小王子 Chapter 1
Once when I was six years old, I saw amagnificent(精美的)picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest(原始森林). It was a picture of a boa constrictor(蟒蛇)in the act of swallowing(吃) an animal. Here is a copy of the drawing.
In the book it said: "Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing(嚼) it. After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion(消化)."
I pondered(思考)deeply, then,over the adventures(冒险) of thejungle(丛林). And after somework with a colored pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing. My DrawingNumber One. It looked like this:
I showed my masterpiece(杰作)to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing frightened them.
But they answered: "Frighten? Why should anyone be frightened by a hat?"
My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it,I made another drawing: I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need to have things explained. My Drawing Number Two looked like this:
The grown-ups' response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside(搁置)my drawings of boa constrictors, whether from the inside or the outside, and devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic and grammar. That is why, at the age of six, I gave up what might have been a magnificent career(职业) as a painter. I had been disheartened(使...心灰意冷)by the failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome(烦人的) for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.
So then I chose another profession, and learned to pilot airplanes(开飞机). I have flown a little over all parts of the world; and it is true that geography has been very useful to me. At a glance I can distinguish(区分)China from Arizona(亚利桑那). If one gets lost in the night, such knowledge is valuable.
In the course of this life I have had a great many encounters(相遇) with a great many people who have been concerned with matters of consequence(重要性). I have lived agreat deal among grown-ups. I have seen themintimately(仔细地,熟悉地), close at hand(就近地,就在眼前). And that hasn't much improved my opinion of them.
Whenever I met one of them who seemed to me at all clear-sighted, I tried the experiment of showing him my Drawing Number One, which I have always kept. I would try to find out, so, if this was a person of true understanding. But, whoever it was,he, or she, would always say:
"That is a hat."
Then I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors, or primeval forests,or stars. I would bring myself down to his level. I would talk to him aboutbridge(桥牌), and golf, and politics, and neckties(领带). And the grown-up would be greatly pleased to have met such a sensible(通情达理的)man.
每日一句:
Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome(烦人的) for children tobe always and forever explaining things to them.
赏析: 大人们从来不会自己去了解一件事,向他们一遍又一遍的说明,对孩子来说,是件令人疲乏的事。
知识点:It is +adj+for sb+to do sth
译:对某人来说,做某事是怎样的。
eg:It is joyful for me to read "a little prince" with you.
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