英語故事：苛政猛于虎

　　In ancient times, at the foot of Mount Tai surrounded by mountains, one often heard of tales of tigers devouring people

　　One day, Confucius and his disciples4 passed by Mount Tai. As they walked along, his disciples talked about what they had heard and seen.

　　Suddenly, they heard someone weeping in the distance. They went over and saw a young woman who, with her head covered with a white kerchief, wore white cotton clothes, trousers, shoes and stockings. She was kneeling in front of a new grave and weeping bitterly. The disciples didn't know what to do. Confucius ordered one of them to go forward and ask: "Who has died? Why are you weeping in such sorrow?"

　　The woman raised her head, wiped her red and swollen eyes, sobbed and answered intermittently: "In the past, my father-in-law was devoured by a tiger. Later, my husband was devoured by a tiger too. Now my son has also been bitten to death by a tiger."

　　Confucius' disciple asked worriedly: "The tiger harmed the lives of three generations of your family. Why didn't you leave this place earlier and move to somewhere else?"

　　The woman sobbed, saying: "There are tigers here, but there are no exorbitant taxes, levies or heavy corvee here!" When Confucius heard this, he turned to his disciples and said: "Remember, tigers devour people, but tyranny is fiercer than tigers!"

　　古代，在群山環(huán)抱的泰山腳下，常常聽到老虎吃人的事情。

　　有一天，孔子帶著弟子路過泰山。弟子們一邊走，一邊談?wù)撝娝劇?/p>

　　1 devour

　　v.吞沒;貪婪地注視或諦聽，貪讀;使著迷

　　參考例句：

　　Larger fish devour the smaller ones.大魚吃小魚。

　　Beauty is but a flower which wrinkle will devour.美只不過是一朵，終會被皺紋所吞噬。

　　2 devouring

　　吞沒( devour的現(xiàn)在分詞 ); 耗盡; 津津有味地看; 狼吞虎咽地吃光

　　參考例句：

　　The hungry boy was devouring his dinner. 那饑餓的孩子狼吞虎咽地吃飯。

　　He is devouring novel after novel. 他一味貪看小說。

　　3 disciple

　　n.信徒，門徒，追隨者

　　參考例句：

　　Your disciple failed to welcome you.你的徒弟沒能迎接你。

　　He was an ardent disciple of Gandhi.他是甘地的忠實信徒。

　　4 disciples

　　n.信徒( disciple的名詞復數(shù) );門徒;耶穌的信徒;(尤指)耶穌十二門徒之一

　　參考例句：

　　Judas was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. 猶大是耶穌十二門徒之一。 來自《簡明英漢詞典》

　　"The names of the first two disciples were --" “最初的兩個門徒的名字是——” 來自英漢文學 - 湯姆歷險

　　5 swollen

　　adj.腫大的，水漲的;v.使變大，腫脹

　　參考例句：

　　Her legs had got swollen from standing up all day.因為整天站著，她的雙腿已經(jīng)腫了。

　　A mosquito had bitten her and her arm had swollen up.蚊子叮了她，她的手臂腫起來了。

　　6 sobbed

　　哭泣，啜泣( sob的過去式和過去分詞 ); 哭訴，嗚咽地說

　　參考例句：

　　She sobbed out the story of her son's death. 她哭訴著她兒子的死。

　　She sobbed out the sad story of her son's death. 她哽咽著訴說她兒子死去的悲慘經(jīng)過。

　　7 intermittently

　　adv.間歇地;斷斷續(xù)續(xù)

　　參考例句：

　　Winston could not intermittently remember why the pain was happening. 溫斯頓只能斷斷續(xù)續(xù)地記得為什么這么痛。 來自英漢文學

　　The resin moves intermittently down and out of the bed. 樹脂周期地向下移動和移出床層。 來自辭典例句

　　8 devoured

　　吞沒( devour的過去式和過去分詞 ); 耗盡; 津津有味地看; 狼吞虎咽地吃光

　　參考例句：

　　She devoured everything she could lay her hands on: books, magazines and newspapers. 無論是書、雜志，還是報紙，只要能弄得到，她都看得津津有味。

　　The lions devoured a zebra in a short time. 獅子一會兒就吃掉了一匹斑馬。

　　9 exorbitant

　　adj.過分的;過度的

　　參考例句：

　　More competition should help to drive down exorbitant phone charges.更多的競爭有助于降低目前畸高的電話收費。

　　The price of food here is exorbitant. 這兒的食物價格太高。

　　10 levies

　　(部隊)征兵( levy的名詞復數(shù) ); 募捐; 被征募的軍隊

　　參考例句：

　　At that time, taxes and levies were as many as the hairs on an ox. 那時，苛捐雜稅多如牛毛。

　　Variable levies can insulate farmers and consumers from world markets. 差價進口稅可以把農(nóng)民和消費者與世界市場隔離開來。

　　忽然，聽到遠處傳來哭聲。大家便走了過去，一看原來是一個年輕的婦女，頭上包著白色的頭巾，身上穿著白布衣褲，腳上套著白布鞋襪，正跪在一座新墳前面痛哭。弟子們不知如何是好，孔子叫弟子上前詢問：“死了誰?你為什么哭得這么傷心?”

　　婦女抬起頭來，擦著紅腫的眼睛，抽泣著斷斷續(xù)續(xù)地回答：“從前，我的公公被老虎吃掉了。后來，我的丈夫又被老虎吃掉了。如今，我的兒子也被老虎咬死了。”

　　孔子的弟子著急地問道：“老虎傷害了你家三代人的性命，你為什么不早點兒離開這里，搬到別處去呢?”

　　婦女哭著說：“這里有老虎，但是沒有苛捐雜稅和繁重的搖役啊!孔子聽到這兒，回過頭來，對弟子們說：“你們記住，老虎吃人，可是苛政比老虎還要兇猛啊!”