经典英文绘本

每天五分钟听经典英文故事，读绘本，磨耳朵。一群孩子流落荒岛，从文明走向野蛮，一部关于人性幽暗与纯真消逝的经典寓言。

Today, Duoji is going to tell you the story of Lord of the Flies, by the Nobel Prize winner Golding

A group of children were stranded on a deserted island

At last, there were no grown-ups to boss them around

They didn't have to go to school

They could play all day, and pick one of themselves to be their leader

But later, one of those children had to run for his life

The other children were hunting him down

How did things ever come to this

Well, the story starts with a conch shell

That conch shell was found by twelve-year-old Ralph and a chubby boy in thick glasses

They were wading in the shallow water

A plane crash had left these British boys on the island

They had been flying away from the war

A storm swept the wreckage out to sea, and no one knew where they had landed

The chubby boy had asthma

Earlier, he had quietly asked Ralph not to tell the others his school nickname

But Ralph told them anyway

From then on, everyone called him Piggy

In time, no one even said his real name

It was also Piggy who came up with the idea to blow the conch shell

If they blew it, the children scattered across the island would come together

The children followed the sound and came running

They raised their hands and chose Ralph as their leader

Then he made one rule

At meetings, whoever held the conch shell had the right to speak, and no one could interrupt

Another boy who wanted to be leader was Jack

He used to lead the school choir

After he lost the vote, Ralph put him in charge of hunting, together with the boys who had sung under him

One day, as they explored the island, they found a small pig caught in the vines

Jack raised his knife, but he couldn't bring himself to do it

In the end, he let the pig go

What Ralph cared about most was going home

He asked everyone to build huts and keep a fire burning on the mountain

That way, any passing ship would see the smoke

The boys used Piggy's glasses to focus the sunlight and light the fire

But they got so excited that they forgot to watch it, and the fire spread into the trees

By the time they noticed, a little boy with a birthmark on his face was gone

They never found him again

After that, the boys who had promised to help often ran off to play

Only Ralph and a boy named Simon stayed to build the huts

Jack, though, fell deeper and deeper in love with hunting

He painted his face with mud and charcoal

Then he led his hunters into the forest, and even called away the boy who was supposed to keep the fire going

And just then, a ship appeared on the sea

Ralph raced up to the top of the mountain, but the fire had gone out

When Jack came back carrying the first wild pig he had ever killed, the ship had already sailed away

Jack told them all about the hunt, excited and proud

But Ralph said only one thing, over and over

A ship had passed by just now

Piggy spoke up and blamed Jack too

So Jack hit him

Piggy's glasses fell onto the rocks, and one lens broke

That night, they still ate the meat

Meat could be handed out right away

But keeping the fire might mean waiting day after day and getting nothing

Ralph was still the leader, but the meetings he called were harder and harder to hold

The children were always afraid that a beast was hiding on the island

Simon tried to say that maybe the thing they feared was inside themselves

No one understood him, and he couldn't explain it well

One night, there was a battle in the sky far away

A dead parachutist fell onto the top of the mountain, and his parachute caught on the rocks

When the wind blew, the ropes made the body move

The twins who were keeping watch on the fire saw the dark shape rise and fall

They ran back, terrified, and said they had seen the beast with their own eyes

Later, even Ralph and Jack were frightened away by that shadow in the dim light

The children didn't dare go to the mountain top again

Jack accused Ralph of being a coward, and demanded a new vote for leader

But not one hand went up to support him

Crying, he stormed off and said he would hunt on his own

Little by little, some children slipped away to follow him

This time, the hunters chased down a mother pig and killed her while she was feeding her young

They cut off her head and stuck it on a sharpened stick, as an offering to the beast

Jack took some of his boys to Ralph's camp and stole fire from them

Then he invited the other children to come and eat meat

But Simon, who had stayed behind in the forest, came face to face, all alone, with that pig's head

It was crawling with flies

It was the Lord of the Flies

In a daze, he felt the pig's head was talking to him

It laughed at him for thinking the beast was something he could chase and kill

The beast was in them

The flies buzzed and buzzed, and Simon fainted

When he woke up, he climbed the mountain alone

At last he saw clearly what the so-called beast really was

It was just a dead body, pulled by the ropes of a parachute

He had to hurry and tell the others

They didn't need to be afraid of that thing anymore

Down below, Ralph and Piggy came too, to eat the meat

A storm was coming

Jack made the children dance the hunting dance

They made a circle, stamped their feet, and waved their sticks

They shouted, over and over, to kill the beast

And Ralph and Piggy pushed into the crowd with them

Simon came stumbling out of the dark, trying to tell them about the mountain

But the crowd took him for the beast, and rushed at him all together

Before he could pass on his news, his friends killed him there by the sea

In the night, the rising tide carried his body away

The next day, Ralph said it was murder

He remembered that he had been there too

But Piggy kept saying it was only an accident

It was too dark, and everyone was too scared

He reminded Ralph again and again that they had been standing outside the circle

Jack told his tribe that the beast might come back

Someone was tied up and beaten, and no one could say what he had done wrong

To make fire for cooking meat, Jack led a night raid on the camp and stole Piggy's glasses

