刻舟求剑
Marking the boat to find a lost sword
Name: ________________ Date: ________
两千多年前，楚国有一个人要过江。他坐在船上，手里拿着一把宝剑，这是他最喜欢的东西。
船到了江中间，他不小心，宝剑从手里掉进了水里。
船上的人都叫了起来：“快！快下去找！”
这个人可是一点儿也不急。他拿出一把小刀，在船边上做了一个记号，说：“我的剑就是从这儿掉下去的。记好了，等一会儿再找。”
船继续往前走。过了很久，船终于到了对面，停了下来。
这个人马上脱了衣服，从做记号的地方跳进水里，找他的剑。他找啊找，找了半天，什么也没找到。
他从水里出来，看着船上的记号，怎么也想不明白：“奇怪，剑就是从这儿掉下去的啊！”
船上的人都笑了：船一直在往前走，可是剑没有走啊！
这个故事来自两千多年前的《吕氏春秋》。今天，“刻舟求剑”说的是：事情已经变了，有的人还在用老办法，不知道变一变。比如：“现在大家都用手机付钱了，你的店还只能用现金，这不是刻舟求剑吗？”
Key words
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 船 | chuán | boat; ship |
| 中间 | zhōngjiān | middle; center |
| 小心 | xiǎoxīn | to be careful; to watch out for; careful; cautious |
| 久 | jiǔ | long (time) |
| 地方 | dìfang | place |
| 半天 | bàntiān | a long time; quite a while |
| 明白 | míngbai | to understand; to realize |
| 奇怪 | qíguài | strange; odd; weird |
| 一直 | yìzhí | always; all along; continuously |
| 故事 | gùshi | story; tale |
| 来自 | láizì | to come from; to originate from |
| 变 | biàn | to change; to become; change; transformation |
English (for the teacher)
More than two thousand years ago, a man from the state of Chu was crossing a river. He sat in the boat holding a fine sword, the thing he loved most.
In the middle of the river he slipped up, and the sword fell out of his hand into the water.
Everyone on the boat cried out, “Quick! Quick, get in and find it!”
But the man wasn’t worried in the slightest. He took out a little knife, made a mark on the side of the boat and said, “This is exactly where my sword fell in. There, it’s marked. I’ll look for it in a bit.”
The boat carried on. After a long while it finally reached the other side and stopped.
The man immediately took off his clothes, jumped into the water at the spot where he had made his mark, and looked for his sword. He searched and searched for ages, and found nothing at all.
He climbed out, stared at the mark on the boat, and just couldn’t work it out: “That’s strange, this is exactly where it fell in!”
Everyone on the boat laughed: the boat had been moving the whole time, but the sword hadn’t!
This story comes from the Lüshi Chunqiu, written more than two thousand years ago. Today 刻舟求剑, “marking the boat to find the sword”, means that things have changed but someone keeps using the old way and won’t adapt. For example: “Everyone pays with their phone now and your shop still takes only cash. Isn’t that marking the boat to find the sword?”