狮子与老鼠

19.THE LION AND THE MOUSE狮子与报恩的老鼠A Lion asleep in his lair was waked up by a Mouse running over hisface. Losing his temper he seized it with his paw and was about to kill it. TheMouse, terrified, piteously entreated him to spare its life. "Please let me go,"it cried, "and one day I will repay you for your kindness." The idea of soinsignificant a creature ever being able to do anything for him amused theLion so much that he laughed aloud, and good-humouredly let it go. But theMouse's chance came, after all. One day the Lion got entangled in a netwhich had been spread for game by some hunters, and the Mouse heard andrecognized his roars of anger and ran to the spot. Without more ado it set towork to gnaw the ropes with its teeth, and succeeded before long in settingthe Lion free. "There!" said the Mouse, "you laughed at me when I promisedI would repay you: but now you see, even a Mouse can help a Lion."｛中文阅读｝狮子在自己的窝里睡着了，却被一只跑到他脸上的老鼠吵醒了。狮子非常生气，用爪子抓住老鼠，准备弄死他。战战兢兢的老鼠请求狮子饶了他的性命。“求你放了我吧，”老鼠哭喊道， “我肯定会报答你的恩情。”一个不足挂齿的小生命肯为自己做任何事，狮子被如此无意义的想法逗笑了，便随和地放他走了。不久，老鼠报恩的机会终于来了。有一天，狮子被猎人们布好的大网缠住了，愤怒地大吼起来，老鼠听到了狮子的哀嚎，迅速赶来。老鼠轻松地走过去开始噬咬绳索，很快就成功地放走了狮子。老鼠说：“看吧！当我许诺要报答你时，你还嘲笑我；现在你可看到了，即便一只小老鼠也能帮助一头大狮子。”