书城英文图书英国学生文学读本(套装共6册)
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第18章 ELEPHANT STORIES

1.One day a huge elephant was standing in the hot sunshine.The flies were buzzing round him,and he kept beating his body with his trunk to drive them off.

2.Just at that time his master brought a little black baby,and laid it down before the animal.“Watch it!”he said,and walked away into the town.

3.The elephant at once began to take care of the baby.He seemed no longer to mind the flies buzzing about himself.What he now cared about was to keep them from the child.

4.First he tried to drive them off with his trunk,but that did not do well.Then he tore down a branch of a tree,but it was too big.So he broke off a small part of the branch,and used it as a fan to keep the flies away from the baby.

5.There he stood for more than two hours,gently fanning the child.He did not seem to think of himself at all.

6.It was a beautiful sight to see him taking such care of that little baby.The elephant was so large and strong;the child,so small and weak.

7.A gentleman in England had an elephant which helped the gardeners in their work.It used to take up a broom with its trunk,and sweep away the leaves from the walks.

8.When the gardener was watering the flowers,the elephant would follow him about,carrying a watering-pot with its trunk.

9.Elephants can do all sorts of things with their trunks.In India they are taught to move large logs of wood.They soon learn to do it as cleverly as men.