精选英语小故事

一些有趣的英语故事，能提高我们阅读英语的兴趣，从而提高英语的阅读能力，今天本站小编在这里为大家分享一些精选英语小故事，欢迎大家阅读!

In the days of king Arthur there lived a ploughmanand his wife. They had lived together happily fortwenty years, but they had no child. The greatmagician Merlin had sympathy for them, and causedthe couple to have a little boy no bigger than hisfather’s thumb. They loved him dearly and namedhim Tom Thumb. Tom had a number of absurdadventures because of his tiny size. He was onceswallowed with grass by a cow, but fortunately hiscry surprised the cow, so that the cow opened hermouth and let him fall out. Another adventure happened when he was out in the field drivingthe cattle along. He fell into a furrow, and a great black raven picked him up and carried himaway in her beak until she dropped him into the sea. Then a great fish swallowed him up. Butthe fish was soon caught up and brought to the court of King Arthur. The cook found Tominside the fish, and took him up to the King. Tom Thumb amused the King and the Knights ofthe Round Table so much that he was knighted and given a needle for a sword and a whitemouse for a horse. Now he lived in luxury, but he never forgot his poor parents. Once a monthhe rode off on his white mouse to their cottage in the country to see them. The poor ploughmanand his wife were very proud of their little son.

【中文译文】

亚瑟王时代有一个农夫，他与妻子在一起生活了20年，无灾无难，只是没有孩子。大魔法师墨林同情他们，施了魔法，农夫的妻子生下了一个极小的男孩儿，比她丈夫的拇指大不了多少。夫妻二人对他十分疼爱，给他取名叫拇指汤姆。由于身材太小，汤姆有一番离奇的经历。有一次他被母牛连草一起吃到嘴里，幸亏他的叫喊声惊得母牛张开了嘴，让他掉了出来。又有一次，他在地里赶牛，不小心从牛背上滑下来，掉在垄沟里。一只乌鸦把他叼走，丢在大海里。紧接着，一条大鱼把他吞进肚子。恰好那条鱼被打了上来，送进亚瑟王的宫廷。厨师打开鱼肚子，发现了汤姆，带他去见国王。汤姆使亚瑟王和圆桌骑士们很开心，被封为骑士。他得到一根针当佩剑，一只白鼠做马骑。他虽然享受荣华富贵，却从来也没忘记可怜的爹妈。他每个月都要回家探望他们。老两口为他们的小不点儿子感到十分自豪。

Lady Godiva was an Anglo-Saxon woman who lived inEngland during the 11th century. She was the wifeof Leofric, Lord of Coventry. According to legend,her husband forced his people to pay such heavytaxes that Lady Godiva felt sorry for them. She askedher husband to reduce the heavy taxes. Her husbandsaid he would if she would ride naked through thetown. He thought he was safe in making thispromise, but to his astonishment, Lady Godivaaccepted the challenge. She asked all the people inthe town to stay indoors and closed their shutters as she went by. Then she rode through thestreets on a white horse, and her long flowing hair was her only clothing. All the people of thetown honoured her request except the town tailor, Tom, who peeped through a shutter andwas struck blind. To this day, people still call someone who gets sexual pleasure from watchingothers secretly a "peeping Tom".

【中文译文】

戈黛娃夫人是十一世纪的一个英国贵妇，丈夫是考文垂的利奥弗里克伯爵。据说她丈夫在当地横征暴敛，老百姓苦不堪言。戈黛娃夫人很同情老百姓，就请求丈夫减轻赋税。伯爵说可以减税，但有个条件，戈黛娃须赤裸身体骑马在城里走一遭。他心想这下会把妻子难住。不料戈黛娃却一口答应下来。她先通知城里所有的人都待在家里，在她路过时紧闭门窗。然后她骑着一匹白马，以长发蔽体，穿过街市。所有的人都尊重她的请求，除去城里一个叫汤姆的裁缝。汤姆人窗缝偷偷向外张望，登时眼睛就变瞎了。在英语里，窥视他人以获得性快感的人被叫做"peeping Tom".

Dick Whittington was a real person living in Englandabout six hundred years ago. He went to Londonwhen he was young and made a fortune there bybuying and selling cloth. He became Lord Mayor of London, and lent large sums of money to theking. He died in 1423, leaving all his money as a gift to help the poor.

According to the stories, Dick Whittington was a poor orphan who went to London to seek hisfortune because he had heard that its streets were paved with gold. In London he found a jobhelping the cook of a rich merchant. The merchant was sending a ship full of goods to Barbaryin North Africa, and told his employees that each of them could send one thing in the ship to besold along with the merchant’s goods. The only thing Dick Whittington owned was a cat, so hesent the cat.

Meanwhile, he was badly treated by the cook and he decided to leave London. As he waswalking away from London, on his way back home, he heard the Bow bells ringing and theyseemed to say to him,

Turn again, Whittington,

Lord Mayor of London.

Dick turned and went back. Soon the ship returned, and Dick learned that his cat had been soldfor a great price because Barbary was full of rats and needed cats to kill them. This started Dickon the road to wealth.

迪克•惠廷顿确有其人。他年轻时去伦敦，靠买卖布匹发了财。他后来当上了伦敦市长，连国王缺钱花时都要向他借。他死于1423年，死时把所有的遗产都捐给了慈善机构。

据传说迪克•惠廷顿是个贫苦的孤儿，他去伦敦是为了发财，因为他听说伦敦的马路都是黄金铺的。在伦敦，他找到一份工作，为一个富商的厨师做帮厨。商人有一艘货船要发往北非的柏柏里，他通知仆人们每人可送一件东西与他的货一并出售。迪克•惠廷顿除了一只猫外一无所有，就把猫送去了。

此时，迪克•惠廷顿难以忍受厨师的虐待，决定离开伦敦。在回家的路上，他听到伦敦圣玛利亚教堂的钟声敲响了，好像在对他说，

回来吧，惠廷顿

当市长，管伦敦

迪克转身回去了。不久，商人的货船回来了，迪克得知他的猫卖了大价钱，因为柏柏里正闹鼠灾，急需大量的猫灭鼠。靠这笔钱迪克•惠廷顿走上了致富路。

题外话：这故事很有趣，说明大多数人还是想发意外之财。既然有时天上会掉馅饼，何必流血流汗。殊不知历史上真实的迪克•惠廷顿是个骑士的儿子，家境殷实。他去伦敦跟一个有钱的亲戚学习经商，师傅赏识他的才能，把女儿嫁给了他。他靠雄厚的资本成为巨商。那么人们怎么编出了一个猫的故事?原来，惠廷顿时代还有英国人说法语，他们说惠廷顿发家靠的是“achat”，即“买卖”。但法语中的“猫”是“chat”，所以有人就误以为他发家靠的是“a chat”，或者说“a cat”。以讹传讹，后来人们就附会出这样一段故事。

故事中提到的“Bow bells”指伦敦圣玛利亚教堂(-le-Bow)的钟声。圣玛利亚教堂位于伦敦市中心附近，多年来以其钟声著名。英国有句俗话说，“地道的伦敦佬出生在能听到圣玛利亚教堂钟声的地方(A truecockney is one born within sound of Bow bells)。

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