There were once two crows who were fierce rivals.
One day, one of the crows said to the other, “You realize, of course, that I can fly much higher than you can.”
“Don't be ridiculous,” the other crow said. “Everyone knows that I can fly much higher than you.”
“No, you can't,” the first crow said.
“Yes, I can,” the second crow replied, and the argument went on and on.
At last, they decided to have a contest to settle the issue.
“We will compete to find out who can fly higher while carrying a sack ,” the first crow said.
They argued for some time over the size of the sack, but finally came to an agreement.
Then there was further argument about what each sack would contain.
At last, they agreed that the first crow would fill his sack with cotton and the second crow would fill his with salt.
The first crow thought he was being very clever to agree to this because salt is much heavier than cotton.
In the end, they were ready for the contest, and holding their sacks in their beaks, they flew up into the sky.
They had not been flying for long, however, when it began to rain — as the second crow had expected it would.
As the cotton got wetter and wetter, it became heavier and heavier.
However, the salt just dissolved in the rain, so the second crow was easily able to fly higher than the first.
从前，有两只乌鸦，他俩是死对头。
有一天，一只乌鸦对另一只说：“想必你意识到了吧，我比你飞得高得多。”
“笑话！”另一只说，“人人都知道我比你飞得高得多。”
“才不是呢！”第一只说。
“我就是比你飞得高！”第二只回答，他俩争论不休。
最后，他们决定比试一场，也好有个定论。
“我们来比试比试，看看在叼着麻袋的情况下谁飞得更高。”第一只乌鸦说。
他俩为了麻袋的大小又争执了一段时间，最后终于统一了意见。
后来，两只乌鸦为了麻袋里应该装点儿什么东西又争执了起来。
最后，他们达成一致意见，决定给第一只乌鸦的麻袋里装上棉花，第二只的麻袋里装盐巴。
第一只觉得自己做了很聪明的决定，因为盐巴比棉花重得多。
最后，两只乌鸦准备就绪，嘴里叼好麻袋，向天空飞去。
可是，他俩还没飞多久就下起了雨——第二只乌鸦早就预料到会这样。
棉花慢慢湿透，变得越来越重。
盐巴却溶解在雨水里。所以第二只乌鸦飞得更高，毫不费力地赢了第一只。
-sack [sæk] n. 麻袋
-dissolve [dɪˈzɒlv] v. 溶解；融化
英国著名的历史小说家和诗人沃尔特·司各特(Walter Scott)说过：“He laughs best who laughs last.”(谁笑到最后，谁笑得最好。)