皇帝的新裝

The Emperor’s Now Clothes

(1)

Once upon a time there was an emperor(皇帝)， There were some big officials （官員）around（在……周圍）him. One of the big officials was bad， he often gave the emperor many bad ideas. One day ， he took （take—took）two men to the emperor and said (say—said)， “Your Majesty（陛下），these two men are the best weavers (織布工). They cannot weave a better cloth than I have here. I have the best cloth.” The big official said，“No， you do not have cloth like theirs at all. Their cloth is very special ， only clever（聰明的）men can see it. In this way you can know who is clever and who is not.”“It’s a good idea，” the emperor said，“Ok， you may take the two weavers to the weaving room， tell them to weave beautiful clothes for me， then ， I will know who is good and who is bad aroud me， I’ll give more work to the good ones， I’ll drive（驅趕）the bad ones out of my palace（宮殿）.”

Exercises:

1 What idea did the bad official give to the emperor?

2 Why did the official say the cloth was special?

3 Did the emperor beleve the official? Why?

4 Do you believe the official’s words?

5 Guess what would happen.

(2)

The two weavers came to a house， they sat (sit—sat) down to work ，but there was nothing in their hands-they pretended(假裝) to weave. Every day， they had good meals and drinks. If （如果）there was not anyone around ，they stayed in bed; if someone came， they pretended to be working hard. The emperor worried about his new clothes very much， every two days， he sent（派）the big official to have a look. One month later， the two weavers said， “The clothes are ready.” They came to the emperor， pretending to hold the clothes in their hands. The emperor couldn’t see any clothes， he was worried， “Maybe（或許）others can see them ，maybe I’m not clever， I must keep it a secret and never tell others.” The weavers pretended to dress （為……穿衣）the emperor， the emperor pretended to be dressed.

After the emperor was dressed， he asked his officials，“Howabout my new clothes?” The big officials couldn’t see any clothes because there were no clothes at all. But nobody dared to tell the truth（真相），instead（相反），they said，”How beautiful the clothes are!” Hearing their words， the emperor thought (think—thought)he was not clever really.

The emperor and the officials went(go—went) out into the street， they wanted to show everyone the emperor’s new clothes， they wanted to show that they were clever men. When they got(get—got) to the street， many people were waiting there to see the special clothes. Suely， people couldn’t see any clothes， but nobody said anything Suddely（突然）a little boy cried，”Look .He’s got nothing on!” Hearing the little boy’s words， all the people laughed， He was quite right， the emperor was wearing nothing!

Exercises:

1 How did the weavers work?

2 What did the big officials see after the emperor was dressed?

3 When the weavers came to the emperor， what did they do? What did the emperor do?

4 What happened when a little boy said something about the emperor’s new clothes?

5 What do you learn from the story?

從前有一個皇帝。他的周圍有一些大官，其中有一個官員是一個壞人。他經常給皇帝出很多壞點子。有一天，他把兩個人帶到皇帝面前說：“陛下，這兩個人是我所知道的最好的織布工，他們能織出非常漂亮、非常特殊的布。”皇帝說：“他們不可能織出比皇宮里的布更好的布。我有世界上最好的布。”這個大官說：“不，你根本沒有他們那種布。他們的布非常特殊，只有聰明的人才能看得見。通過這種布你能知道誰聰明，誰不聰明。”“這是個好辦法。”皇帝說，“好，你可把他倆帶到織布房，吩咐他們為我織出漂亮的衣服，然后，我就能知道我身邊的人誰好誰壞。對好人，我將委以重任，而壞人，我要把他們趕出宮殿。”

這兩個織布的人來到織布房，他們坐下來織布，但是手里什么也沒有，只是假裝在織布。他們每天吃好的喝好的。如果旁邊沒有人，他們就躺在床上睡覺。如果有人來了，就假裝工作。皇帝很掛念他的新衣服，每隔兩天，就派這個大官來看一看。過了一個月，這兩個織布的人說：“衣服做好了。”他們做出手里拿著衣服的樣子，走到皇帝那里。皇帝看不見什么衣服，他很擔心：“也許別人看得見，也許我是愚蠢的。我不能讓別人知道。”這兩個織布的人假裝給皇帝穿衣服，皇帝也假裝讓他們給他穿衣服。

穿好衣服之后，皇帝問他的官員：“我的新衣服怎么樣？”由于衣服根本就不存在，所以官員們誰都看不見衣服。但是，他們不敢說，相反，他們卻說：“這衣服多漂亮啊！”聽見他們的話，皇帝想自己確實是愚蠢的。

皇帝和官員們走上大街去炫耀皇帝的新衣，也想表明他們是聰明的人。當他們走到大街的時候，很多人都站在那里等著看這件特殊的衣服。當然，沒有人能看見什么衣服，但是，誰都沒有說出來。突然，一個小男孩兒說：“為什么皇帝不穿衣服呢？他光著身子。”聽見小男孩兒這么說，所有的人都大笑起來了。確確實實，皇帝什么也沒穿，他光著身子！