淑　琴

Wisdom⁽¹⁾Is Stronger Than Force⁽²⁾

A child grew⁽³⁾corn⁽⁴⁾on the top of a hill. When the corn was ripe enough to reap⁽⁵⁾, a bear found it and came into the land. He ate some, threw some and destroyed⁽⁶⁾some.

The angry child went to reason with the bear who cared little about it.^*

“Though⁽⁷⁾I destroyed your corn,what can

you do with me?”

“You must repay⁽⁸⁾my corn!” said the child.

“What if I dont repay it?”

“I will let you know how strong I am.”

“Youd better give it up⁽⁹⁾. Ihavenothing

but strength，” answered the bear.

“I only heard of stupid bears rather than strong ones.”^*

The bear became very angry. Pointing at a huge⁽¹⁰⁾stone, he said,

“You will know whether I am powerful when I have pushed the stone down to the foot of the hill.”

The bear raised the stone to his back and walked for a while on the grassland on purpose.^*

Andthenhepushedthestone forward⁽¹¹⁾and down

alongthesteep slope⁽¹²⁾. Therollingstoneblared⁽¹³⁾.

The bear looked very proud⁽¹⁴⁾.

The child said,“ It doesnt count much that you can carry the stone.^*It is really great that you can pull up a tree.”

“Wait and see.”

On hearing the words, the bear began to pull the tree. It took him great pain to pull up a big pinetree⁽¹⁵⁾.

“Can you drag the tree to the lake and throw it into the lake so that it will float on it?” asked the child.“Then I will be convinced.”^*

The bear managed⁽¹⁶⁾to do it, but he was so tired that he failed to climb up to the bank. The child seized the opportunity⁽¹⁷⁾, ran to the bear, held tight his ear and forced⁽¹⁸⁾himtodrink much water.

The bear begged for mercy and agreed to compensate the child by acting as a bull to help with the farming.^*

注解：

(1) wisdom 智慧，機智

(2) force 力量

(3) 原形grow， 種植

(4) corn 玉米

(5) reap 收割

(6) 原形destroy，毀壞

(7) though 雖然

(8) repay 賠償

(9) give up 放棄

(10) huge （近義詞big, large）巨大的

(11) forward 向前

(12) slope 斜坡

(13) 原形blare，吼叫

(14) proud 驕傲

(15) pinetree 松樹

(16) 原形manage, 設(shè)法對付

(17) opportunity 機會（復(fù)數(shù)opportunities）

(18) 原形force, 強迫（注2的force是名詞）