Now Piggy could barely see, and Ralph and his friends had lost the only way to light the fire again

Piggy insisted on getting his glasses back

Holding the conch shell, he walked with Ralph and the twins to the rock castle that Jack had taken over

He still believed that whoever held the conch shell had the right to speak

He asked the painted children which was better, following the rules or chasing the kill

Then Roger, up above, pushed down on a lever

A huge rock came rolling down

It struck Piggy and knocked him off the cliff

The conch shell in his hands shattered at the very same moment

The twins were seized, and Ralph was hurt

He could only flee into the forest alone

The next day, they began to hunt Ralph

To drive him out of the bushes where he was hiding, the hunters set the forest on fire

Ralph ran and ran for his life, the fire behind him, his companions all around him, searching

At last, he burst out of the trees and fell down on the beach

When he lifted his head, he saw a naval officer in uniform

The smoke of the burning forest had brought a cruiser to the island

The rescue fire Ralph had kept for so long had not brought help

What finally brought the grown-ups was the fire his own friends had lit to kill him

At first, the officer thought the boys were just playing at war

Then Ralph said that two people were already dead

The painted children with their sharp sticks stopped one by one on the beach

Ralph wept

He wept for the innocence that could never come back

He wept for the darkness he had seen in people's hearts

And he wept for Piggy, the boy he had once laughed at, who had always stood by his side

The other children began to cry too

The officer felt uneasy

He turned away to give them some time

His eyes moved out over the sea, and rested on the neat cruiser far away

每天五分钟听经典英文故事，读绘本，磨耳朵。一封没有署名的长信，揭开一生的爱恋、沉默与遗忘，让温柔与疏离、自尊与执念同时显现。

On his forty-first birthday, the writer R came home to Vienna and found a long, unsigned letter

A woman told him her child had died the day before

She had a fever, too

If she survived, she'd tear up these pages

The letter would reach him only after her death

He began to read

This woman knew his home and his habits

He had no idea who she was

At thirteen, she'd lived across the hall with her widowed mother

Her mother was always grieving, and she had no one to confide in

Before the new writer appeared, crates of his books arrived

Some were written in languages she couldn't even recognize

She wandered around the piles, imagining the man who'd read them

She imagined, too, the unfamiliar world behind his door

Then she saw him running lightly down the stairs

He was young, nothing like the white-bearded old man she'd pictured

Once, she opened a door for him

He thanked her with a gentle smile

She thought that look belonged to her alone

Much later, she learned he looked at many women that way

She began reading more, practicing the piano, and taking care with her clothes

When they met, she hid the patches on her old clothes behind her schoolbag

She was afraid he'd look down on her

More often, she sat in the chilly entrance hall, watching his door through a peephole

She knew his footsteps, when he went out, and when he traveled

He hardly noticed her

Her mother remarried and decided to move to Innsbruck

Before they left, the girl rang his bell

No one answered

She waited again in the freezing hall until late that night

At last he came home, with a woman beside him

The next day, she was taken away from Vienna

Her stepfather treated her kindly

Her mother was willing to grant her wishes

People invited her on outings, and young men showed interest

She refused them all

She didn't want to be happy somewhere far from him

At eighteen, she insisted on earning her own living

Finally, she returned to Vienna and found work in a clothing shop

After work, she waited near his home

At last, he turned to look at her

She understood immediately

He saw a pretty stranger

All these years, she'd remembered every little thing about him

She'd even imagined he might sometimes think of her

She'd considered the possibility of rejection

It had never occurred to her that he wouldn't remember her at all

He took her to dinner, then invited her home

She followed him up the familiar stairs, through the doorway where she'd once kept watch

He was considerate and kind

He neither pressured her nor made promises

She wouldn't tell him about the past

She feared that knowing how much she loved him would make him keep his distance

In the morning, he took white roses from a blue vase and gave them to her

She spent three nights there in all

Then he was leaving on a trip

He promised to contact her when he returned

She left an address where the post office could hold his letters

Still, she didn't tell him she was the child who'd once lived across the hall

Every day, she asked whether a letter had arrived

Eventually, his windows were lit again

Still, no letter came

She was pregnant

She decided not to tell him

In her letter, she said she feared he might doubt the child was his

He might feel trapped

Worse, he might ask her to give up the child, and she might be unable to refuse him

Yet she knew he was always willing to help people who asked

As a child, she'd seen him give a beggar a generous sum

But he'd been eager to send the man away

She didn't want to become another person he wanted to get rid of quickly

She'd never asked him any of these questions

She made the decision alone

As the child grew inside her, she felt she finally had a life connected to his

This one wouldn't leave her as he had

Late in her pregnancy, she left the shop, afraid her relatives would find out

She didn't ask her mother for help

She lived by selling her jewelry

Then her last money was stolen

She had to enter a hospital that took in poor women giving birth

In the crowded ward, she endured the pain

She also endured doctors and students watching and examining her

Her son was born there

She wouldn't let her child suffer the humiliation of poverty

Later, she accepted support from wealthy men and became their mistress

Her son had fine clothes and a good education

An older count cared for her

He also worked to get the boy into a good school

Several times he asked her to marry him

Every time, she refused

She knew marriage would give her and her son a secure home

But she still wanted to remain free

If the writer ever called for her, she wanted to be able to go to him at once

Her son grew older

He could lose himself in a book or spend hours happily playing

In him, she saw the writer's own shifts between seriousness and playfulness

With her child, longing for the man no longer hurt so much

But every year, on the writer's birthday, she still sent white roses without her name

