It is never too late to mend.

亡羊補牢

Once upon a time， there was a shepherd who kept several sheep.

從前有個人，養(yǎng)了幾只羊。

One morning， the shepherd discovered that one of his sheep was missing.It turned out that， during the night， a wolf had stolen his sheep through a hole in the sheep pen.

一天早上，他發(fā)現(xiàn)少了一只羊。原來羊圈破了個窟窿，夜間狼從窟窿里鉆進來把羊叼走了。

His neighbor suggested to him： “You should fix the pen and cover the hole right away.”

鄰居勸告他說：“趕快把羊圈修一修，堵上那個窟窿吧。”

But the shepherd said： “The sheep is already lost， so I don‘t need to repair it.” And so he rejected the neighbor’s suggestion.

他說：“羊已經(jīng)丟了，還修羊圈干什么呢?”他沒接受鄰居的勸告。

The next morning， he discovered that another sheep was missing.Once again， the wolf stole the sheep through the hole in the fence.

第二天早上，他去放羊，發(fā)現(xiàn)又少了一只羊。原來狼又從窟窿里鉆進來把羊叼走了。

The shepherd regretted not taking the neighbor‘s advice.So he plugged the hole to secure the sheep pen.

他很后悔沒有接受鄰居的勸告，他趕快堵上那個窟窿，把羊圈修得結(jié)結(jié)實實的。

From then on， no more sheep was stolen by the wolf.

從此，他的羊再沒有被狼叼走了。

“亡羊補牢”這個故事中的主人公雖然因為不聽他人意見，而使自己蒙受了損失，但是后來經(jīng)過自己的補救，使同樣的情況沒有再發(fā)生，所以現(xiàn)在我們常用這個成語表達“出現(xiàn)了問題，只要及時補救，都還來得及”。

英語中如果想表達同樣的意思，我們可以說“It is never too late to mend.”，也就是“補救永遠不嫌太晚”。