英语民间故事

民间 故事 是从远古时代起就在人们口头流传的一种以奇异的语言和象征的形式讲述人与人之间的种种关系，题材广泛而又充满幻想的叙事体故事。它们往往包含着自然的、异想天开的成分。下面我为大家带来英语经典民间故事：孟姜女哭长城，欢迎大家阅读! A little over two hundred years before our era, the first emperor of the Chin dynasty ascended the throne under the name of Shih Huang. This emperor was very cruel towards his subjects, forcing people from every part of the country to come and build the Great Wall to protect his empire. Work never stopped, day or night, with the people carrying heavy loads of earth and bricks under the overseers' whips, lashes, and curses. They received very little food; the clothes they wore were threadbare. So it was scarcely to be wondered at that large numbers of them died every day. There was a young man, named Wan Hsi-liang, among those who had been pressed into the service of building Emperor Shih Huang's Great Wall. This Wan Hsi-liang had a beautiful and virtuous wife, whose name was Meng Chiang-nu. For a long, long time after her husband was forced to leave her, Meng Chiang-nu had no news of him, and it saddened her to think what he must be suffering, toiling for the accursed emperor. Her hatred of the wicked ruler grew apace with her longing for the husband he had torn from her side. One spring, when the flowers were in bloom and the trees budding, when the grass was a lush green, and the swallows were flying in pairs in the sky, her sorrow seemed to deepen as she walked in the fields, so she sang: In March the peach is blossom-dressed; Swallows, mating, build their nest. Two by two they gaily fly.... Left all alone, how sad am I!But even when autumn came round, there still was no news about Wan Hsi-liang. It was rumored that the Great Wall was in building somewhere way up north where it was so cold that one would hardly dare stick one's hands out of one's sleeves. When Meng Chiang-nu heard this, she hurriedly made cotton-padded clothes and shoes for her husband. But who should take these to him when it was such a long way to the Great Wall? Pondering the matter over and over, she finally decided she would take the clothes and shoes to Wan Hsi-liang herself. It was rather cold when she started out. The leaves had fallen from the trees and, as the harvest had been gathered in, the fields were empty and forlornly dismal. It was very lonely for Meng Chiang-nu to walk all by herself, especially since she had never been away from home in her life, and did not know the way and had to ask for directions every now and then. One evening she failed to reach a town she was going to, so she put up for the night in a little temple in a grove beside the road. Having walked the whole day, she was very tired and fell asleep as soon as she lay down on a stone table. She dreamed her husband was coming towards her, and a feeling of great happiness enveloped her. But then he told her that he had died, and she cried bitterly. When she woke up in the morning, she was overwhelmed by doubts and sadness as she remembered this dream. With curses on the emperor who had torn so many families asunder, Meng Chiang-nu continued on her way. One day, she came to a small inn by the side of the hilly road. The inn was kept by an old woman who, when she saw Meng Chiang-nu's hot face and dusty clothes, asked where she was going. When Meng Chiang-nu told her, she was deeply moved. "Aya!" she sighed, "the Great Wall is still far away from here, there are mountains and rivers to cross before you. How can a weak young woman like yourself get there?" But Meng Chiang-nu told the old woman she was determined to get the clothes and shoes to her husband, no matter what the difficulty. The old woman was as much touched by the younger one's willpower as she was concerned about her safety. The next day she accompanied Meng Chiang-nu over a distance to show her sympathy. And so, Meng Chiang-nu walked on and on and on till, one day, she came to a deep valley between the mountains. The sky was overcast with gray clouds, a strong wind was blowing that chilled the air. She walked quite a long time through the valley without, however, finding a single house. All she could see were weeds, brambles and rocks. It was getting so dark that she could no longer see the road. At the foot of the mountains there was a river, running with water of a murky color. Where should she go? Being at her wit's end, she decided to spend the night among some bushes. As she had not eaten anything for the whole day, she shivered all the more violently in the cold. Thinking of how her husband must be suffering in this icy cold weather, her heart contracted with a pain as sharp as a knife. When Meng Chiang-nu opened her eyes the next morning, she found to her amazement the whole valley and her own body covered with a blanket of snow. How was she to continue her travel? While she was still quite at a loss as to what to do, a crow suddenly alighted before her. It cawed twice and flew on a short distance, then sat down again in front of her and cawed again twice. Meng Chiang-nu decided that the bird was inviting her to follow its direction and so she resumed her travel, a little cheered because of the company of this living thing, and she began to sing as she walked along: Thick and fast swirl round the winter snows: I, Meng Chiang-nu, trudge, bearing winter clothes, A starveling crow, alas, my only guide, The Great Wall far, and I far from his side! Thus she walked past mountain ranges, crossing big rivers as well as small streams. And thus many a dreary day had passed before she at last reached the Great Wall. How excited she was when she caught sight of it, meandering like a huge serpent over the mountains before her. The wind was piercingly cold and the bare mountains were covered with dry grass only, without a single tree anywhere. Clusters of people were huddling against the Great Wall; these were the people who had been driven here to build it. Meng Chiang-nu walked along the Great Wall, trying to find her husband among those who were toiling here. She asked after her husband, but nobody knew anything about him, so she had to go on and on inquiring.... She saw what sallow faces the toilers had, their cheekbones protruding through the skin, and she saw many dead lying about, without anybody paying any attention. Her anguish over her husband's unknown fate increased, so that she shed many bitter tears as she continued her search. At last she learned the sad truth. Her husband had died long ago because of the unbearably hard toil, and his body had been put underground where he fell, under the Great Wall. Hearing this tragic news, Meng Chiang-nu fell into a swoon. Some of the builders tried to revive her, but it was a long while before she regained consciousness. When she did, she burst into a flood of tears, for several days on end, so that many of the toilers wept with her. So bitter was her lament that, suddenly, a length of over two hundred miles of the Great Wall came crumbling down, while a violent storm made the sand and bricks whirl about in the air. "It was Meng Chiang-nu who, by her tears, caused the Great Wall to crumble!" the people along the edifice told one another with amazement, at the same time filled with hatred of the cruel emperor, who caused nothing but misery to his subjects. When the emperor heard how Meng Chiang-nu had brought part of his Great Wall down, he immediately went to see for himself what sort of person she was. He found that she was as beautiful as a fairy, so he asked her to become his concubine. Meng Chiang-nu who hated him so deeply for his cruel ways would, of course, not consent to this. But she felt a ruse would serve her purpose better than frankness, so she answered amiably: "Yes, I will, if you do three things for me." The emperor then asked what these three things were and Meng Chiang-nu said: "The first is that you bury my husband in a golden coffin with a silver lid on it; the second is that all your ministers and generals go into mourning for my husband and attend his funeral; the third is that you attend his funeral yourself, wearing deep mourning as his son would do." Being so taken with her beauty, the emperor consented to her requests at once. Everything was, therefore, arranged accordingly. In funeral procession, Emperor Shih Huang walked closely behind the coffin, while a cortege of all his courtiers and generals followed him. The emperor anticipated happily the enjoyment the beautiful, new concubine would give him. But Meng Chiang-nu, when she saw her husband properly buried, kowtowed before his tomb in homage to the deceased, crying bitterly for a long time. Then, all of a sudden, she jumped into the river that flowed close by the tomb. The emperor was infuriated at being thwarted in his desires. He ordered his attendants to pull her out of the water again. But before they could seize her, Meng Chiang-nu had turned into a beautiful, silvery fish and swam gracefully out of sight, deep down into the green-blue water.