Years later, she went to a dance hall with her lover and friends

The writer watched her from the next table and signaled for her to come outside

She followed

Again, he didn't recognize her

But he invited her to leave with him

She told her lover she'd be right back

She left him sitting there

This was the man who cared for her and her son, the man who hoped to marry her

She knew she was humiliating him

Still, she didn't even collect her coat

With only a scarf around her, she followed the writer into the night fog

Back in the familiar room, she saw white roses in the blue vase

She'd sent them the day before

He treasured the flowers and held her tenderly

But he didn't know who'd sent them

He didn't know who he was holding, either

The next morning, he invited her to breakfast and chatted warmly

Still, he didn't ask her name or where she lived

He was about to travel again

At last, she tried to remind him

The man she'd loved, she said, was always traveling, too

Whenever he returned, he forgot her

He looked at her earnestly and reassured her

He wouldn't forget her, he said

For a moment, she almost believed he'd finally remembered

Then, in the mirror, she saw him quietly slipping several large banknotes into her muff, the garment she used to warm her hands

She'd loved him for years

She'd borne his son and raised him

Now he was treating her as a woman he could pay to spend the night with him

Still, she didn't tell him who she was

Before leaving, she asked him for a rose

Perhaps, she suggested, the flowers came from a woman he'd forgotten

He only looked at her with friendly bewilderment

At the door, his old servant Johann saw her tearful eyes

Suddenly, he recognized her

She pushed the banknotes into his hands and hurried away

He hadn't seen her for years

Yet he knew who she was

Now her son was dead from influenza

She'd watched over him for days and nights, until at last she fell asleep in her chair

When she woke, he was no longer breathing

By candlelight, she wrote these memories to the writer

For the first time, she told him the boy had been his son, too

Again and again, she said she didn't blame him

Yet she couldn't stop writing that he'd never recognized her

She'd once feared he wouldn't believe the child was his

Now she regretted keeping it secret

He would have loved the boy, she believed

The letter was almost finished

She said it comforted her to know her death wouldn't disturb his life

But then she thought of the white roses

Who would send them now

At last, she asked him to buy roses every year on his birthday and put them in the vase

Then she could still remain quietly beside him for one day

R put down the letter

His hands were trembling

He tried to remember the child across the hall, the young girl, the woman in the dance hall

Fragments rose and faded

They never formed a clear face

He looked toward his desk

The blue vase was empty

For the first time in years, there were no white roses on his birthday

每天五分钟听经典英文故事，读绘本，磨耳朵。小男孩麦克斯被关回房间，却在想象中乘船闯进野兽国，当上野兽之王尽情撒野，最后仍想念家里那碗热腾腾的晚饭。

That night, little Max put on his wolf suit and made all kinds of mischief around the house

His mother called him a little wild thing, and Max talked right back

He even said he would eat her up

So his mother sent him to bed without any supper

Max stayed all alone in his room

And that very night, the room began to change

Trees started to grow, vines reached up toward the ceiling, and the four walls slowly turned into a wide, wide world

Now the little boy who could only stay in his room had a forest and an ocean right in front of him

He climbed into a little boat and sailed away, off to the place where the wild things live

Day and night went by, and the journey stretched out so long that it felt almost like a whole year

And there, at last, were the wild things

They roared and showed their teeth and claws, trying to scare the new little boy

But Max didn't back away

He told them to be still, and he stared straight at them without blinking once

That frightened the wild things

The wild things decided that Max was wilder than all of them, so they made him their king

Back home, he had just been sent to his room for being naughty

But here, a whole crowd of huge wild things listened to his every word

Max led them in a great wild rumpus

This time, he was the one who decided when it would begin, and he was the one who decided when it would stop

When the fun was over, he sent the wild things off to bed without any supper

What his mother had once done to him, Max now did to the wild things

When everything grew quiet, Max felt lonely

The wild things still called him their king and obeyed his every command, but he wanted to go back to the place where someone loved him best of all

Then the smell of good food came drifting to him from far, far away

He wanted to go home

Even if it meant he would no longer be king, Max made up his mind to leave

The wild things begged him to stay

They said they loved him so much that they wanted to eat him up

But Max said no

They roared again and showed their teeth and claws, yet Max still climbed into his little boat and waved goodbye

That long, strange journey carried him back to his own room, back to that very same night

When he'd set out, he'd gone without his supper for talking back to his mother

Now he was home, and his supper was sitting there waiting for him

And it was still hot

每天五分钟听经典英文故事，读绘本，磨耳朵。一只少了一颗纽扣的小熊，为了找纽扣在深夜商场冒险，最终被小女孩莉萨带回家，拥有了家和朋友。

In the toy department of a big store, sat a little bear in green corduroy overalls

