Clever Monkey
听了老人言……
Once upon a time there was a nice young man called
Karim. He used to sell caps for a living, and roam around several villages.1
One day he would be in village A, the other day people would find him
in village B.
It was an afternoon in summer and he was traversing the vast plains
when he felt tired and wanted to have a nap.2 He found a nice mango
tree with lots of branches and cool shade,3 placed his bag of caps beside
him and went to sleep. Tired as he was, he was quickly fast4 asleep.
When he woke up after a refreshing5 little nap, he found that there
weren't any caps in his bag!
"Oh, Allah6!", he said to himself, "Did
the thieves have to find me of all people?7" But then he noticed
that the mango tree was full of cute8 monkeys wearing colourful caps!
He yelled at the monkeys and they screamed back.9
He made faces at them and found the monkeys to be experts at that.10
He threw a stone at them and they showered him with raw mangoes.11
Frustrated, he took off his own cap and slammed
it on the ground.12 And Lo13, the stupid monkeys threw their caps too!
Smart Karim didn't waste a second, collected the caps and was on his
way.
50 years later, young Abdul, grandson of famous
Karim who was also working hard at making money and doing his family
business14, was going through the same jungle.
After a long walk he was very tired and found a
nice mango tree with lots of branches and cool shade. Abdul decided
to rest a while and very soon was fast asleep. A few hours later, when
Abdul woke up, he realised that all the caps from his bag were gone!
Abdul started searching for the same and to his surprise15 found some
monkeys sitting on mango tree wearing his caps.
Abdul was frustrated and didn't know what to do.
And then he remembered the story his grandfather proudly used to tell
him.16
"Yes! I can fool17 these monkeys!!!",
said Abdul. "I'll make them imitate18 me and very soon I'll get
all my caps back!"
Abdul waved at the monkeys - the Monkeys waved
at Abdul
Abdul started dancing - the Monkeys were also dancing
Abdul pulled his ears - the Monkeys pulled their ears
Abdul raised his hands - the Monkeys raised their hands
Abdul threw his cap on the ground...
Just then, one of the monkeys jumped down
from the tree, grabbed the cap Abdul threw on the ground and walked
up to Abdul, said: "Do you think ONLY YOU HAD A GRANDFATHER?"19°?
1. 他一直靠卖帽子为生,经常来往于几个村子之间。roam:在……之间来回走动。
2. traverse:横过,穿过;have
a nap:(尤指在白天)小睡,打盹。
3. 他看见了一棵芒果树,枝繁叶茂,阴凉一片。
4. fast:(睡眠)沉的,熟的。
5. refreshing:提神的,令人身心舒服的。
6. Allah:安拉,真主(伊斯兰教信奉的惟一神的名称)。
7. 难道盗贼偏偏撞见了我?
8. cute:聪明伶俐的,机敏的。
9. 他冲着猴子大声叫喊,猴子们也尖叫着回敬他。
10. 他向猴子扮鬼脸,结果发现猴子对扮鬼脸在行得很。
11. 他向它们扔石头,猴子就从树上摘了生芒果雨点般地砸向他。raw:自然状态的,生的。
12. frustrated:挫败的,泄气的;slam:使劲扔,砰地放下。
13. Lo: (表示惊讶)看哪!瞧!
14. family business:(祖传的)家业。
15. to one's surprise:令某人吃惊地。
16. 于是他想起了爷爷过去常常得意地讲起的那个故事。
17. fool:愚弄,欺骗。
18. imitate:模仿。
19. 就在这时,一只猴子从树上跳下来,抢走了阿卜杜拉扔在地上的帽子,走到他跟前说:"你以为只有你有爷爷吗?"