司马光砸缸
Sima Guang smashes the water jar
Name: ________________ Date: ________
一千年前，宋朝有个小男孩，叫司马光。他七岁的时候，就跟大人一样懂事，特别喜欢看书，看起书来，连饭都忘了吃。
有一天，司马光和小朋友们在院子里玩。院子里有一个很大的水缸，里面装满了水。
一个小朋友爬到缸上去玩，脚下一滑，“扑通”一声，掉进了缸里！
水很深，他在里面大声地喊，他的头一会儿在水上，一会儿在水下。
别的小朋友害怕极了，都跑了，只有司马光没有走。
去找爸爸妈妈？太慢了。把他拉上来？太高了，拉不到。司马光看了看四周，在地上找到一块大石头。他举起石头，砸在了水缸上！
水缸破了一个大洞，水哗哗地流了出来。那个小朋友活下来了。
这件事很快就传开了，还有人把它画成了画。司马光长大以后，写了一部很长很长的历史书，叫《资治通鉴》。一千年后，还有很多人读它。
今天，中国人说起“司马光砸缸”，是在说：遇到问题，别只想一种办法。别人想的是让人离开水，司马光想的是让水离开人。比如：“门开不了，那就从窗户进去，学学司马光！”
Key words
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 大人 | dàren | (polite) Your Excellency; lord (form of address for officials or elders) |
| 特别 | tèbié | special; unusual; especially; particularly |
| 爬 | pá | to climb |
| 别的 | biéde | other; else |
| 害怕 | hàipà | to be afraid; to be scared |
| 一块 | yíkuài | a piece; a lump |
| 以后 | yǐhòu | later; afterwards; in the future |
| 历史 | lìshǐ | history |
| 遇到 | yùdào | to meet; to run into; to encounter |
| 种 | zhǒng | to plant; to grow |
| 办法 | bànfǎ | way; method; means |
| 别人 | biéren | other people; others; someone else |
English (for the teacher)
A thousand years ago, in the Song dynasty, there was a little boy named Sima Guang. At seven he was as sensible as a grown-up and loved reading so much that once he started he forgot to eat.
One day Sima Guang was playing in a courtyard with some other children. In the courtyard stood a huge water jar, filled right to the top.
One child climbed up onto the jar to play, slipped, and with a splash fell right into it!
The water was deep; he shouted for help, his head bobbing above the water one moment and under it the next.
The other children were terrified and all ran off; only Sima Guang stayed.
Go and fetch the grown-ups? Too slow. Pull him out? Too high, he couldn’t reach. Sima Guang looked around and found a big stone on the ground. He lifted it up and brought it down hard on the jar!
The jar cracked open with a big hole and the water came gushing out. The child was saved.
The story soon spread, and people even made paintings of it. When Sima Guang grew up, he wrote a very, very long history book called the Zizhi Tongjian. A thousand years later, lots of people still read it.
Today, when Chinese people mention “Sima Guang smashes the jar”, they mean: when you hit a problem, don’t think of only one way to solve it. Everyone else was trying to get the child away from the water; Sima Guang got the water away from the child. For example: “The door won’t open? Then go in through the window, like Sima Guang!”