The Price of a Necklace

一沁供稿

翻譯：Crazier

The Price of a Necklace

一沁供稿

翻譯：Crazier

“無價的”項鏈

大家都知道誠實是美德，可有時候我們也需要找準說實話的時機。

After the death of a jeweler, his family got into financial trouble.

One day, the jeweler’s wife took one of her1)necklace ['nekl?s] n. 項鏈necklaces and said to her son, “Son, take this necklace to your uncle’s shop and ask him to give you money.”

The boy went to his uncle and gave the necklace to him.

His uncle looked at the necklace carefully and said, “Son, tell your mother that right now the market is not good. She can sell it later.”

Then his uncle gave him some money, and asked him to come the next day and learn to work with him.

From the next day, the boy started to learn how to2)examine [?g'z?m?n] v. 檢查examine jewels.After some time, he got really good at examining jewels and soon people began to ask him to check their jewels.

One day, his uncle said to him,“Son, tell your mother that now she can sell that necklace.”

The boy went home for that necklace. When he examined it, he found that it was3)fake [fe?k] adj. 假的，偽造的fake.

He went to his uncle and said, “I didn’t bring that necklace. Uncle, why didn’t you tell us the necklace was fake the first time?”

His uncle replied, “You were broke at that time. If I had told you,you would have thought that I don’t want to help. But now you have knowledge about jewels, you can4)tell [tel] v. 分辨，辨別tell by yourself.”

參考譯文

某珠寶匠死后，他們一家的生活變得十分拮據。

一天，珠寶匠的妻子拿出一條項鏈，并對她的兒子說：“孩子，把這條項鏈拿到你叔叔的店里去，讓他換點兒錢給你吧。”

男孩來到他叔叔的店里，將項鏈交給了他。

他的叔叔細細打量了一會兒項鏈，說道：“孩子，告訴你媽媽，現在市場行情不好。她可以晚點再把它拿出來賣。”

然后他叔叔給了他一些錢，并讓他第二天再過來學藝。

自第二天起，男孩就開始學習如何鑒定珠寶。過了一段時間，他成了珠寶鑒定專家，很快人們都開始把珠寶拿來給他鑒定。

有一天，他的叔叔對他說：“孩子，告訴你媽媽，現在可以把那條項鏈拿來賣了。”

男孩回家找他媽媽拿了項鏈。可當他在進行鑒定時，他發現項鏈其實是假的。

男孩找到他叔叔并對他說：“我沒把項鏈帶來。叔叔，為什么你不一開始就告訴我們項鏈是假的呢？”

他叔叔回答道：“那時候你們生活很困難。如果我告訴了你們，你們會認為我不想幫你們的。但是現在你自己對珠寶已經很了解，可以自己來分辨珠寶的真假了。”

名師考點小結

1. ask sb. to do sth.意為“要求某人做某事”，to后面跟動詞原形。例如：

She asked him to wake her up at 6 o’clock. 她要求他在六點鐘叫醒她。

拓展：當ask作“請求”或“問，打聽”時，還可以用于“ask+間接賓語+直接賓語”的結構。例如：

Can I ask you a favor? 我能否請你幫個忙？

I asked him his name. 我問他叫什么名字。

2.“疑問詞+動詞不定式”作賓語。動詞不定式前面有時會加上疑問詞what/which/when/where/how等，這主要用于know/tell/wonder/ask/ find out/learn等動詞或動詞短語之后，用作賓語。例如：

I have learnt how to use the computer. 我已經學會如何使用電腦了。

3. Why don’t/doesn’t/didn’t sb...?意為“為何不（做）……呢？”，其省略形式為“Why not…? ”，表示建議，實際上是希望對方去做某事。

Why don’t you go there with them?

=Why not go there with them?

你為什么不和他們一塊兒去那呢？