Once upon a time ,at an old farm a mother duck sat on her eggs.
很久以前,在一个老式的农场,鸭妈妈在孵蛋。
One by one, the shells began to crack, and out came six chirping duckling,
一个接着一个地,蛋壳开始噼啪噼啪地裂开,6只小鸭出壳了,
“Peep, peep.”
“唧唧,唧唧“地叫着。
But the biggest egg still did not hatch.
但是最大那个蛋的小鸭没有出壳。
“ i have sit on it awhile longer,”said the mother duck.
“我还要孵久一点才会出壳的。”鸭妈妈说。
When the egg finally hatched, out came a strange looking duckling who gazed up at his worried mother,
当蛋最终裂开了,出来一只很奇怪的鸭子,凝视着担忧的鸭妈妈,
“He is my child, but not all like the others,”she said.
他是我的孩子,只不过跟其他的不一样,鸭妈妈说。
No one wanted to play with the poor ugly duckling,
没有人愿意跟这个可怜的丑小鸭玩。
He was large and clumsy and so different form his brothers and sisters.
因为它又巨大又愚笨并且和它的兄弟姐妹不一样。
All the animals on the farm laughed at him and teased him.
在农场上的所有动物都嘲笑他戏弄它。
All night the ugly duckling would cry himself to sleep.
每天晚上丑小鸭都以泪洗面。
One day, the duckling felt he had no choice but fly away.
有一天,丑小鸭觉得没有选择的余地只能离开。
He came to a pond where some wild ducks lived.
它来到一个住着一些野鸭子的池塘。
“Do you know of any duckling with gray feather like me?” he asked.
丑小鸭问“你知道还有其他鸭子的灰色羽毛是跟我的一样吗?
“no ,” they all said.” we don’t know any duckling as ugly as you.”
他们都说“没有,我们不知道还有跟你一样丑的鸭子。”
The duckling then came upon a pair of geese, who warned him not to stay at the pond.
丑小鸭然后来到一堆鹅那里,他们警告丑小鸭不要留在池塘上。
“It’s dangerous here! There are men and dogs hunting!”
“这个很危险,因为有人类和狗在这里打猎!”
Just then, pop!pop!sounded the air ,and two geese fell form the sky.
就在这个时候,砰!砰的声音出现了,2只天鹅都飞上天空。
The frightened duckling tried to hide,But a large ran up to him,the dog’s jaw were open,showing his sharp teeth.
丑小鸭害怕地找地方躲,当时它身后的狗追着它跑。狗下巴张开,露出它尖锐的牙齿。
But just as suddenly, the dog went on his way without touching the ugly duckling.
但是同样突然的,那狗还没有碰到丑小鸭就掉头走了。
Oh ,thought the duckling, now i am thankful i am so ugly. Even a dog will not bite me.
噢,我应该感激我长的如此丑,连狗都不咬我了,丑小鸭心想。
When the hunter were gone, the duckling ran off.
当猎人离开了,丑小鸭赶紧跑着离开。
A storm was blowing, so he sneaked inside a hut.Here he found an old woman with her beloved cat and hen.
一阵狂风吹来,于是它偷偷地溜到一间小屋里面。在那里他发现一位老太太和她心爱的小猫和母鸡。
“What a prize!”the woman said when she spotted the duckling.
当老太太发现丑小鸭的时候说,“真是上天的恩赐!”
“Now i shall have some duck eggs.”
“现在我可以有一些鸭蛋了。”
But after many weeks, there were no eggs.”Well you can’t lay eggs like me,” said Hen.
但是过了好几周,丑小鸭还是没有下蛋。母鸡说,“好吧,你也像我一样不能下蛋了。
“Can you purr like cat?”
“你可以像猫那样咕噜咕噜地叫马?”
“No,” said the duckling,”but i like to swim and dive.”
“不,我不会。”但是我可以游泳和潜水。”
The hen and cat laughted at his foolishness.
母鸡和猫都嘲笑他们愚笨。
They don’t understand me either, thought the duckling.”I think i will go back out into the world,” he told them.
丑小鸭想他们也不懂我了,我想我还是远离这个环境了。丑小鸭这样告诉他们。
“yes!” said Hen.”Do go.”
“是啊,那就离开吧”母鸡说。
Back to the pond, the duckling would swim and dive each day,Still , no creature would come near him.
回到池塘,丑小鸭每天都游泳和潜水,但是没有任何动物会靠近它。
One fall evening he saw a flock of the most beautiful birds.
在一个秋天的晚上,它看到一排美丽的天鹅。
He was filled with longing.”if only i could be as lovely as they!”the ugly duckling sighed.
它满是渴望“如果有天我可以像他们那样美丽就好了!”丑小鸭叹息着。
Winter came and the land was covered with snow and ice.
