An old hound had served his master extremely well in the field but had lost his strength over the years and now had many troubles.One day, while out hunting with his master, he encountered a wild boar and boldly seized the beast by the ear,but his teeth gave way,and the boar escaped.His master rushed to the scene and began giving the hound a good scolding and sound beating, but he stopped when the feeble dog looked up and said, "Spare your old servant, dear master! You know full well that neither my courage nor my will were at fault, but only my strength and my teeth, and these I have lost in your service."

【關鍵詞】

hound[ha?nd] ? n.獵狗

strength ? n.力量

boar ? n.野豬

boldly ? adv.大膽地

seize ? v.抓住

beast ? n.野獸

scold ? v.責罵

【翻譯】

一只獵犬服侍它的主人非常好，但是它已經失去了它的健康在過去的這些年，并且現在有了很多的毛病。一天，當獵犬和它的主人外出狩獵時，它遇見了一只野熊，它狠狠地咬住了這只野熊的耳朵，但是獵犬的牙齒掉了，野熊逃脫了。獵犬的主人跑過來，他開始給獵犬一頓大罵并且高聲責備，但是他突然停止了，當這只可憐的狗抬起頭說，“可憐下你的老仆人吧，親愛的主人!你清楚的知道，既不是我沒有勇氣，也不是我不想干，是我們身體和牙齒已經不行了，這些都是我服侍您的時候失去的啊。”