It was a cold and dark night when the sun set in the west. All of the chickens in the hen house sat on perches1, closed their eyes and got ready to sleep. "Good night!" Everyone fell asleep after saying good night to each other.
However, one hen was sitting up and pecking2 at her own feathers. This hen was quite famous for laying eggs everyday. In addition, she sometimes made other chickens laugh with jokes.
As she pecked3 her feathers, one of her white feathers fell down to the ground suddenly. "Oh, one has come off! But I don't have to feel sorry for it. That means I lost as much weight as one feather." The Hen said as if it was nothing. All the other chickens were sleeping, so none of them could see it.
There was an owl4 sitting on a branch next to the hen house. Owl's eyes have keen sight at night. The owl muttered5 to himself. "I heard it clearly. I heard what the hen said with my sharp ears." But the owl lost interest soon and told this story to a pigeon in his neighborhood.
"Listen to me. Well, a Hen in the hen house pulled out one of her own feathers to look attractive. How can this happen? "Is it true? That's ridiculous."
The pigeon burned to tell the story to her friends, so she told it to a barnyard duck in her neighborhood. "Hey, duck. I have some surprising news." "What's up?" "A hen pulled all her feathers out to look pretty." "What a stunning6 story!"
The barnyard duck was shocked by the story. "That's unbelievable. If she pulled out all her feathers, she must have a cold and be running a fever." There was a swallow living under the eaves of the duck's house. The barnyard duck told the story to the swallow.
The swallow was surprised, too. "What an unbelievable story this is. I can't keep quiet. I have to tell this story to everyone." The swallow flew to the sky full of bright moonlight.
The next morning had broken. "Tweet tweet! Tweet tweet!" Early in the morning, sparrows were sitting down in front of the hen house and chattering7. The Chickens felt strange and asked the sparrows. "Excuse me, dear sparrows. What happened?"
"I have an unbelievable story to tell you. It's very unusual. Well, one hen pulled all her feathers out because she wanted to look attractive. But do you really think she will be beautiful after pulling all of her feathers out? So, the angry hen pulled out all the other hen's feathers. As a result, five chickens died at the same time."
Then, one hen replied to the sparrow. "Oh, what a pity. How could that happen?" The hen that replied to the sparrow was the one who pulled out her feather last night. The small thing that she pulled her feather out became such huge and shocking news while passing through several of her animal friends.
"Where did they say the hen was living? I want to meet her." "They said she is living right here." "Here? No way. This is not where she is living." "That's strange. Then, where is she living?" The sparrow shook her head.
"Definitely not here. I am curious where she lives, too. How on earth can a hen do such a horrible thing?" At that moment, a gust8 of wind blew, and it carried the hen's feather, which she pulled ort last night, to somewhere else.
1 perches [pə:tʃiz] 第7级 | |
栖息处( perch的名词复数 ); 栖枝; 高处; 鲈鱼 | |
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2 pecking [pekɪŋ] 第6级 | |
啄,啄食,小口地吃( peck的现在分词 ); 匆匆地吻 | |
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3 pecked [pekt] 第6级 | |
啄,啄食,小口地吃( peck的过去式和过去分词 ); 匆匆地吻 | |
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4 owl [aʊl] 第7级 | |
n.猫头鹰,枭 | |
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5 muttered [ˈmʌtəd] 第6级 | |
轻声低语,咕哝地抱怨( mutter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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6 stunning [ˈstʌnɪŋ] 第10级 | |
adj.极好的;使人晕倒的 | |
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7 chattering [t'ʃætərɪŋ] 第7级 | |
n. (机器振动发出的)咔嗒声,(鸟等)鸣,啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的,啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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