The wolf and the fox wanted to eat the rabbit, but it wasn't easy to catch him.

One day the wolf said¹ to the fox, "You go home and lie in bed. I'll tell the rabbit that you are dead². When he comes to look at you, you can jump up and catch him." That's a good idea," said the fox.

He went home at once. The wolf went to the rabbit's house and knocked³ at the door. "Who is it?" asked the rabbit. "It's the wolf. I've come to tell you that the fox is dead." Then the wolf went away.

The rabbit went to the fox's house. He looked in through the window and saw⁴ the fox lying⁵ in bed with his eyes closed⁶. He thought⁷, "Is the fox really dead or is he pretending⁸ to be dead? If he's not dead, he'll catch me when I go near him." so he said, "The wolf says that the fox is dead. But he doesn't look like a dead fox. The mouth of a dead fox is always open." When the fox heard this, he thought, "I'll show him that I'm dead." So he opened his mouth.

The rabbit knew that the fox wasn't dead, and he ran⁹ as quickly as he could¹⁰.

狼和狐狸想要吃掉兔子，但是这只兔子太难抓到了。

一天，狼对狐狸说：“你回家假装躺在床上。我去告诉兔子你已经死了。当他来看你的时候，你就可以跳起来抓住他了。”“真是个好主意！”狐狸说。

于是他立刻回到家。狼去兔子的房前敲了敲门，“是谁啊？”兔子问道。“狼，我是来告诉你狐狸已经死了。”说完狼就走开了。

兔子去狐狸家看情况。他通过狐狸家的窗户看到闭着眼睛的狐狸躺在床上。他想，狐狸是真的死了，还是在假装呢？如果他没有死，那么我走近他就会被他抓住。于是他说：“狼说狐狸死了。但是他看起来并不像死掉了呀。死去的狐狸通常都是张着嘴的。”狐狸听到这些话就想：我得证明自己是真的死了。于是他张开了嘴巴。

这时兔子知道狐狸并没有死，他就以最快的速度跑开啦。

这篇英语故事告诉我们：不要被假象迷惑，凡事多多求证才能防患于未然。