THE MOLE AND HIS MOTHER 鼹鼠母子

A young mole once boasted to his mother that he could see. Now the mother knew very well that all moles are blind: they live in dark underground burrows and do not need to see where they are going. She decided to find out whether the young mole was lying and she prepared a test. She laid a lump of sweet-smelling soap in front of him.

“Now, what do you see?” she asked.

The young mole touched the hard soap gently with his nose.

“A stone, mother,” he said.

The mother laughed.

“You are not only blind like the rest of us,” she said, “but you have no sense of smell, either. If you had not boasted about being able to see I would never have found out about that.”

有一次，小鼹鼠跟妈妈吹牛说他看得见东西。妈妈非常清楚他们鼹鼠是看不见东西的：他们住在漆黑的地下洞穴里，压根儿不需要看路。妈妈决定试试小鼹鼠，看看他是不是在撒谎。她在他面前放了一块儿香喷喷的肥皂。

“说说，现在你能看到什么呀？”妈妈问。

小鼹鼠用鼻子轻轻地碰了碰硬邦邦的肥皂。

“我看到了石头，妈妈。”他说。

妈妈笑了起来。

“你呀，不光和我们一样，什么也看不见，”她说，“你还没有味觉。要不是你吹牛说你看得见东西，我大概永远不会知道这一点呢。”

-mole [ˈməʊl] n. 鼹鼠

-burrow [ˈbʌrəʊ] n. 地洞

-lump [lʌmp] n. 块；团

德国著名诗人海涅说过：“生命不可能从谎言中开出灿烂的鲜花。”(Life cannot possibly bear splendid flowers from lies.)