Unit 1 More practice

Cao Chong weighs an elephant 曹冲称象

Cao Chong was the son of Cao Cao.

曹冲是曹操的儿子。

One day, Sun Quan sent Cao Cao a present. It was a huge elephant.

一日，孙权送给曹操一个礼物——一头大象。

Cao Cao wanted to find out the weight of the elephant.

曹操想知道大象的重量。

“What a huge animal it is! Can anyone tell me how to weigh it?” he asked the crowd around him.

“好大的动物！谁有办法把这头大象称一称有多重？”他问他周围的人。

“Can we get a large scale?” asked a soldier. However, no one could find a scale large enough.

一个士兵问“能给我们一个大秤吗？”。但是，没有人能找到一个足够大的秤。

“Can we cut it up?” asked another soldier. “No. I don't want to kill it,” said Cao Cao.

另一个士兵问“我们能把它切开吗？”曹操说：“不，我不想杀了它。”

Just then, young Cao Chong had a wonderful idea. “I can weigh the elephant!” he said “let me have a try.”

这时，年幼的曹冲有了主意“我能称象。”他说。“让我试试。”

Cao Chong asked some soldiers to lead the elephant onto a boat.

曹冲让一些士兵把大象带到一艘大船上。

As the heavy animal walked onto it, the boat went lower into the water.

当这个庞大的动物走上船时，船在水中下沉了。

Cao Chong drew a line on the side of the boat to mark how low it went.

曹冲在船的一边上画了一条线，来标记水面所达到的位置。

The elephant was then taken off the boat and the boat was filled with rocks until it went down again and water reached the line on the boat.

接下来把大象赶下船，给船上装载石头，直到水面再次达到做标记的位置。

Cao Chong then weighed the rocks. He added up the weight of all the rocks and said, “This is the weight of the elephant.”

曹冲接下来称了那些石头的重量，他把所有石头的重量加起来然后说：“这就是大象的重量。”

Cao Cao was very happy with his son. “My son is very clever, isn't he” he said. Everyone agreed.

曹操深为他的儿子而感到高兴。“我的儿子很聪明，不是吗？”他说到。众人纷纷表示赞同。