对于学习英语来讲有时候多多看一些简单的英语，可能会学习的更快哦，可能下面我就给大家整理了英语小故事，大家快看看吧

英语小故事一

An artist who had painted many pictures of great beauty found that he had not yet painted the one “real ” picture.

一位画过许多杰出精美画作的艺术家，发现自己甚至连幅¨真的画都没有画出来。

In his search along a dusty road, he met an aged priest who asked him where he was going .

他沿着一条布满尘土的路一路追寻，他遇到一位年老的牧师，牧师问他要去哪里。

“I do not know, ” said the artist, “I want to paint the most beautiful thing in the world . Perhaps you can direct me to it. ”

艺术家回答：¨我不知道，我想画世界上最美好的东西。也许，你能给我指引。"

“How simple, ” replied the priest, “in any church or creed, you will find it——“faith”is the most beautiful thing in the world. ”

牧师说，“很简单，在任何教堂或者信条中，你会发现——世界上最美好的东西是¨信仰”

The artist traveled on . Later , he met a young bride who told him that the most beautifu thing in the world is :”love”.”love” makes the world go round.

艺术家继续前行。后来，他遇到一个年轻的新娘，她告诉他，“爱¨是世界上最美好的东西。

I builds poverty into riches. sweetens tears and makes much of little . Without love there is no beauty.

“爱”使世界运转，让贫穷变得富有，泪水变成甜蜜，渺小变成伟大。没有爱，也就没有美。

Still the artist continued his search and met a weary soldier.

艺术家继续他的追寻，他又遇到一个疲惫不堪的士兵。

The artist asked him the same question and the soldier answered, “Peace” is the most beautiful thing in the world.

艺术家问了他同样的问题，士兵说：“世界上最美好的东西是‘和平’。

War is ugly and wherever you find peace you’ll find beauty, faith and love.

战争丑恶无比，你在哪里能找到和平，也就找到了美、信仰和爱。¨

“How can I paint them- Faith, Love and Peace?” thought the artist.

¨信仰、爱与和平——我怎样才能把它们画出来呢?”艺术家想。

As he resumed his walk, his mind wondered on the “real ”picture he hoped to paint.He was surprised that without thinking where he was going,he had reached his familiar surrounding.

当他重新开始旅途时，脑子里想着自己希望画出来的¨真实¨之作。他惊讶地发现自己想都没想居然又走回熟悉的环境。

As he entered the doorway,light glistened in his eyes and he realized thet his search was over.

他走进房门，眼睛里发出一丝光芒，他知道自己的追寻结束了。

In the faces of his wife and children,he saw love and Faith."Not a minute passed by thet our children and l

英语小故事二

A child on Christmas time asked for some paper and crayons in order to draw a crib. Eventually the artistic masterpiece was displayed for parental approval. The manager, the shepherds, Jesus and Holy Family wore duly admired。

"But what's that in the corner?" asked Mother。

"Oh, that's their telly," replied the tot。

耶稣的电视机

圣诞节时孩子要了纸和蜡笔，想画一张耶稣诞生像。最后这件艺术品被陈列出来供父母鉴赏。

他们对耶稣诞生后睡的马槽，牧羊人，耶稣及其家庭都逐一表示赞赏。

“可是那个角落里是什么?”妈妈问。

“噢，那是他们的电视机，”孩子回答说。

英语小故事三

One day a mother rabbit was having a baby rabbit.

The other rabbits were very fast and could jump very high. When the little rabbit was 4 months old, it started to talk.

The very first thing he said was "I want to jump very very high".

After a few years when the little rabbit could say anything he wanted to say, he started to pray to God at night.

He would always pray that he wanted to jump very very high and run very, very fast.

Well one day he started a race with one of the other rabbits. The other rabbit was in first place,then he got in first place, then the other rabbit got in first place until he got in first place.

He tripped and fell down. He looked up and he saw a fire-breathing dragon. The dragon told him that he could win this race if he really tried.

Then the rabbit got up and tried his hardest.