THE BOY AND THE NUTS 想吃果仁的小男孩

A boy once found a jar full of nuts and raisins in his mother's kitchen and he put his hand in to help himself to as many as he could hold. When he tried to take his hand out of the jar, however, he found that the opening was too narrow for his clenched fist to past through.

“What shall I do?” he wailed , “My hand will be stuck in this jar forever.”

Just then his mother came in.

“Really,” she said, “there's nothing to make such a fuss about. Try taking half as many as nuts and raisins as you have in your hand and you'll find it will come out of the jar quite easily.”

有一次，一个小男孩在厨房里找到了妈妈放零食的罐子，里面有满满一罐果仁和葡萄干。他把手伸进罐里，想拿出很多来自己吃。可是，在把手抽出来的时候，他发现罐口太窄，握紧的拳头根本出不来。

“我该怎么办才好呢？”他哭叫起来，“我的手要永远卡在罐子里了。”

正在这时，妈妈走了进来。

“不见得吧，”妈妈说，“没什么值得大惊小怪的。把手里的果仁和葡萄干放下一半，你的手就能轻松地拿出来了。”

-raisin [ˈreɪzn] n. 葡萄干

-wail [weɪl] v. 哭叫

现代法国小说之父巴尔扎克(Balzac，1799—1850)说：“在人生的大风浪中,我们常常学船长的样子,在狂风暴雨之下把笨重的货物扔掉,以减轻船的重量。”