Dig a Hole in the Wall to Steal Light 鑿壁偷光

本刊編輯部

“鑿壁偷光”出自《西京雜記》卷二：“匡衡字稚圭，勤學而無燭。鄰舍有燭而不逮，衡乃穿壁引其光，以書映光而讀之。”后被引用為刻苦好學的典故。

Kuang Heng was born in a poor family. He liked reading books verymuch. He needed to work at daytime， so he read books during night. But hewas too poor to buy a 1）candle.

One day， he found his neighbour had candles， but the light could not gothrough his rooms. He 2）dug a small hole on the wall so that he could use thelight to read books. From that day， he read books every night until the lightwent out.

However， he finished reading all hisbooks and there were no books for him toread. Then he went to a rich mans houseand worked for him without payment. The richman asked， “Why dont you want the money？”Kuang Heng said， “Because I only want toborrow your books.” The rich man agreed.Kuang Heng read the books one by one.

Finally， he became a great scholar.

1） candle n. 蠟燭

2） dig v. 鑿；挖

匡衡出生于一個貧困的家庭。他非常喜歡讀書。因為他白天要工作，所以只能晚上看書。但是他太窮了，以至于買不起蠟燭。

有一天，他發現他的鄰居有蠟燭，但是蠟燭的微光不能照進他的房間。于是他在墻上鑿了一個小洞，這樣他就可以利用燭光看書了。從那天起，他每天晚上看書直到蠟燭熄滅。

然而，他把所有的書都看完了，于是他沒有書可看了。他就去一個財主家，無償地為他工作。財主說：“你為什么不要報酬？”匡衡說：“因為我想借你的書。”財主同意了，匡衡于是把財主家的書一本一本地看完了。

最后，匡衡成為一位偉大的學者。

Fill in the blanks：

At last， Kuang Heng became a great________.

Know More

Kuang Heng was born in Western Han Dynasty. He worked as a teacher of theprince and the prime minister. The firm and indomitable study spirit of Kuang Hengwas handed down from generation to generation and he became the model for latergenerations to learn.

匡衡生于西漢，曾任太子少傅和丞相。匡衡堅韌不拔的學習精神代代相傳，他也成為后人學習的榜樣。

參考答案：scholar