天方夜谭英文故事：The Three Wisemen and The Camel

Once there lived a man in a small village in Arabia. He had a camel. Whenever he went on a journey, he went along with his camel. At one such journey, he lost his camel unexpectedly. He was in search of his camel. He asked everyone, “Have you seen my camel." But everywhere his effort was in vain. 

 

One day when he came through a city he met three wise men on his way. As usual he asked the wise men "Have any one of you seen my camel?" The three wise men thought for a while and began to speak. The man asked them curiously¹, “Have you seen my camel on your way?" 

 

The first wise man asked him, “Is your camel’s one eye blind?" 

 

The man replied quickly, “Yes, yes my camel's one eye is blind." 

 

"Have you seen my camel on your way" the man asked the second wise man. 

 

The second wise man asked him, “Is your camel lame²?" 

 

The man became curious and said, “Yes, yes he is lame!" 

 

“Have you seen my camel" again he asked the third wise man. 

 

The third wise man asked, "Was your camel carrying honey on one side and grain on the other side?" 

 

On hearing these words, the owner of the camel became happy and asked them’ “Have you all seen my camel? Please tell me." 

 

Now the three wise men replied, “We had never seen your camel?" 

 

“You three are fooling me now" Don’t make fun of me", the man said in anger. 

 

The three wise men said calmly." We are not fooling you man. We didn’t see your camel anywhere". The man got angry and took them to the King for enquiry. 

 

He said to the King, “The three men had stolen my camel my Lord". 

 

He also described what they had said. The king asked the three what had happened. The three men denied that they had never seen it. The King asked them then how they could tell the identity of the camel lost. 

 

The first man told the king that he had seen the grass eaten on only one side. “So I assumed that the camel must be blind in one eye", He said. 

 

The second man said that he had seen the grains scattered³ on one side and the honey on the other side. “So I assumed that the camel was carrying the grains on one side and honey on the other side", He said. 

 

The third man described that the hoof⁴ marks of the camel were lighter⁵ on one side than the other. “So we came to a conclusion that the camel must be lame", He said. 

 

The courtier including the king wondered about the cleverness of the three. So the king declared that they were not thieves and he asked the owner of the camel to search on the way the three wise men had come. The camel man went out of the court bending his head in search of his camel. The king appointed the three, as his ministers and ruled according to their advice.  

1 curiously   

adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地

参考例句：

• He looked curiously at the people.他好奇地看着那些人。
• He took long stealthy strides. His hands were curiously cold.他迈着悄没声息的大步。他的双手出奇地冷。

2 lame   

adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的

参考例句：

• The lame man needs a stick when he walks.那跛脚男子走路时需借助拐棍。
• I don't believe his story.It'sounds a bit lame.我不信他讲的那一套。他的话听起来有些靠不住。

3 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

4 hoof   

n.(马，牛等的)蹄

参考例句：

• Suddenly he heard the quick,short click of a horse's hoof behind him.突然间，他听见背后响起一阵急骤的马蹄的得得声。
• I was kicked by a hoof.我被一只蹄子踢到了。

5 lighter   

n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级

参考例句：

• The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色，色调明朗了一些。
• The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。