背诵为王 第 四 册 第 42 课

Lesson42 The Crippled Butterfly
 

　　A man found a cocoon¹ of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. Hesat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force itsbody through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress.
It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go nofarther. So, the man decided² to help the butterfly.
He took a pair of scissors and snipped³ off the remaining bit of the cocoon.
The butterfly then emerged easily, but it had a swollen⁴ body, and smallshrivelled wings. He continued to watch the butterfly, because he expectedthat the wings would enlarge and expand to support the body, which would flyup in time.
The flight never happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its lifecrawling around with a swollen body and shrivelled wings. It was never ableto fly. what he had done in his well intentioned kindness and haste, what hedid not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle requiredto get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from thebody of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flightonce it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes, struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed usto go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We wouldnot be as strong as we could have been, and we could never fly.
cocoon 茧
swollen 肿胀的
shrivel (使)起皱纹, (使)枯萎

残废的蝴蝶
一个人发现了一只蝴蝶的茧。有一天，茧上出现了一条小裂缝。他坐下来，花了好几个小时观看蝴蝶从小裂缝里艰难地往外爬。后来蝴蝶好像停了下来，再没有任何进展。似乎它已经尽力了，再也爬不动了。于是，这个人决定帮蝴蝶一把。
他拿来一把剪刀，剪开了茧的剩余部分。蝴蝶很容易地就爬了出来，但是却是身体臃肿，带着小而干瘪的翅膀。他继续观察着这只蝴蝶，希望它的翅膀能够长大到足以支撑它的身体，最终可以展翅飞翔。
然而，蝴蝶没有能够飞起来。事实上，这只蝴蝶的一辈子只能拖着臃肿的身体和萎缩的翅膀爬来爬去。它丧失了飞行的能力。
虽然他是好意，但是行动太草率。他不知道的是，束缚蝴蝶的茧和蝴蝶从茧的微小缝隙里挣扎着爬出来的过程是上天设计来迫使液体从蝴蝶的体内流向它的翅膀的方法，这样蝴蝶一旦从茧里爬出来，就可以展翅飞翔了。
有时候，奋争正是我们的生活中所必需的。如果上天要我们的一生没有任何艰难险阻，那只会严重损害我们。那样我们将不能拥有我们应有的强壮，就永远不会飞翔。

1 cocoon   

n.茧

参考例句：

• A cocoon is a kind of silk covering made by an insect.蚕茧是由昆虫制造的一种由丝组成的外包层。
• The beautiful butterfly emerged from the cocoon.美丽的蝴蝶自茧中出现。

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

3 snipped   

v.剪( snip的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He snipped off the corner of the packet. 他将包的一角剪了下来。 来自辞典例句
• The police officer snipped the tape and untied the hostage. 警方把胶带剪断，松绑了人质。 来自互联网

4 swollen   

adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀

参考例句：

• Her legs had got swollen from standing up all day.因为整天站着，她的双腿已经肿了。
• A mosquito had bitten her and her arm had swollen up.蚊子叮了她，她的手臂肿起来了。