How the World Got Light

世界之光的來源

The president of Darkland was a pig-a very bad pig. He was a pig of major importance. He was rich, and he had a lot of strength. But he was mean to all the animals in Darkland. He kept all of the world’s light in a bag. He preferred to keep the world cool and dark. He wanted to stop the progress of the city. The animals couldn’t work in the dark. He didn’t have any respect for them. “Light is too good for them,” he said. “Only I should have light.”

黑暗之地的國王是一只豬—一只很壞的豬。它地位很高，很富有也很強大。但它對所有領地內的動物都很殘酷。它把光裝在一個袋子里，因為它喜歡讓世界變得冷漠和黑暗。它想要阻止城市的發展，人們沒有光就無法工作。它對其它動物一點都不尊重。“光對它們來說太高尚了，”它說。“只有我才配擁有。”

But the animals needed light. So they decided to hold a competition. They wanted to find the smartest animal in Darkland. That animal had to steal light from the president. They advertised the competition everywhere. All the animals came.

但動物們需要光明，所以它們決定舉行一個比賽，以此找出國土中最聰明的人。被選中的人要去偷國王的光明袋。它們競賽到處張貼，所有的動物都來了。

The animals all showed off their skills. The audience watched and then voted for the animal with the most knowledge. The winner was a tall bird named Raven. They assigned him the job of getting light.

參賽的動物們都一一展示了自己的技能。觀眾們從中選出了最聰明的一個。最終勝出的是一只名叫雷文的大鳥。大家推舉它去偷國王的光明袋。

The next morning, Raven ate breakfast and then left his home. “How will I gain light from the president?” thought Raven. He needed to trick the president somehow. Then, Raven had an idea. Raven could make his voice sound like anything!

第二天一早，雷文吃過早飯就出門了。“我要怎么才能拿到光明袋呢？”雷文心想。它必須騙一騙國王。過了一會，它想出了一個主意。它能模仿所有聲音。

Raven walked up to the president’s door. He made the sound of a crying baby. He cried very loudly. Soon, the president opened the door.

它走到國王門前并開始學嬰兒啼哭。它哭的聲音很大，很快就把國王引了出來。

Be quiet! the president yelled. Right then, Raven quickly made his move. He flew by the pig and found the soft bag. He took it outside. The sun was inside the bag!

“安靜點！”國王喊道！說時遲那時快，雷文以迅雷不及掩耳之勢找到了光明袋。它把袋子拿到外面。袋子里裝的是太陽！

Raven flew high and put the sun in the sky. The president was very mad. Raven tricked him! But the other animals were very happy. At last, they had light-all because of Raven’s smart thinking.

雷文高高飛上天，把太陽放在了天上。國王很生氣，因為雷文騙了它！但其它動物卻樂壞了。終于，它們看見了光明-這都歸功于雷文的靈機一動。

單詞

advertise v. 做廣告

assign v. 指派

audience n. 觀眾

breakfast n. 早餐

competition n. 競爭

cool adj. 涼爽的

gain v. 增加

importance n. 重要性

knowledge n. 知識

major adj. 主要的

mean adj. 卑鄙的

prefer v. 偏愛

president n. 總統

progress n. 進展

respect n. 尊重

rich adj. 富有的

skill n. 技能

somehow adv. 以某種方法

strength n. 力量

vote v. 投票