狐狸和鹳 第5期

Ｏnce upon a time, a fox made friends with a stork and decided to invite her to lunch.While he was wondering what to serve for the meal, he thought he'd play a trick on the bird. So he prepared a tasty soup and poured it into two flat plates.

"Help yourself, Miss Stork! I'm sure you'll enjoy this! It's frog soup and chopped parsley. Taste it, you'll find it's delicious!"

"Thank you very much!" said the stork, sniffing the soup. But she quickly saw the trick the fox had played on her. For no matter how she tried, she could not drink the soup from the flat plate. The sniggering fox urged her on, "Eat up! Don't you like it?" But all the stork could do was bluff. With a casual air she said, "I'm afraid I've such a headache that I've lost my appetite!" And the fox fussily replied, "What a shame! And it's such good soup! Too bad! Maybe next time." To which the stork quickly replied, "Yes, of course! Next time, you must have lunch with me !"

The very next day, the fox found a polite note pinned to his door: it was the stork's invitation to lunch. "Now, isn't that nice of her!" said the fox to himself, "And she hasn't taken my little trick to heart either!"

The stork's house was much plainer than the fox's, and she apologized to the fox. "My home is much humbler than yours," she said, "but I've cooked a really special meal.Freshwater shrimps with white wine and juniper berries!" The fox licked his lips at the idea of these goodies and sniffed deeply when the stork handed him his jar. But, try as he might, he was unable to eat a bite, for he could not reach down with his nose into the long neck of the jar. In the meantime, with her long beak, the stork gobbled her lunch.

"Try it! Try it!" she said. "Don't you like it?" But the unlucky fox, confused and out smarted, could not think of an excuse for not eating.

And as he tossed and turned hungrily in bed that night, thinking of his lost lunch, he said to himself with a sigh, "I might have known!"

从前，一只狐狸和鹳交上了朋友，他决定邀请鹳来吃饭。“做什么饭菜呢?我要跟这只鸟开个玩笑。”狐狸想。于是，他准备了鲜美的汤，并把汤盛在两个平底盘子里。

“请慢用，鹳小姐!我想您肯定会喜欢的。这是青蛙欧芹汤。尝尝吧，很好吃的。”

“非常感谢!”鹳闻了闻回答说。但是她很快就看穿了狐狸的小伎俩，因为不管她怎样努力，也无法喝到汤。狐狸窃喜，并催促鹳说：“快喝呀!不好喝吗?”鹳只能撒谎了，她故意装作不在乎的样子说：“我头疼得很，现在一点胃口都没有了。”狐狸大惊小怪地说：“真糟糕!这么好喝的汤。真是太糟糕了!也许下一次……”鹳赶快接着说：“是啊，当然了。下一次一定请你吃午饭。”

第二天，狐狸在他的门上发现一个便条，那是鹳请他去吃饭的邀请函。“哎呀，她可真好啊!”狐狸自言自语道。“我捉弄了她，可她一点都没往心里去。”

鹳的房子比狐狸的简陋多了，她很抱歉地对狐狸说：“我的家比不上您的，但是我准备了非常特别的饭菜。水煮虾和白酒还有杜松子果!”狐狸想想这些美味，禁不住舔了舔嘴。当鹳把盛饭菜的罐端上来的时候，狐狸深吸了一口气。但是，无论他怎么努力，都吃不到一口东西，因为他的嘴不够长，伸不到罐子底部。而鹳却正用她的长嘴大口大口地吃饭呢。

“尝尝呀!尝尝呀!”她说。“你不喜欢吗?”但是倒霉的狐狸，此时困惑不解，脑子也不灵了，想不出一个不吃的理由。

那天晚上，狐狸饥肠辘辘地躺在床上，翻来覆去睡不着。想想那顿泡汤了的午餐，他叹口气说：“也许我早该想到的。”