Touchstone（試金石）

According to the myth, on the very first day when he was born, Hermes stole some cattle（牛） from his half-brother Apollo, but the theft had been witnessed by an old shepherd（牧羊人）.

傳說(shuō)赫耳墨斯出生的第一天，他就從阿波羅那兒偷了一些牛，但是，一位老牧羊人目睹了他的偷竊行為。

Frightened at being discovered, Hermes bribed him with the finest cow in the herd not to betray him, and the old man agreed.

因?yàn)閾?dān)心被揭穿，赫耳墨斯便用最好的牛來(lái)賄賂老人，讓他不要說(shuō)出去，老人同意了。

But out of distrust and uncertainty, Hermes pretended to go away first and then returned to test the confidence of shepherd in the disguise of Admetus, the owner of the cattle. He promised to offer Battus two of his best oxen if he would disclose the author of the theft.

赫耳墨斯依然不放心，他佯裝離開(kāi)，然后變身為牛的主人阿德墨托斯后重新返回。他向牧羊人承諾，假如他能告訴自己竊賊的名字，就送給他兩頭牛。

The ruse（計(jì)策） succeeded, for the old man could not resist the tempting bait and gave the desired information. As a punishment for the treachery, Hermes changed him into a lump（塊） of touchstone with his divine power.

他的詭計(jì)得逞了，老頭經(jīng)不住誘惑，說(shuō)出了實(shí)情。于是，赫耳墨斯使出神力把牧羊人變成了一塊試金石，作為對(duì)他違背諾言的懲罰。

Touchstone literally means a stone used to test the fineness of gold alloys, but now metaphorically（隱喻地） it often refers to a standard or criterion by which the validity（正確性） or merit（價(jià)值）of something is judged or recognized.

試金石的本義是用來(lái)測(cè)試金礦石純度的石頭，如今，這個(gè)詞常引申為能夠衡量或判斷某物可靠性或品質(zhì)的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。

我是閣香書(shū)院，如果你喜歡看我的英語(yǔ)文章，想看更多的英語(yǔ)文章的話(huà)，歡迎關(guān)注我，讓我們一起學(xué)習(xí)英語(yǔ)，一起進(jìn)步吧！