100个儿童英语小故事: The Rotten Apples and the Wife 妻子和腐烂的苹果

 

014 The Rotten¹ Apples and the Wife

There was a poor farmer in the country. He had a wife with a warm heart. The only things they had were a small piece of rice field, a farm and a horse.

One day, the farmer said to his wife. "We have to exchange the horse with other goods², tomorrow at the market." "Yes, we do. We don't need a horse because we have no chance of going far away." His wife agreed with him.

The next day, the farmer went to the market riding on horseback. He found a good cow while he was looking around the market. 'Mm. That cow will be good. We will be able to drink fresh milk everyday³.' The farmer smiled and went close to the cow.

"If you want to sell this cow, how about exchanging your cow with my horse?" The owner of the cow took a look at the horse for a while. He felt strange because the horse was much more expensive than the cow. The horse looked healthy on the whole. The owner of the cow laughed loudly and agreed to the deal.

The farmer was very happy, too. 'Everything's okay. Now I have to go back to my house.' As he walked not a long distance with the cow, he saw a plump⁴, soft-haired goat⁵. Suddenly he wanted to have the goat. 'It would be much easier to raise a goat than a cow. And goat's milk tastes good.'

"Hey, why don't we exchange your goat with my cow?" The owner of the goat thought that was a golden⁶ opportunity⁷, after he heard the farmer. "Of course, I'll be glad to." This was how the farmer exchanged his cow with the goat.

'Today is my lucky day.' The farmer even hummed to himself. After a while, he saw a young man holding a goose tightly⁸ with his two hands. 'That goose looks very healthy. Its hair is rich. It would be nice if we could raise such a great goose in our depression⁹.' The farmer wanted to have the goose, so he exchanged his goat with the goose.

After a short time, he met a guy who was holding a cute hen in his arms. 'Cock-a-doodle-do, cock-a-doodle-do!' The hen's voice sounded very healthy. 'What a nice hen!' This time, he also wanted to have the hen. The farmer approached¹⁰ the guy and asked him to exchange his goose with the hen. Of course the owner of the hen agreed to his suggestion. 

It was already late afternoon when he exchanged his animals several times. 'Oh, I am hungry! I am going to have lunch in a restaurant.' The farmer held his hen and headed to a restaurant. A young man was carrying a heavy bag on his shoulder in front of the restaurant.

"Look, young man. What's inside of that bag?" He looked at the bag and asked. "Oh, This? These are rotten apples. "The young man said.

'Rotten apples? We had only one apple from our apple trees last year. That's amazing that he has such a lot of apples. If we use those rotten apples as fertilizer¹¹, our trees will bear lots of apples, too.' The farmer exchanged his hen with the rotten apples.

Then, he went into the restaurant and had lunch. And he told his story how he happened to exchange one thing and another, and finally he got the rotten apples. An rich old man listened to the farmer's story and said, "You are such a hopeless¹² fellow¹³. If you go back to your house, your wife will be mad at you." "No way. My wife has never been angry at me." "All right, if your wife will not be angry about your story today, I will give you a package of gold coins."

After that, the farmer went back to his house with the old rich man. And he told his wife the whole story about how he came back with the rotten apples. Then, his wife said, "Oh, that's great. We will have as many apples as those rotten apples." The farmer's wife even smiled happily.

In the end, the old rich man had to give them a package of gold coins. Therefore¹⁴ the farmer became very rich.

1 rotten   

adj.腐烂(朽)的；令人不愉快的；糟糕的

参考例句：

• The book was pretty rotten.这本书糟透了。
• Rotten eggs give off a bad smell.臭蛋散发出难闻的气味。

2 goods   

n.商品，货物

参考例句：

• He is loading the goods into the back of the car.他正把货物装入车的后部。
• The boy delivered the goods to the right house.那个男孩送货给要货的人家。

3 everyday   

adj.每天的，日常的，平常的

参考例句：

• Sweeping the floor is his everyday work.扫地是他的日常工作。
• He practices speaking English everyday.他每天练习说英语。

4 plump   

adj.丰满的，丰富的，直接的；vi.下降，支持，变丰满；vt.突然放下，支持，使丰满；n.突然膨胀，坠落；adv.骤降，直线下降，不加限制的

参考例句：

• The baby is plump and very cute.那个婴儿白白胖胖的，十分可爱。
• The grains are quite plump.谷粒儿很饱。

5 goat   

n.山羊，替罪羊；坏人，色鬼

参考例句：

• A goat is different from a sheep.山羊与绵羊不一样。
• They have goats and sell goat's milk.他们有山羊，卖羊奶。

6 golden   

adj.金的，含金的，可贵的，金色的，贵重的，繁盛的

参考例句：

• My teacher is an Englishman with golden hair.我的老师是一个金黄色头发的英国人。
• It's a balmy evening,the golden time for lovers.这是一个暖和的夜晚，是恋人们的黄金时光。

7 opportunity   

n.机会；时机

参考例句：

• It's a pity that Mike passed up such a good opportunity.迈克错过了这么好的一个机会,真是可惜。
• I love the country,but I have less opportunity of seeing it.我热爱乡村,但我几乎没有机会见到它。

8 tightly   

adv.紧紧地，坚固地，牢固地

参考例句：

• My child holds onto my hand tightly while we cross the street.横穿马路时，孩子紧拉着我的手不放。
• The crowd pressed together so tightly that we could hardly breathe.人群挤在一起，我们几乎喘不过气来。

9 depression   

n.压抑，抑制，沮丧；萧条，衰退

参考例句：

• During a depression money circulates slowly.在商业萧条时期，货币流通滞缓。
• He suffers from acute depression.他患有严重的忧郁症。

10 approached   

v.接近，走近，靠近( approach的过去式和过去分词 )；（在性质、数量、质量、情形、时间等方面）近似；接洽；使移近

参考例句：

• The sky began to darken as the storm approached. 暴风雨来临时天空变得黑沉沉的。
• She felt her heartbeat quicken as he approached. 随着他的走近，她觉得自己的心跳加速了。

11 fertilizer   

n.肥料，化肥

参考例句：

• Fertilizer enriches the soil.肥料使土壤肥沃。
• Get some more fertilizer for the garden.给花园再多施些肥料。

12 hopeless   

adj.无希望的，绝望的，毫无办法的

参考例句：

• Jim's plan seemed hopeless,but he brought it off.吉姆的计划看起来没希望实现，但是他成功了。
• I'm hopeless at Maths.我的数学很糟糕。

13 fellow   

n.人，家伙；伙伴，同事；对等者，对手；一对中之一，配对物；adj.同伴的，同事的

参考例句：

• I can't stand that fellow.我不能容忍那家伙。
• Who's that old fellow?那个老家伙是谁？

14 therefore   

adv.因此，所以

参考例句：

• He was busy,therefore,he couldn't come.他忙得很，所以没有来。
• He was very tired and therefore he fell sound asleep.他非常疲劳，因此就睡熟了。