His name was Corduroy

Every day, he waited with the other toys, hoping someone would stop and take him home

Many people came and went

They bought all kinds of things, but the little bear stayed on his shelf

One morning, a little girl stopped in front of him and looked into his eyes

She knew right away this was the bear she wanted, and she begged her mother to buy him

But her mother said no

They had already spent a lot of money that day, and the bear looked a little old, with a button missing from his overalls

The little girl had to leave

Corduroy watched them go, and that was when he learned his clothes were missing a button

He decided that when night came, he would go look for it

When the shoppers had gone and the doors were locked, Corduroy climbed down from his shelf and searched the floor

As he looked, the floor beneath him began to move, carrying him upward

He had stepped onto an escalator, but to Corduroy it felt like climbing a mountain

The little bear had never had an adventure like this before

The escalator carried him to the next floor, where there were tables, chairs, sofas, lamps, and rows of beds

Corduroy looked around and thought he must be in a palace

He walked among the furniture and climbed onto a bed to see how it felt

There, on the thick mattress, he found a small round thing

A button

He thought he had found what he was looking for

But it was a button sewn onto the mattress, not one lying on the floor for him to pick up

He grabbed it and pulled with both paws

The button came off, and Corduroy lost his balance

He tumbled off the bed and knocked over a tall floor lamp

It crashed to the floor with a loud bang

The night watchman upstairs heard the noise and hurried down to see

He shone his flashlight over the sofas and under the beds

Near a big bed, he saw two fuzzy brown ears sticking out from under the covers

Corduroy was hiding there

The watchman found him, tucked him under his arm, and rode the escalator back down

He set the bear back on the toy shelf

After his long night, Corduroy sat among the other toys once more, still missing his button

The next morning, as the first customers came in, Corduroy woke to see the same little girl standing before him

Smiling, she told him her name was Lisa

Last night, she had counted the money in her piggy bank, and her mother had said she could take the bear home

Lisa paid

The sales clerk began to find a box for the bear, but Lisa chose to hold him in her arms instead

And so Corduroy left the big department store

At home, Lisa carried him up the stairs, through the door, and into her room

It was a small room with a chair and a chest of drawers

Next to Lisa's bed sat a little bed, just the right size for Corduroy

There were not as many pieces of furniture as in the store, and it was not the palace he had seen at night

But when Corduroy looked at that little bed, he knew the place he had always wished for

He was home

Lisa sat down, set Corduroy on her lap, and sewed a button onto his overalls

She told him she liked him just the way he was, and that she had sewn the button only to make him more comfortable

And Corduroy had a friend at last, just as he had always wanted

Lisa had wanted a friend too

They reached out their arms and gave each other a big hug

每天五分钟听经典英文故事，读绘本，磨耳朵。藏在老房子地板下、会借走小东西的迷你一家人，与一个男孩从恐惧走向信任，又在被迫分离中留下一个没有答案的温柔结局。

Kate pushed her needle through the cloth, sewing into an old piece of fabric

Mrs May sat beside her and watched the stitches

Suddenly she remembered something that had happened in this old house, many years ago

Back then, she was still a little girl

Her brother had come home from India to get well, and he stayed in a room in their great-aunt's house

The house was very big

Under the floor, inside the walls, and in the cracks of the fireplace and old furniture, there lived a family of very, very tiny people

They were called the Borrowers

Borrowers never bought anything

They took little bits of things they could use from the big people's house

A needle could be a sword

A lump of sugar could last a long time

A piece of paper could become a tablecloth

As long as the big people didn't notice them, the Borrowers could go on living in the house

But there was one rule that mattered more than anything

Never let a human being see you

The Clock family lived under the kitchen floor

Pod was the father, Homily was the mother, and Arrietty was their daughter

Arrietty was already growing up, but she had never been out borrowing with her father

She had no brothers or sisters, so Pod decided to take her out one night

It was time for her to learn how to survive in the big people's house

That night, Pod pinned a needle to himself and led Arrietty up through the cracks in the wall

They were going to fetch some paper from a room

Pod knew every foothold on the way

But Arrietty couldn't help looking up at the world above the floor

It was a world she had never truly seen before

It was on this trip that the boy saw Arrietty

Terrified, she fled home

When Pod and Homily heard about it, their first thought wasn't to blame her

They were afraid

If a human being knew that Borrowers lived under the floor, that human might drive them away, or even catch them

The family had heard such stories before

Pod's brother, Hendreary, had once been seen by a human, and later his daughter had disappeared

To the Clock family, being seen was never a small thing

But the boy didn't tell on her

Instead, he tried to talk to Arrietty

She wanted to know about the world above the floor, and she wanted someone she could talk to

The boy lived all alone in the house, with no friends of his own age

Little by little, across the floor and through the cracks in the wall, the two of them got to know each other

The boy brought them small pieces of furniture and other useful things

Life became much easier for the Clock family

Pod didn't have to risk going out so often, and Homily had new things to decorate their home

But these gifts also made the family depend more and more on the boy

Arrietty's friendship with him made life easier, and at the same time it brought them closer to being discovered

