The Rat and the Elephant
A free B2-level English story for language learners, readable online in 7 languages, with an option to listen via the free Storyteller app.
A tiny rat sneers at a lumbering elephant's great size, insisting that being big and being important aren't the same thing — until the elephant's traveling companion gives him a rude awakening.
An uncommonly small rat was watching an uncommonly big elephant and sneering at the slowness of his steps.
一只出奇瘦小的老鼠正望着一头出奇高大的大象，嘲笑它步伐迟缓。
The enormous animal was heavily laden. On his back rose a three-storied howdah, wherein were accommodated a celebrated sultana, her dog, her cat, her monkey, her parrot, her old servant, and all her household. They were going upon a pilgrimage.
这头庞然大物身负重载。它背上驮着一座三层的象轿，里面坐着一位赫赫有名的苏丹王妃，还有她的狗、她的猫、她的猴子、她的鹦鹉、她的老仆人，以及她的全部家眷。他们正要前往朝圣。
The rat wondered why all the people should express astonishment at seeing this enormous bulk—"As if the fact of occupying more or less space implied that one was the more or less important accordingly! What is it you admire in him, you men? If it is only the weight of his body which fills the children with terror, then we rats, small as we are, consider ourselves not one grain less than the elephant." He would have said more; but the cat, bounding out of her cage, let him see in an instant that a rat is not an elephant.
老鼠很纳闷，为什么人们看到这庞然大物都要惊叹不已——“仿佛占地方多少就能决定一个生灵的重要与否似的！你们人类到底羡慕它什么呢？要是只因为它庞大的身躯能让孩子们感到恐惧，那么我们老鼠尽管弱小，也丝毫不觉得比大象逊色。”它还想继续说下去；可那只猫突然从笼子里跳了出来，转眼间就让它明白了，老鼠终究不是大象。
