书城英文图书英国学生文学读本(套装共6册)
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第41章 THE BEAR AND THE KETTLE

1.Once a bear was very hungry.Not being able to find any food in the woods,he came into a villageto see what he could find there.

2.The door of the first house that he came towas open,and,peepingwas nobody inside.

3.He went in,and began to smell about,but he could find no food.At last he came to a kettle of boiling water which was by the side of the fire.

4.Not knowing what it was,and thinking that there might be something good inside,he smelt the kettle,and,in doing so,burnt his nose.

5.Now the bear had never felt anything like this before.He thought the kettle was a newk ind of animal with a stingangry with it.

6.So he said to himself,“I‘llpay you for hurting my nose;”and he took the kettle up in his paws,and tried to crush it against his breast.

7.The more he squeezed it,the more he burnt himself,and the more angry he grew.He roared with pain.At last he dropped the kettle,and,as it fell,he scaldedwater.

8.The noise which he made brought some men to the spot to see what was the matter.

Looking through the window,they saw the bear dancing about in great pain.They ran for their guns,and shot him.

9.In that land,if a man hurts himself when he tries to hurt somebody else,the people say,“He is like the bear with the kettle.”

GRAMMAR EXERCISE

1.Name the nouns in sections 1and 2.

2.Write the first six adjectives in the lesson.

I1.Look at me.I am a snail.Would you like to hear me tell my story?Even a snail may have something new to tell you.

2.You laugh at me as I creep along,and you say,“As slow as a snail.”But I can do things that you cannot do.I made the house which I carryabout on my back;and a cosyhouse it is.

3.Wherever I go I carry my house with me,and I am always making it bigger,as I grow bigger myself.It is a wonderful house,and.winds aboutlike a staircase .

4.Some snails do not build houses for themselves.Lookat that big blackslug.He says he is my cousin,and he has horns just l i ke m i n e ;b u t he has no houseon his back.I suppose he is too lazy to build a house.

5.Do you see how I stretch out my horns when I walk about?Touch them,and see how quickly I draw them in.I am not so slow as you think.

6.These horns are as useful to me as your eyes are to you.They are my eyes,as well as my feelers,and they tell me when danger isnear.Then I draw them in at once,and curl up snugly in my shell.

7.When I am not taking a walk,I like to lie under the ivy in a corner of the garden,where I find shelter from the sun and from my enemies.

8.I am fond of the warm days of summer,and yet I do not like to be out in the bright sunshine.So when the sun is hot I keep in theshade .

9.Our enemies are the greedy ducks and the blackbirds and thrushes.They are very fond of snails for dinner,and they have eaten up many of my friends.

10.In warm countries,where my friends grow very much bigger than I am,they are picked up by little boys and girls,and are cooked and eaten.But in this land we are quite safe from.such a dreadfulfate .

1.The ducks and the blackbirds and thrushes are not our only enemies.Old Robert,the gardener,does not like us,and he tries to crush us with his heavy boots.

2.We do not fear him much,for we can easilykeep out of his way.His eyes are so dimthat he cannot see us in our snug home under the ivy.

3.He is angry with us because we eat the best and sweetest leaves in the garden.Perhaps hethinks that witheredleaves are good enough for snails,but we do not think so;we like the green ones best.

4.When rain falls,it makes the leaves fresh and juicy.What a feast we have then!We climbup on a leaf,and raspour teeth.off little bits of it with.

5.Did you know that snails have teeth?They have a great many more teeth than you have.You have only two rows of teeth,and none of them are on your tongue.

6.Now all my teeth are on my tongue.It is covered all over with rows of teeth just like afile.There are more than a hundred rows,and more than a hundred teeth in each row.

7.You may think that my mouth must be very large to hold such a number of teeth;but it is not.My teeth are very,very small,so small that you could not see them.Big teeth would be of no use to me;to cut into the leaves my teeth must be small and sharp.

8.What do you suppose I eat in winter,when all the leaves are withered and the ground is bare?You could never guess.I eat nothing at all!

9.I creep into a hole when the weather becomes cold,and I make a little door for my house,which keeps out the wind and rain and snow.I leave justone tinyhole to let in air.There I sleep cosy and warm till spring comes,and the fresh juicy leaves are ready for me to eat.

File,a piece of steel made rough for smoothing wood or metal.

Tiny,very small.Spring,the first season of the year ;sowing-time.

10.I could tell you many other things about myself,but I hear the birds talking,and I must hide.Have I not told you enough to let you knowwhat a wonderful creatureeven a snail is?

11.Good-bye,my boy.You have listened very well to my story,and I think you will not hurt the next snail you see.When you go to the sea-side in autumn,you will meet some friends of mine among the rocks.Try to get one of them to tell you his story also.

GRAMMAR EXERCISE

l.Make a list of the first six verbs in the lesson.

2.Make sentences with the last four nouns as subject.