The boy wanted to introduce the Borrowers to the grown-ups

He believed that once everyone knew they were real, no one would hurt them

But Arrietty understood that the thing the boy found wonderful could be a disaster for the Clock family

She didn't want him treating her home like a secret toy, and she didn't want him deciding how they should live their lives

Before long, the housekeeper, Mrs Driver, noticed that small things kept disappearing

She suspected the boy of stealing, and she began to watch for strange signs

One day she saw a light under the kitchen floor

She lifted the floorboard and at last found the Clock family's home

Mrs Driver didn't see them as a family who lived and felt afraid

She sent for a rat catcher, planning to smoke them out from under the floor and let the hunting dogs finish them

The other people in the house might not have believed every word she said, but danger had already reached the door

The boy knew the Clock family was in trouble, and he tried to save them

He stole the rat catcher's tools and tried to open a way out

The wall boards and the iron grille blocked him

He ran outside and finally pried open the grille that led to the Clock family's home, leaving them a way to escape

But he didn't know whether they could find the way out in time

Mrs Driver took him away, and the car was already waiting

The boy left the house, and he never saw Pod, Homily, or Arrietty again

Many years later, Mrs May brought Kate back to the old house

They went to see the place where the Clock family might have escaped, and they left some small things there

When they came back a few days later, the things were gone

Kate believed the Borrowers had taken them

Mrs May didn't say so for certain

She took out a very small notebook in which the Clock family's story was written

The handwriting was exactly the same as her brother's

Did the people under the floor ever escape

And who wrote that little notebook

Mrs May had no answer

She and Kate went on sewing their cloth

The stitches moved forward, one by one, and the story stayed in that old house, its last page still open

每天五分钟听经典英文故事，读绘本，磨耳朵。一只来自秘鲁的小熊来到伦敦，被布朗一家收留，从此闹出无数温暖又好笑的日常。

At a London train station, people hurried through with their luggage

A small bear sat on an old suitcase, wearing a broad-brimmed hat

A card hung around his neck that said, "Please look after this bear, Thank you"

Mr and Mrs Brown had come to meet their daughter Judy

Mr Brown saw the bear first and led his wife through the crowd to stand before him

The bear stood up, tipped his hat, and very politely asked if they needed any help

But the one with nowhere to go was the bear himself

He came from Peru, where he had always lived with his Aunt Lucy

Aunt Lucy wanted him to live abroad when he grew up, so she taught him English

Later, when Aunt Lucy moved into the Home for Retired Bears, he set off on his own

He stowed away on a boat and hid in a lifeboat, filling up on marmalade

Now the voyage was over, and the marmalade in his suitcase was nearly gone

Mrs Brown looked at the card around his neck

She could not bear to leave him alone in such a big city, so she offered to take him home for a few days

Mr Brown thought it was all rather sudden, but in the end he invited the bear to come along

The bear was so happy his hat nearly fell off

Mrs Brown promised that he could have marmalade every morning

He began to worry about money, until she explained that the family would treat him as one of their own, and no one would charge him a thing

His Peruvian name was hard to understand, so Mrs Brown borrowed the name of the station

From that moment on, he was called Paddington

Before taking their new family member home, Mr Brown treated him to tea

Paddington climbed onto the table and tackled a large bun filled with cream and jam, getting the filling all over his whiskers

When Judy arrived, he hurried to bow, slipped, and toppled into a dish of tea

Then he stepped right into Mr Brown's cup

Judy could not stop laughing

Then she took his paw and led him home for a bath

At the house, Mrs Bird looked after the Brown family

Paddington had heard she could be fierce, so he felt a little nervous as they came in

When she saw the sticky little bear, she did grumble a bit, but then she remembered how much he liked marmalade and went off to buy some more

Judy showed him his room and told him where the bathroom was

But after she left, Paddington filled the bath too full, and when he got in, he found his nose could barely stay above the water

The tub was too slippery to climb out of, so he scooped water out with his hat

The more he scooped, the more water spread across the floor

Downstairs, the family was talking about letting him stay for good

Mr Brown wanted to think everything through, but everyone else was already in favor, and even Mrs Bird agreed

Just then, water began to seep down through the ceiling

Judy and her brother Jonathan hurried up to help

They pulled him out of the bath and cleaned up the bathroom

Judy told him that pulling out the plug would drain the water, and only then did Paddington learn that he did not have to scoop it out hatful by hatful

The next day, they took him out to buy clothes

Paddington got separated from Mrs Brown and Judy in the underground station

He watched their escalator go up while his went down, and no matter how he ran, he could not catch up

So he pressed the emergency button and stopped the escalator

Once they found each other, the shopping could go on

At the department store, he got into trouble again

After the lift, he felt unwell and wanted some fresh air, but the hood of his new coat covered his eyes

He wandered straight into a shop window and knocked over a pile of tins

He hurried to stack them up again, while more and more people gathered outside the glass

Mrs Brown was worried about losing him, but the manager was delighted, for the bear had drawn a great crowd to the shop

In the end, Paddington received a big jar of marmalade

This time, when they left, he preferred to take the stairs

Little by little, he began to help with the shopping

He picked fruit with care and hunted for good, cheap things

The stallholders at the market got to know him, and so did Mr Gruber, the owner of the antique shop

