每天一小步

Maggie Murphy 世知社《荀子·劝学篇》有句名言：“不积跬步，无以至千里。” 不论我们的目标有多高远，只要每天进步一小点，终会到达理想的彼岸。

Step by Step

每天一小步

By Maggie Murphy

Art by Zachariah OHora

翻译：吕叶楠

Squirrel had a new tree house. “Please come up and look inside,” she said to Chipmunk, her friend and next-door neighbor.

“I wish I could,” said Chipmunk. “But I can’t.”

“Maybe sometime tomorrow?” asked Squirrel.

“I can’t at all, ever.” Chipmunk stared at the ground. “It’s such a long way up that I’m kind of scared.”

Squirrel thought awhile. Finally she said, “Want to practice going up? We could climb a little of the way now and come right back down. Then we’d climb higher each day.”

“Let’s try it,” said Chipmunk.

So they climbed five steps toward the tree house, and came down. When Chipmunk’s feet touched the ground, the friends said, “Hooray!”

On the second day, they climbed ten steps, and came down. “Hooray!”

On the third day, they climbed fifteen steps, and came down. “Hooray!”

The fourth day came. They started climbing. “We’re almost there,” said Chipmunk, “and I’m not scared.”

Soon they were inside the tree house.

“Hooray! You did it!” said Squirrel.

“Thanks, Squirrel. And it’s a wonderful house!”

译文：

松鼠搬进了一个新树屋。“请来到我家坐一坐呀。”她对邻居兼好友花栗鼠说。

“我也希望上去坐坐，”花栗鼠说，“但是我不行。”

“明天行吗？”松鼠问。

“恐怕——我永远都不行，”花栗鼠盯着地面说，“要爬太高了，我有点害怕。”

松鼠思考了片刻，最终她说道：“想不想锻炼一下自己？我们现在就往上爬一点儿，然后马上下来。之后我们每天都向上多爬点。”

“我们试一试吧。”花栗鼠回答。

就这样，他们朝着树屋爬了五步再下来。当花栗鼠的脚接触地面时，这对好伙伴欢呼着：“好棒耶！”

第二天，他们向上爬了十步才下来，他们欢呼道：“好棒耶！”

第三天，他们向上爬了十五步才下来，他们欢呼道：“好棒耶！”

第四天到了，他们又开始往上爬。“就快到了，”花栗鼠气喘吁吁地说，“我一点都不害怕了。”

很快，他们就来到了树屋里。

“真棒耶！你做到了！”松鼠开心地说。

“谢谢你，松鼠。这真是一幢漂亮的房子！”

知识链接：

花栗鼠与松鼠都是啮齿类动物，两者有何不同？在形态特征方面，花栗鼠背毛呈浅黄色或橘红色，有5条黑褐色纵纹，故有“五道眉”之称。花栗鼠体重约100g，而成年松鼠体重约300g左右，所以花栗鼠比松鼠个头更小，体重更轻。除此之外，二者生活习性也不尽相同，松鼠常年住在树上，而花栗鼠则大多数时间在地面上活动。

本文刊登在《英语沙龙》（少儿）2022年9月刊