, and took him up to the King. Tom Thumb amused the King and the Knights ofthe Round Table so much that he was knighted and given a needle for a sword and a whitemouse for a horse. Now he lived in luxury, but he never forgot his poor parents. Once a monthhe rode off on his white mouse to their cottage in the country to see them. The poor ploughmanand his wife were very proud of their little son.

【中文譯文】

亞瑟王時代有一個農夫，他與妻子在一起生活了20年，無災無難，只是沒有孩子。大魔法師墨林同情他們，施了魔法，農夫的妻子生下了一個極小的男孩兒，比她丈夫的拇指大不了多少。夫妻二人對他十分疼愛，給他取名叫拇指湯姆。由於身材太小，湯姆有一番離奇的經歷。有一次他被母牛連草一起吃到嘴裏，幸虧他的叫喊聲驚得母牛張開了嘴，讓他掉了出來。又有一次，他在地裏趕牛，不小心從牛背上滑下來，掉在壟溝裏。一隻烏鴉把他叼走，丟在大海里。緊接着，一條大魚把他吞進肚子。恰好那條魚被打了上來，送進亞瑟王的宮廷。廚師打開魚肚子，發現了湯姆，帶他去見國王。湯姆使亞瑟王和圓桌騎士們很開心，被封爲騎士。他得到一根針當佩劍，一隻白鼠做馬騎。他雖然享受榮華富貴，卻從來也沒忘記可憐的爹媽。他每個月都要回家探望他們。老兩口爲他們的小不點兒子感到十分自豪。

Lady Godiva was an Anglo-Saxon woman who lived inEngland during the 11th century. She was the wifeof Leofric, Lord of Coventry. According to legend,her husband forced his people to pay such heavytaxes that Lady Godiva felt sorry for them. She askedher husband to reduce the heavy taxes. Her husbandsaid he would if she would ride naked through thetown. He thought he was safe in making thispromise, but to his astonishment, Lady Godivaaccepted the challenge. She asked all the people inthe town to stay indoors and closed their shutters as she went by. Then she rode through thestreets on a white horse, and her long flowing hair was her only clothing. All the people of thetown honoured her request except the town tailor, Tom, who peeped through a shutter andwas struck blind. To this day, people still call someone who gets sexual pleasure from watchingothers secretly a "peeping Tom".

【中文譯文】

戈黛娃夫人是十一世紀的一個英國貴婦，丈夫是考文垂的利奧弗裏克伯爵。據說她丈夫在當地橫徵暴斂，老百姓苦不堪言。戈黛娃夫人很同情老百姓，就請求丈夫減輕賦稅。伯爵說可以減稅，但有個條件，戈黛娃須赤裸身體騎馬在城裏走一遭。他心想這下會把妻子難住。不料戈黛娃卻一口答應下來。她先通知城裏所有的人都待在家裏，在她路過時緊閉門窗。然後她騎着一匹白馬，以長髮蔽體，穿過街市。所有的人都尊重她的請求，除去城裏一個叫湯姆的裁縫。湯姆人窗縫偷偷向外張望，登時眼睛就變瞎了。在英語裏，窺視他人以獲得性快感的人被叫做"peeping Tom".

Dick Whittington was a real person living in Englandabout six hundred years ago. He went to Londonwhen he was young and made a fortune there bybuying and selling cloth. He became Lord Mayor of London, and lent large sums of money to theking. He died in 1423, leaving all his money as a gift to help the poor.

According to the stories, Dick Whittington was a poor orphan who went to London to seek hisfortune because he had heard that its streets were paved with gold. In London he found a jobhelping the cook of a rich merchant. The merchant was sending a ship full of goods to Barbaryin North Africa, and told his employees that each of them could send one thing in the ship to besold along with the merchant’s goods. The only thing Dick Whittington owned was a cat, so hesent the cat.

Meanwhile, he was badly treated by the cook and he decided to leave London. As he waswalking away from London, on his way back home, he heard the Bow bells ringing and theyseemed to say to him,

Turn again, Whittington,

Lord Mayor of London.

Dick turned and went back. Soon the ship returned, and Dick learned that his cat had been soldfor a great price because Barbary was full of rats and needed cats to kill them. This started Dickon the road to wealth.

迪克•惠廷頓確有其人。他年輕時去倫敦，靠買賣布匹發了財。他後來當上了倫敦市長，連國王缺錢花時都要向他借。他死於1423年，死時把所有的遺產都捐給了慈善機構。

據傳說迪克•惠廷頓是個貧苦的孤兒，他去倫敦是爲了發財，因爲他聽說倫敦的馬路都是黃金鋪的。在倫敦，他找到一份工作，爲一個富商的廚師做幫廚。商人有一艘貨船要發往北非的柏柏裏，他通知僕人們每人可送一件東西與他的貨一併出售。迪克•惠廷頓除了一隻貓外一無所有，就把貓送去了。

此時，迪克•惠廷頓難以忍受廚師的虐待，決定離開倫敦。在回家的路上，他聽到倫敦聖瑪利亞教堂的鐘聲敲響了，好像在對他說，

回來吧，惠廷頓

當市長，管倫敦

迪克轉身回去了。不久，商人的貨船回來了，迪克得知他的貓賣了大價錢，因爲柏柏里正鬧鼠災，急需大量的貓滅鼠。靠這筆錢迪克•惠廷頓走上了致富路。

題外話：這故事很有趣，說明大多數人還是想發意外之財。既然有時天上會掉餡餅，何必流血流汗。殊不知歷史上真實的迪克•惠廷頓是個騎士的兒子，家境殷實。他去倫敦跟一個有錢的親戚學習經商，師傅賞識他的才能，把女兒嫁給了他。他靠雄厚的資本成爲鉅商。那麼人們怎麼編出了一個貓的故事?原來，惠廷頓時代還有英國人說法語，他們說惠廷頓發家靠的是“achat”，即“買賣”。但法語中的“貓”是“chat”，所以有人就誤以爲他發家靠的是“a chat”，或者說“a cat”。以訛傳訛，後來人們就附會出這樣一段故事。

故事中提到的“Bow bells”指倫敦聖瑪利亞教堂(-le-Bow)的鐘聲。聖瑪利亞教堂位於倫敦市中心附近，多年來以其鐘聲著名。英國有句俗話說，“地道的倫敦佬出生在能聽到聖瑪利亞教堂鐘聲的地方(A truecockney is one born within sound of Bow bells)。

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