One early morning， an old gardener found his garden in a mess and lots of his flowers missing. He was so angry that he shouted， “Who dares to mess up my garden？ Who has done this？”

In order to protect his remaining flowers from being destroyed， he decided to lock the garden gate in the evening.

The next morning， the old gardener discovered some of his flowers missing again. The angry old gardener decided to find out how that happened.

When night came， he sat quietly to watch his garden. Soon he saw a tortoise moving slowly into the garden. Once inside， it opened its mouth so wide that it took only one bite to swallow the whole flower.

The gardener shouted， “Ive caught you this time！”

The tortoise said， “Please forgive me！”

But the old gardener shook his head， “No way.”

“My kind lord， if you really want to punish me，” continued the poor tortoise， “I will not resist because I am the one that is guilty. But， no matter what you decide， please do not drown me in the water. It is too painful to die that way.”

“Since you have destroyed so many of my beautiful flowers， I must punish you！” said the old gardener and he immediately threw the tortoise into a lake next to his garden.

After a while， the tortoise surfaced and swam about happily. The old gardener then realized that he had been tricked because the tortoise was not afraid of the water.

一天早晨，一個老園丁發(fā)現(xiàn)他的花園一片零亂，花也少了很多。老園丁很生氣，他嚷道：“是誰把我的花園搞得一團糟！是誰干的！”

為了不讓他的花再遭到破壞，老園丁便在夜里把柵欄關了起來。

第二天一早，老園丁發(fā)現(xiàn)他的花又少了。氣憤的老園丁決定要查個水落石出。

到了晚上，老園丁靜靜地坐在一旁守著花園。很快，他看到一只烏龜慢慢地爬進花園里。它進去后便張開大嘴，一口吃掉了一朵花。

老園丁喊道：“這回我可抓到你了?！?/p>

烏龜哀求道：“饒了我吧！”

但是老園丁搖著頭說：“門兒都沒有。”

“仁慈的主人，如果你非要處罰我，”烏龜繼續(xù)說道，“我也只好認命了，畢竟是我做了錯事，理應受到懲罰?？墒?，你用什么方法處死我都行，就是別淹死我，因為淹死的滋味實在是太痛苦了。”

“你毀壞了我那么多漂亮的花，我必須懲罰你！”話音剛落，老園丁就把烏龜扔進花園旁的湖里。

不一會兒，烏龜浮出水面，高興地在湖里游來游去。老園丁這才意識到自己被騙了，因為烏龜根本就不怕水。

Vocabulary

dare v. 膽敢

remaining adj. 留下的；剩余的

bite n. 咬

forgive v. 原諒；寬恕

guilty adj. 有過錯的

trick v. 欺騙