冬天到来了,地上都覆盖着厚厚的雪。想学习更多英语知识,请关注口袋英语aikoudaiyy
One day,as the poor duckling tried to find food. He dropped ,exhausted to the ground.
有一天,丑小鸭疲倦地去找食物,他昏倒在地上了。
A kind farmer came upon him,“ I’ll take him home so that my children can look after him.
Poor thing, he’s frozen!”
一位好心的农夫发现它,并且带它回家可以让小朋友看着他,“这可怜的小东西啊,都已经冷得快结冰了。”
The duckling was showered with kindness, and in this way he survived the cold winter.
农民细心地为丑小鸭沐浴了,就是这样,在这个寒冷的冬天,丑小鸭被救活了。
By the time spring arrived ,the duckling had grown so large that the farmer set him free on the pond.
直到春天到了,丑小鸭已经长的很大只了,农民放它在池塘自由生活。
That is when the duckling saw himself mirrored in the water.
就在这个时候丑小鸭才在湖水里看到自己的样子。
“Goodness ! How i have changed! I don’t recognize myself at all !”
“哦,天啊!我怎么会变成这样呢!连我自己都认不住是我自己啦!”
At the moment, the beautiful birds he had seen before glided onto the pond.
就在这时,之前丑小鸭见到的那些漂亮的天鹅滑翔在池塘上。
When the duckling saw them, he realized he was one of them.
当丑小鸭看到他们,它才意识到它是属于他们的当中的一个。
They surrounded him and stroked has long neck with their beaks as a welcome.
他们围着丑小鸭并且伸长他们的脖子咯咯作为欢迎它。
Some children came to see the birds, and one of them exclaimed “Look at the new swan! He is the most beautiful of all!”
一些孩子过来看到这些天鹅,当中有一个大声喊说“看,那只新的天鹅,它是当中最美丽的一只。”
At first ,the young swan was shy and could not believe his good fortune.
刚开始,这只年轻的天鹅很害羞,不敢相信它是如此的幸运。
“i never dreamed of suck happiness as this when i was an ugly duckling,”he said to himself.
“当我是丑小鸭的时候,我发梦都没有想过这个事情,”它自言自语地说。
The the young swan rustled his feathers, curve his long slender neck, and glided on the water into the bright sunlight.
这年轻的天鹅飒飒地张开它的羽毛,弯曲它长长苗条的脖子,划过水波飞向天空。
丑小鸭
Ugly Duckling
The Ugly Duckling
One evening, the sun was just setting in with true splendor when 1)a flock of beautiful large birds appeared out of the bushes. The duckling had never seen anything so beautiful. They were dazzlingly white with long waving necks. They were swans and uttering a peculiar cry. They spread out their magnificent broad wings and flew away from the cold regions toward warmer lands and open seas.
They 2)mounted so high, so very high, and the ugly little duckling became strangely uneasy. He circled around and around in the water like a wheel, 3)craning his neck out into the air after them. Then he uttered the shriek so 4)piercing and so strange that he was quite frightened by himself. Oh, he could not forget those beautiful birds, those happy birds and as soon as they were out of sight. He 5)ducked right down to the bottom and when he came up again, he was quite beside himself. He did not know what the birds were or where’d they flew. But all the same, he was more drawn towards them than he had ever been by any creatures before. He did not envy them in the least. How could it occur to him even to wish to be such a marvelous beauty? He wouldn’t be thankful if only the ducks would have tolerated him among them, the poor ugly creature.
Early in the morning, a peasant came along and saw him, he went out onto the ice and hammered a hole in it with his heavy wooden shoe, and carried the duckling home to his wife. There, it soon 6)revived. The children wanted to play with it. But the duckling thought they were going to ill use him and rushed in and he frightened to the milk-pan, and the milk 7)spurted out all over the room. The woman shrieked and threw up her hands. Then it flew to the butter-cask and down into the meal-tub and out again. Oh, just imagine what it looked like by this time. The woman screamed and tried to hit it with the 8)tongs, and the children 9)tumbled over one another in trying to catch it, and they screamed with laughter.
By good luck, the door stood open and the duckling flew out among the bushes and the new fallen snow. And it lay there, thoroughly exhausted, but it would be too sad to mention all the privation and misery had to go through during that hard winter. When the sun began to shine warmly again, the duckling was in a marsh, lying among the rushes. The larks were singing, and the beautiful spring had come. Then all at once, it raised its wings and they flapped with much greater strength than before and bore him off vigorously. Before he knew where he was, he found himself in a large garden with the apple trees were in full blossom. And the air was scentedly with lilacs, the long branches of which overhung the indented shores of the lake. Oh, the spring freshness was so delicious. Just in front of him, he saw three beautiful white swans advancing towards him from a 10)thicket. With 11)rustling feathers, they swam lightly over the water. The duckling recognized the majestic birds, and he was overcome by a strange melancholy.
