This Hole in the Ground

There was once a farmer who lived near a road.

It was not a busy road, but from time to time, cars passed the farm.

Near the farm gate, there was a large hole in the road.

This hole was always full of water, and the drivers of the cars could not see how deep the hole was. They thought it was probably shallow¹.

Then when they drove² into the hole, they could not drive out because it was so deep .

The farmer did not spend much time working on his farm. He spent most of it watching the hole.

When a car drove into it, he pulled the car out with his tractor³ and charged⁴ the driver a lot of money for doing this.

One day, the driver of a car said to him, "You must make a lot of money pulling cars out of this hole night and day.""Oh, no, " the farmer said." I don' t pull cars out of the hole at night. At night I fill the hole with water."从前，有个农夫住在马路边上。

这不是个繁忙的路段，偶尔有汽车从农场路过。

就在农场大门的旁边，路当中有个大坑。

坑里总是充满了水，汽车司机根本看不出坑有多深。他们会以为很浅。

司机们一旦把车开进坑里，就别想再开出来，因为坑太深了。

农夫也不怎么在农场里干活，大部分时间他都在注视着这个坑。

当一个汽车开进坑里，他就用他的拖拉机把它拉上来，然后为此向司机索要很多钱。

一天，一位汽车司机对他说：“你日日夜夜把汽车往外拉，肯定挣了很多钱。”

“哦，不，”农夫说，“我夜里不干这活儿，夜里我得朝这坑里注水。”