The Arrogant Rat
故事全文
A rat found a mirror in the forest one day. The mirror made anyone who looked into it appear larger than they were. When the rat looked into the mirror, and saw how tall and strong his reflection was, he thought that he was the greatest and the largest animal in the world. One day, a wise owl told the rat,“You think you are the strongest and the largest animal, but in fact, the elephant is the largest animal in the world. All the other animals fear him!”The rat was unconvinced, and so, he set off to look for the elephant, to challenge him to a fight.
When he arrived deep in the forest, he saw an animal who was as large as a small mountain with legs as thick as tree trunks. He asked loudly,“Are you an elephant?”The elephant looked around, but he did not see the rat. The rat had to climb atop a large rock before the elephant noticed him and replied,“Yes, I am an elephant.”The rat squeaked loudly,“I challenge you to a fight!”He beat his paw against the rock, to show the elephant his strength. However, the elephant was not impressed. He drew some water into his trunk, and sprayed it toward the rat. The rat was hit by the huge jet of water. He fell off the rock
and nearly drowned.
The rat finally realized that there were stronger and larger animals than him in the world.
His arrogance nearly cost him his life. From that day on, the rat stopped looking in the mirror and stopped being arrogant.