“I will fly to them, the royal birds, and they will hack me to pieces because I who am so ugly venture to approach them. But it won’t matter. Better to be killed by them than be snacked up by the ducks, 12)pecked by the hens, or 13)spurned by the hen wife, or suffer so much misery in the winter.” So he flew into the water and swam towards the stately swans. They saw him and darted toward him with ruffled feathers. “Kill me, oh, kill me.” said the poor creature. And bowing his head towards the water, he awaited his death. But what did he see? Reflected in the transparent water, he saw below him his own image, but he was no longer a clumsy dark gray bird, ugly and ungainly. He was himself, a swan.
丑小鸭
一天晚上,当太阳正在美丽的霞光中落下去的时候,有一群漂亮的大鸟从灌木林里飞出来,小鸭从来没有看到过这样美丽的东西。他们白得发亮,颈项又长又柔软。这就是天鹅。他们发出一种奇异的叫声,展开美丽的长翅膀,从寒冷的地带飞向温暖的国度,飞向不结冰的湖上去。
他们飞得很高--那么高,丑小鸭不禁感到一种无名的兴奋。他在水上像一个车轮似地不停地旋转着,同时,把自己的颈项高高地向他们伸着,发出一种响亮的怪叫声,连他自己也吓着了。啊!他再也忘不了那些美丽的鸟儿,那些幸福的鸟儿。当他看不见他们的时候,就沉入水底;但是当他再冒到水面上来的时候,却感到非常寂寞。他不知道那些鸟儿的名字,也不知道他们要飞去什么地方。不过他爱他们,好像他从来还没有爱过什么东西似的。他并不嫉妒他们。他怎能梦想有他们那样的美丽呢?只要别的鸭儿准许他跟他们生活在一起,他就已经很欣慰了--可怜的丑东西。
大清早,有一个农民在这儿经过。他看到了这只小鸭,就走过去用木屐把冰块锤破,然后把它抱回家,送给他的妻子。它这时才渐渐地恢复了知觉。小孩子们都想跟它玩,不过小鸭以为他们想要伤害他。他一害怕就跳到牛奶盘里去了,把牛奶溅得满屋子都是。女人惊叫起来,拍着双手。这么一来,小鸭就飞到黄油盆里去了,然后飞进面粉桶里去了,最后才爬出来。这时它的样子才好看呢!女人尖声地叫起来,拿着火钳要打它。小孩们挤做一团,想抓住这小鸭。他们又是笑,又是叫!
幸好大门是开着的。他钻进灌木林中新下的雪里面去。他躺在那里,彻底地筋疲力尽。要是只讲他在这严冬所受到困苦和灾难,那么这个故事也就太悲惨了。当太阳又开始温暖地照着的时候,他正躺在沼泽地的芦苇里。百灵鸟唱起歌来了--美丽的春天已经来了。忽然间他举起翅膀:翅膀拍起来比以前有力得多,马上就把他托起来飞走了。他不知不觉地已经飞进了一座大花园。这儿苹果树开满了花;空气里飘着丁香怡人的香气,一根长长的枝条垂到弯弯曲曲的湖岸边。啊,这儿充满了醉人的初春的气息!三只美丽的白天鹅从树荫里一直游到他面前来。他们轻飘飘地浮在水上,羽毛发出飕飕的响声。小鸭认出这些高贵的鸟儿,于是心里感到一种说不出的难过。
“我要飞向他们,飞向这些高贵的鸟儿!可是他们会把我劈碎的,因为我是这样丑,居然敢接近他们。不过这没有什么关系!被他们杀死,要比被鸭子咬、被鸡群啄,被看管养鸡场的那个女佣人踢和在冬天受苦好得多!”于是他飞到水里,向这些高贵优雅的天鹅游去:这些动物看到他,马上就竖起羽毛向他游来。“请你们弄死我吧!”这只可怜的家伙说。他把头低低地垂到水上,只等待着死。但是他在这清澈的水上看到了什么呢?他看到了自己的倒影。但那不再是一只粗笨的、深灰色的、又丑又令人讨厌的鸭子,而却是--一只天鹅!
1、a flock of 一群
2、mount [maunt] v. 增长,上升
3、crane [krein] v. 伸(颈)
4、piercing [5piEsiN] a. 刺穿的,尖锐的
5、duck [dQk] v. 突然潜入水中
6、revive [ri5vaiv] v. 苏醒;复活;再生
7、spurt out 喷出;涌出
8、tongs [tCNz] n. 火钳,夹子
9、tumble [tQmbl] v. 摔倒;滚;乱
10、thicket [5Wikit] n. 树丛;灌木丛
11、rustling [5rQsliN] n. 沙沙声
12、peck [pek] v. 啄
13、spurn [spE:n] v. 傲慢地拒绝;摒弃