Paddington often dropped in to sit, have a snack, and listen to him talk

One day, Mr Gruber said that under the paint of some old pictures, an even older painting might be hiding

So Paddington went home and tried to wash one of Mr Brown's paintings, but underneath there was only blank canvas

He quickly grabbed his paints to fix it, and the more he painted, the less it looked like the original

That painting happened to be entered in a competition, and the judges loved the freshly repainted colors, so it won first prize

Looking at the picture, Mr Brown guessed what had happened and gave the prize money to the Home for Retired Bears in South America

But Paddington sat in the audience, still bothered that the painting was hanging upside down

They also took him to the theater and to the seaside

He took the show on stage far too seriously

At the beach, he was busy building sandcastles when he drifted out into the harbor, sitting in his own bucket by accident

By the time the family drove home, he was wrapped in a blanket and fast asleep in the back seat

Two months after he arrived, Mrs Bird got him a birthday cake

No one knew how old he was, so they all decided to count from one

Paddington received a magic set, and he could not wait to perform for his guests

He borrowed a watch from Mr Curry, the neighbor, covered it with a handkerchief, and tapped it just as the instructions said

Only after turning the page did he discover that the trick needed another watch

The one in front of him was already broken, and Mr Curry shouted in fury

Then they moved on to a card trick

Mr Gruber played along and pulled a gold coin from behind his ear, giving it to Paddington as a birthday present

Everyone wished him many more birthdays to come, and Paddington took the coin and thanked his friends

As the guests left, he thought of Aunt Lucy

If only she could see him now, she would be so pleased

Mrs Brown took his paw and reminded him to write to Aunt Lucy in the morning, telling him to go to bed tonight before the ink made a mess of the clean sheets again

Paddington agreed

He was still a little sticky and already sleepy, so he climbed the stairs and went back to his room to sleep

每天五分钟听经典英文故事，读绘本，磨耳朵。蟾蜍以为青蛙需要安慰，带着午餐匆匆赶去陪伴，却发现独自待着也能是幸福的事。

Toad went to Frog's house

He found a note on the door

The note said, "Dear Toad, I am not at homeI went outI want to be alone."

"Alone?" said Toad

"Frog has me for a friend

Why does he want to be alone?"

Toad looked through the windows

He looked in the garden

He did not see Frog

Toad went to the woods

Frog was not there

He went to the meadow

Frog was not there

Toad went down to the river

There was Frog

He was sitting on an island by himself

"Poor Frog," said Toad

"He must be very sad

I will cheer him up."

Toad ran home

He made sandwiches

He made a pitcher of iced tea

He put everything in a basket

Toad hurried back to the river

"Frog," he shouted, "it's meIt's your best friend, Toad!"

Frog was too far away to hear

Toad took off his jacket and waved it like a flag

Frog was too far away to see

Toad shouted and waved, but it was no use

Frog sat on the island

He did not see or hear Toad

A turtle swam by

Toad climbed on the turtle's back

"Turtle," said Toad, "carry me to the islandFrog is thereHe wants to be alone."

"If Frog wants to be alone," said the turtle, "why don't you leave him alone?"

"Maybe you are right," said Toad

"Maybe Frog does not want to see me

Maybe he does not want me to be his friend anymore."

"Yes, maybe," said the turtle as he swam to the island

"Frog!" cried Toad

"I am sorry for all the dumb things I do

I am sorry for all the silly things I say

Please be my friend again!"

Toad slipped off the turtle

With a splash, he fell in the river

Frog pulled Toad up onto the island

Toad looked in the basket

The sandwiches were wet

The pitcher of iced tea was empty

"Our lunch is spoiled," said Toad

"I made it for you, Frog, so that you would be happy."

"But Toad," said Frog

"I am happy

I am very happy

This morning when I woke up I felt good because the sun was shining

I felt good because I was a frog

And I felt good because I have you for a friend

I wanted to be alone

I wanted to think about how fine everything is."

"Oh," said Toad

"I guess that is a very good reason for wanting to be alone."

"Now," said Frog, "I will be glad not to be aloneLet's eat lunch."

Frog and Toad stayed on the island all afternoon

They ate wet sandwiches without iced tea

They were two close friends sitting alone together

每天五分钟听经典英文故事，读绘本，磨耳朵。蟾蜍事事拖到明天，青蛙一句反问点醒他，原来动手做完，心情也会变好。

"I will do it tomorrow," said Toad

"Today I will take life easy

Frog came into the house

"Toad," said Frog"your pants and jacket are lying on the floor

"Tomorrow," said Toad from under the covers

"Your kitchen sink is filled with dirty dishes," said Frog

"I am thinking about tomorrow," said Toad

"I am thinking about all of the many things that I will have to do

"Yes," said Frog"tomorrow will be a very hard day for you

"But Frog," said Toad"if I pick up my pants and jacket right nowthen I will not have to pick them up tomorrowwill I

"No," said Frog

"You will not have to

Toad picked up his clothes

He put them in the closet

"Frog," said Toad"if I wash my dishes right nowthen I will not have to wash them tomorrowwill I

