100个儿童英语小故事: The Teapot 茶壶

 

026 The Teapot

There was a teapot made of china, and she liked to boast about herself. She had one beautiful long mouth and a large grip on her front and rear, and she was particularly proud of them. But she hushed up about her ugly lid that was broken, cracked and glued loosely.

Teacups, a cream pitcher¹ and a sugar bowl teased the teapot about her broken and scarred lid all the time. Whenever she listened to their teasing while she was boasting about herself, she suddenly felt depressed².

On all such occasions, she comforted herself by saying this, "Yes, I know what my weak point is. Everyone has not only his own weakness but also an excellent talent at the same time. The teacup has his grip, and the sugar bowl has his cover, but I have both. Besides, I have even a mouth that they don't have. Even if sugar bowl and cream pitcher stimulate³ people's appetite, I am the one who bestows⁴ favors on thirsty people. I am the Queen of a tea table!"

One day, a very beautiful and elegant hand picked up the teapot. But by mistake, the hand dropped the teapot to the floor. Her mouth and grip, which the teapot used to be proud of, and her lid were all broken into pieces, and people made such a fuss as they cleaned up the hot boiling water.

The teapot began to be treated as old and useless from that moment. She was shocked by the fact that everyone laughed at her instead of at the careless hand which dropped the teapot. The people gave her away to a beggar. "There's no hope for me." The teapot moaned and cried about her situation.

Even though the teapot had never imagined before, her new and different life began. One day, the teapot got filled with soil. She got another shock from it on that day, but someone planted a flower seed in her. The seed took root in the teapot and began to grow.

The teapot felt the seed as her heart. She came to life and breathed. While her heart was beating energetically, the seed pushed out new buds, and they bloomed. The teapot could forget her past, troubles and worries as she watched the flowers.

But the flowers did not even say thank you to the teapot. They seemed as if they didn't know that the teapot even existed. Whoever looked at the flowers were all impressed by their beauty. The teapot just felt happy by watching them.

One day, someone moved the flowers from the teapot to a better flowerpot. The teapot was broken in two pieces and thrown away in the corner of a garden, but the teapot lived her life keeping her memories to herself.

1 pitcher   

n.(有嘴和柄的)大水罐；(棒球)投手

参考例句：

• He poured the milk out of the pitcher.他从大罐中倒出牛奶。
• Any pitcher is liable to crack during a tight game.任何投手在紧张的比赛中都可能会失常。

2 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

3 stimulate   

vt.刺激，使兴奋；激励，使…振奋

参考例句：

• Your encouragement will stimulate me to further efforts.你的鼓励会激发我进一步努力。
• Success will stimulate the people for fresh efforts.成功能鼓舞人们去作新的努力。

4 bestows   

赠给，授予( bestow的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Second, Xie Lingyun bestows on basic subject and emotion connotation. 谢灵运赋的基本主题及情感内涵。
• And the frigid climate bestows Heilongjiang rich resources of ice and snow. 寒冷的气候赋予了其得天独厚的冰雪资源。