Long, long ago, a farmer thought the shoots in his fields were not growing fast enough. He wanted to help them. So he pulled every shoot up, then went home, feeling very tired but very satisfied. "Look, how great I an! I can think out such a good idea. From now on, my shoots will grow faster and faster," he thought. "I an very tired today," he said to his family, "I've been helping the young shoots to grow." When his son heard this, he ran out to the fields to have a look. To his surprise, he found all the shoots weredead.

【參考譯文】

很久很久以前，一個(gè)農(nóng)夫感覺(jué)他田里的幼苗長(zhǎng)得不是很快，他想幫助它們。于是他就向上拔它們，然后回了家，雖然感覺(jué)很累但是卻很滿意。他默默地想：“瞧我多么的偉大，我能想出如此好的辦法。從現(xiàn)在起，我的幼苗將會(huì)生長(zhǎng)得越來(lái)越快。”于是他對(duì)家人說(shuō)：“我今天累壞了，我在幫助幼苗生長(zhǎng)。”當(dāng)他的兒子聽(tīng)到這話，便匆忙跑到地里去看。讓他吃驚的是，他發(fā)現(xiàn)所有的幼苗都死了。