"No," said Frog

"You will not have to

Toad washed and dried his dishes

He put them in the cupboard

"Frog," said Toad"if I dust my chairs and scrub my windows and water my plants right nowthen I will not have to do it tomorrowwill I

"No," said Frog

"You will not have to do any of it

Toad dusted his chairs

He scrubbed his windows

He watered his plants

"There," said Toad

"Now I feel betterI am not in the dumps anymore

"Why" asked Frog

"Because I have done all that work," said Toad

"Now I can save tomorrow for something that I really want to do

"What is that" asked Frog

"Tomorrow," said Toad"I can just take life easy

Toad went back to bed

He pulled the covers over his head and fell asleep

每天五分钟听经典英文故事，读绘本，磨耳朵。好奇的小象一路问个不停，被鳄鱼咬长了大鼻子，还用它打败了麻烦，从此世间大象都有了长鼻子。

Long, long ago,every elephant had a nose about the size of a boot

It was black,and it could wiggle from side to side

But it couldn't pick up a single melon rind off the ground

In Africa,a little elephant lived with just such a short nose

And oh,how he loved to ask questions

Why did Aunt Ostrich's tail feathers grow that way,how did Uncle Giraffe get his spots,why were Aunt Hippo's eyes so red,and why did melons taste the way they did

Aunt Ostrich whacked him with her claw,Uncle Giraffe kicked him with his hoof,Aunt Hippo and the Baboon hit him too

But even after a good smacking,he still wanted to know

Whatever he saw,whatever he heard,whatever he smelled,he had to understand it

One morning,he had a brand new question

"What does the Crocodile have for dinner,"his whole family shouted at him to be quiet

Then they smacked him long and hard

When they were done,the little elephant went to the thorn bush to find the Kolokolo Bird

"My father smacks me,"he said

"My mother smacks me too,my aunts and uncles smack me as well"

"But I still want to know what the Crocodile eats"

The bird showed him the way

"Go to the great grey-green,greasy Limpopo River,"he said

"Go there and find the answer for yourself"

The next day,the little elephant packed bananas,sugarcane and melons

He said goodbye to his family,and they smacked him once more

Very politely,he asked them to stop

Then off he went,munching melons and dropping the rinds behind him

His short nose still couldn't pick up a thing

He walked and walked,all the way to the Limpopo River

But even then,he didn't know what a Crocodile looked like

Up on a rock lay the Bi-Coloured Python Rock Snake

The little elephant asked him about the Crocodile and his dinner

The python unwound himself and smacked him with his tail

The little elephant wasn't even surprised

He said goodbye very politely and even helped the python coil back onto the rock

Then he walked on

By the water,he stepped on a piece of wood

The wood blinked one eye

"Excuse me,"said the little elephant

"Have you seen the Crocodile,"the wood blinked again and lifted half its tail out of the mud

The little elephant hopped back

That tail reminded him of all the smacking

"I've been smacked so many times,"he said

"Please don't smack me again"

"Come here,little one,"said the wood

"I am the Crocodile"

The little elephant's breath came fast

After all these days,he'd found him at last

He knelt on the bank and asked the question nobody would answer

The Crocodile told him to come closer

"I'll whisper the answer,"he said

So the little elephant bent down

The Crocodile grabbed his nose with his teeth

"Today,"said the Crocodile,"I think I'll begin with an elephant's child"

The little elephant yelled for him to let go

The python came racing up

"Pull back,"he cried

"Pull hard,or he'll drag you into the river"

The little elephant squatted down and pulled with all his might

The Crocodile backed into the water,and his tail churned the river into white foam

One pulled toward the water,the other pulled toward the shore

And the little elephant's nose began to grow longer

He spread his four legs wide,and still his nose grew

It hurt more and more,and his feet began to slip

He couldn't hold on much longer

Then the python wrapped himself around his back legs and pulled too

At last,the Crocodile let go

The little elephant tumbled onto the bank,safe at last

But his short nose had been stretched into one long,long nose

First,he thanked the python

Then he wrapped his nose in cool banana leaves and dipped it in the river

He waited for it to shrink

One day passed,then two

On the third day,the nose was still long

It hung right in front of his eyes,so close that his eyes nearly crossed

Just then,a fly bit his shoulder

Before he could even think,his long nose swung up and smacked the fly dead

"There's your first good use for that nose,"said the python

So the little elephant plucked a big bunch of grass,tapped the mud off it,and popped it into his mouth

The sun beat down,so he scooped up wet mud and plopped it on his head

Cool mud water ran down behind his ears

The python had one more question

"Do you still want to get smacked,"of course not

"Then do you want to smack others,""very much,"said the little elephant

"Good,"said the python

"That long nose of yours is very good for that too"

So the little elephant swung his long nose and headed home

He picked fruit right off the trees

He grabbed grass without kneeling down

He even picked up every melon rind he'd dropped along the way

But to test what the python had said,he found a hippo who had nothing to do with him at all

And he gave her a good,hard smacking

One dark evening,the little elephant came home

He curled his long nose up and said hello to everyone

His family was glad to see him

Then they told him to come over

It was time for his smacking,for all those questions he'd asked

But this time,he uncurled his long nose and knocked two of his brothers head over heels

