Once there was an old man who lived with his old wife in the countryside. They never usually went to town. But one day the old man needed to go to town.

"Darling!" the old man said to his wife, "I need to go to town to buy some new clothes." She asked,"can I go with you?" "No, the town is a bad place. I'll go alone," answered the man. So he went to town, and his wife stayed at home.

When he arrived in the town, the old man walked around with his eyes wide open. It was the first time for him to be in the town. Everything seemed new and strange to him. The old man found himself in a big building. He looked for the stairs but all he waw was a mental door with letters and numbers above it---G,1,2,3,4...11. He stood and looked at this door. He wondered what it was.

An old woman happened to come here and stood beside him. She started looking at the metal door,too. Suddenly the metal door opened and the old woman immediately walked through the door---into a big box with a big mirror inside, like a cupboard. The door shut, then, he heard an almost noiseless machine began working,and the lights appeared behind the numbers.

In a few minutes, the door opened again, and a beautiful young girl came out. "My god! Is she that old woman?" the old man said to himself,"What a pity, I haven't brought my wife!"

The Bumpkin Went to Town

乡巴佬进城

从前，一对老夫妻住在乡下，他们平日几乎不进城。但有一天，老人需要进城一趟。

“亲爱的！”老人对他的妻子说，“我得进城去买几件新衣服。”他的妻子问道，“我能和你一起去吗？”“不用了，城里不是什么好地方，我自己去吧。”老人回答说，于是老人独自进城了，而他的妻子则呆在家里。

当老人到了城里，他瞪大了眼睛四处闲逛。这是老人第一次进城，所有的事物对他而言都是那么新奇。老人来到了一座大楼前，他想找楼梯上楼，但他看到的都是上方带着G，1,2,3,4...11字母和数字的金属门。老人站在那里看着这扇金属门，他不知道这门是通向哪里的。

一位老妇人碰巧来到这儿，站在他旁边。她也看着这扇金属门。突然，金属门打开了，老妇人立刻走过这扇金属门－走进一个像橱柜似的里面有大镜子的大盒子里。之后，门关上了，老人听到了微弱的机器运转的声音，并看到了数字后面的灯在闪亮。

过了几分钟，这个金属门又打开了，并且从里面走出来一个年轻漂亮的女孩。“天哪！这就是那位老妇人吗？”老人自言自语道，“真遗憾，我没有让我的妻子和我一同来！”

Why the Poor Man Moved Back to the Park Bench?

为什么这个男人又搬回到了公园的长椅上

Every morning about eleven o'clock, a bright new car ran through Central park in New York city. Inside the car sat a driver and his boss, a well-known millionaire.

Almost each morning the millionaire noticed a poorly-dressed man sitting on a park bench. The man always sat there staring at the hotel in which the millionaire lived.

One day the millionaire was so curious about the man that he asked his driver to stop the car and he walked towards the bench. He said to the poor man,"But I just have to know why you sit here staring at my hotel every day."

"Sir," said the poor man, "I'm a failure. Now I have no job, no family and evne no home. I sleep on this bench, and every night I dream that one day I will sleep in that hotel.

The millionaire said to the poor man, "Tonight your dream will come true. I'll pay for the best room in the hotel for you for a month." so the poor man moved to the best room in the hotel.

But a few days later, the millionaire went by the poor man's room, and he wanted to ask him how he enjoyed himself in such a nice room. To his great surprise, the millionaire found that the poor man had moved out of the hotel, back to the park bench.

When the millionaire asked the reason, the poor man said, "Your see,when I'm down here sleeping on the bench, I always dream I am up there in the hotel, it is a wonderful dream. But when I was up there in the hotel, I dreamed I was back here on this cold bench, it was a terrible dream. I could not get any sleep at all, though I was lying in the soft bed."

每天早上大约11点钟左右，都会有一辆崭新的新车穿过纽约市的中央公园。车里坐着一位著名的百万富翁和他的司机。

几乎每天早上，这位百万富翁都会注意到一个衣衫褴褛的人坐在公园的长椅上。这个人总是坐在那儿瞪着这个百万富翁住着的宾馆。

这位百万富翁实在太好奇了。于是，一天他让司机停下车，而自己朝长椅走去。他问这个穷人，“我想知道你为什么每天坐在这儿，瞪着我的宾馆呢？”

“先生，”穷人回答说：“我是个失败者，我现在没有工作，没有家人，甚至没有家。每晚我睡在这张长椅上都梦想着有一天我可以睡在那家宾馆的床上。”

这位百万富翁对他说：“今晚你的梦想就会实现了，我会给你提供那家宾馆最好的房间，而你可以在那里住一个月。”于是，这个穷人搬进了那间宾馆最好的房间里。

但几天后，当这位百万富翁路过这个穷人的房间，想问问他待在这样豪华的房间里的感觉如何时，令他感到惊讶的是，这个穷人已经搬出了宾馆又重新回到了公园的长椅上。

当这位百万富翁问他为什么这么做时，他说：“你看，当我睡在公园的长椅上时，我总是能梦到睡在您这间宾馆里，这可真是美梦。但是，当我待在宾馆里时，我却总是梦到自己又回到了公园，睡在这冰冷的长椅上，而这个梦太可怕了，尽管我躺在柔软的床上却根本睡不着觉”

The "Sick" Lion and the Fox

All the animals were saying how sick the Lion was and how sorry they were for him. Many of them said that the kindest thing they could do would be to go and see him.

Many animals did go, but not the Fox.

some thought it strange that the Fox should be so unkind.

The Lion himself wondered why the Fox did not come and see him, then the Lion sent one of his jackals to talk to the Fox.

"Surely, said the jackal, "you have heard, Mr. Fox, that the Lion is sick. He is the King of Animals, and everyone is going up to his cave to see him. But you have not been. Why is that?"

"I know the Lion is the King of Animals," replied the Fox, "and I ought to visit him, but when I go near his cave I see many foot prints going into the cave but none coming out. Then I am too frightened to go in."

The jackal then knew that the Fox had found the truth. The Lion was pretending to be ill, so that many animals would come into his cave only to be captured and eaten.

生病的狮子和狐狸

所有的动物都在说狮子病得有多么厉害，他们都很为狮子的病情担心。于是许多动物都说最好的办法就是去看看狮子。

许多动物确实去了，可是狐狸没有去。动物们都在想狐狸如此不友善，这可真是一件奇怪的事情。

就连狮子自己也奇怪为什么狐狸没有来探望他。于是，狮子派了一只豺狼去问狐狸。

“确实是的，”豺狼说，“狐狸先生，你已经听说了，狮子生病了，他是百兽之王，所有的动物都去洞穴中探望他了，而你却没有，这是为什么呢？”

狐狸回答说：“我知道狮子是百兽之王，我必须去探望他，但当我走近他的洞口时，我只看到了很多进洞的脚印，却没有看到从洞穴中走出来的脚印。因为我太害怕了因此没敢进去。”

于是豺狼知道狐狸发现了真相，那就是：其实狮子是假装生病，而很多前去探望他的动物都被他捉住并吃掉了。