A beggar found a Ieather purse that someone had dropped in the marketpIace. Opening it, he discovered that it contained 100 pieces of gold.Then he heard a merchant shout,“A reward!A reward to the one who finds my leather purse!”
Being an honest man, the beggar came forward and handed the purse to the merchant saying,“Here is your purse. May I have the reward now?”
“Reward?”scoffed the merchant, greedily counting his gold.“Why, the purse I dropped had 200 pieces of gold in it. You've already stolen more than the reward!Go away or I'll tell the police.”
“I'm an honest man,”said the beggar defiantly,“Let us take this matter to the court.”
In court the judge patiently listened to both sides of the story and said,“I believe you both. Justice is possible!Merchant, you stated that the purse you lost contained 200 pieces of gold.Well, that's a considerabIe cost.But, the purse this beggar found had only 100 pieces of gold.Therefore, it couldn't be the one you lost.”
And, with that, the judge gave the purse and all the gold to the beggar.
一個(gè)乞丐在集市撿到了一個(gè)別人遺失的皮錢包。他打開錢包
一看,發(fā)現(xiàn)里面有100枚金幣。這時(shí),他聽到一個(gè)商人大聲叫喊:“有重謝??!誰發(fā)現(xiàn)我的皮錢包有重謝??!”
乞丐很誠(chéng)實(shí),走過去把錢包遞給商人說:“這是你的錢包吧,我現(xiàn)在可以得到重謝了嗎?”
“重謝?”商人一邊貪婪地?cái)?shù)著金幣,一邊嘲諷地說,“啊,我丟失的錢包里有200枚金幣,你偷走的金幣比我要給你重謝的還要多。走開,不然我要叫警察了!”
“我是個(gè)誠(chéng)實(shí)的人!”乞丐反駁道,“我們到法庭評(píng)理去!”
法庭上,法官耐心地聽完雙方的陳述,然后說:“我相信你們兩個(gè)人,法律是公正的!商人,你說你丟失的錢包里有200枚金幣,這可是相當(dāng)大的一筆錢。但是這個(gè)乞丐發(fā)現(xiàn)的錢包里只有100枚金幣,因此,這個(gè)錢包不是你丟的那個(gè)?!?/p>
法官說完之后,就把錢包和所有的金幣都判給了乞丐。
Practising&Exercise 實(shí)戰(zhàn)提升篇
單詞注解
impIore[im'pl?:]v.懇求,哀求
decIine[di'klain]v.謝絕;下降
deIegation[,deli'gei??n]n.代表團(tuán)
bid[bid]v.致敬;說(問候話)
Ieather['lee?]n.皮革
marketpIace['ma:kitpleis]n.集市
reward[ri'w?:d]n.獎(jiǎng)賞
considerabIe[k?n'sid?r?bl]a.相當(dāng)大(多)的
實(shí)用句型
……h(huán)e added to the official beside him, as the convict slunk away……
……當(dāng)那個(gè)罪犯偷偷溜走時(shí),他接著對(duì)身旁的這位官員說……
Justice is possible!
法律是公正的!
智慧點(diǎn)津
People always see the faults of others, and hardly realize that the behavior of others mirrors themselves.
人們往往只能看到別人的錯(cuò)誤,殊不知,自己的不良行為和別人的沒有什么兩樣。
Blind greed will only lose more.
一味的貪婪只會(huì)失去更多。