His family stared at the nose

"Where did you get that,"they asked

"I got it at the Limpopo River,"he said

"I asked the Crocodile what he had for dinner"

The Baboon said the nose was ugly

"It is,"said the little elephant

"But it's very useful"

Then he wrapped his nose around the Baboon's leg and tossed him into a hornets' nest

He pulled out Aunt Ostrich's tail feathers

He dragged Uncle Giraffe by his back legs through a thorn bush

And while Aunt Hippo slept in the water,he blew bubbles into her ear

He smacked his family for a long,long time

But no one was allowed to touch the Kolokolo Bird

After that,his family hurried to the Limpopo River,one by one

They all wanted new noses from the Crocodile

When they came home,nobody smacked anybody anymore

And from that day on,every elephant in the world has a long nose,just like the little elephant who asked questions all the way to the river

每天五分钟听经典英文故事，读绘本，磨耳朵｜吉卜林经典童话，偷懒的骆驼只会说哼，沙漠精灵施魔法让它长出驼峰，学会承担。

Long, long ago,when the world was just beginning,the Camel's back was flat

Back then,the animals had just started to work for Man

The Horse wore a saddle

The Dog learned to fetch things

The Ox pulled the plow

Only the Camel wouldn't work

He hid in a desert where the wind blew and blew

He munched on twigs and chewed on sharp grass

He did nothing at all

If anyone spoke to him,he said just one word

"Humph,"that was all he ever said

On Monday morning,the Horse came to find him

The Horse wore his saddle and held a bit in his mouth

"Camel, Camel, come out," he called

"Run with us and help us work,"

"Humph," said the Camel

So the Horse went back and told Man

Then the Dog came,with a stick in his mouth

"Camel, Camel, come carry and fetch for us,"

"Humph," said the Camel

So the Dog went back and told Man too

Next came the Ox,with the plow frame round his neck

"Camel, Camel, come out and plow with us,"

"Humph," said the Camel again

The Ox couldn't make him move,so he went back to find Man

That evening,Man called the Horse, the Dog, and the Ox together

"I'm sorry for you three," he said

"That hummer in the desert won't work,"I'll leave him alone,you must work twice as hard and do his share as well

The Horse, the Dog, and the Ox were very angry

They already worked hard,but the Camel did nothing

Now they had to do his share too

The three animals met by the edge of the desert to talk it over

Then the Camel came walking by

He chewed grass and looked at them

Ha,he laughed

Then he said "Humph" and walked away

A cloud of dust rolled across the sand

Inside the dust was the Djinn of All Deserts

He stopped in front of the three animals and listened

"Is it right, Djinn,that someone does no work when the world has just begun," asked the Horse

"Of course not," said the Djinn

"In your desert there is such a one," said the Horse

"Long neck, long legs,and not a bit of work since Monday morning

"He won't even run,"

Then the Djinn knew at once

"That is the Camel," he said

"When you asked him to work,what did he say,"

"He said Humph," said the Dog,"and he wouldn't fetch or carry,"

"What else did he say," asked the Djinn

"Just Humph," said the Ox

"He wouldn't plow,"

"Wait here," he said

"I'll go and find him,"

The Djinn wrapped himself in a cloak of dust and headed deep into the desert

He found the Camel standing by a pool of water,looking at his own reflection

His long neck, his long legs, and his flat back,the one he was so proud of,all shone in the water

"I hear you won't work," said the Djinn

"Humph," said the Camel

He kept staring at himself in the water

The Djinn sat down and held his chin in his hand

He began to shape a big magic

"Since Monday morning you've done nothing," he said

"The Horse, the Dog, and the Ox have done your work for you,"

"Humph," said the Camel again

The Djinn held his chin and kept on with his magic

"If I were you,I wouldn't say that word again," said the Djinn

"Say it once more and you'll be sorry,I'm going to make you work,"

But the Camel wouldn't listen

He opened his mouth and said it once more

"Humph,"

The moment he said it,the Djinn's magic went to work

The Camel watched his fine flat back begin to rise

Up it rose, and up,bigger and bigger,until it puffed into a great wobbly hump

You see, in English,Humph sounds a lot like hump

So the Camel's little Humph became a hump on his back

"Do you see," said the Djinn

"This is the hump you gave yourself by refusing to work,"

"Today is already Thursday,"You've been idle a full three days since Monday

"Now it's time for you to work,"

For the first time,the Camel said something new

"But how can I work with such a big lump on my back,"

The Djinn was strict,but his heart was kind

He'd never do anything truly cruel

Even his magic left the Camel a little gift

"This hump is made for you," said the Djinn

"With it,you can work for three whole days without eating

"You wasted three days,so now you can lean on it and do your work

"Don't say I did nothing for you,""Walk out of the desert,find them, and work hard,"

The Camel's flat back,the one he loved,had changed

But that big lump on his back gave him a power he never had before

So the Camel carried his big hump out of the desert and joined the Horse, the Dog, and the Ox

From that day on,he never made up the three days he lost when the world began

And he never quite learned to behave

But the hump the Djinn gave him stays on his back to this very day