狐狸與葡萄
One hot summer's day, a hungry fox was wandering through an orchard when he spotted a bunch of grapes hanging from a vine. They were plump and purple, and they were shining in the sun.
"Just what I need," he said, licking his lips.
The grapes were hanging from a branch high above his head. The fox took a few steps back, ran forward and jumped, but he missed. He tried again, jumping even higher. Still he couldn't reach them. Again and again he jumped, until he was hot, tired and out of breath.
At last he gave up. He sat down, looked up at the grapes and sniffed. "I don't know why I bothered," he said. "Those grapes are obviously sour. I wouldn't eat them if you paid me."
And with his nose in the air, he walked away.
It is easy to look down on what you cannot have.
一個炎熱的夏日，一隻肚子餓的狐狸在果園裡閒晃，忽然看見葡萄藤上掛著一串葡萄。葡萄又大又紫，在陽光下閃閃發亮。
「這正是我需要的。」牠舔著嘴唇說。
葡萄掛在高高的枝頭上，比牠的頭高出一大截。狐狸往後退了幾步，往前一衝，跳了起來，可是沒碰到。牠又試了一次，跳得更高，還是碰不到。牠跳了一次又一次，跳得滿身大汗、又累又喘。
最後，牠放棄了。牠坐下來，抬頭看著那串葡萄，哼了一聲。「真不知道我幹麼白費力氣，」牠說，「那些葡萄一看就是酸的。就算有人付錢給我，我也不吃。」
說完，牠把鼻子一抬，走開了。
得不到的東西，最容易被說成不好。