少儿英语故事：粉色仙人掌

　　上周我们少儿英语故事说到Junior把爸爸的礼物分给大家，Junior学会了抛开偏见。他们在公园里发现了一棵漂亮的仙人掌，大家都想把它带回家。

　　Victor made a suggestion. “Why don’t we take turns caring for the cactus? A different person can take care of it each week, and we’ll see how big it can get!” Everyone agreed, so Victor was the first to bring the cactus home.

　　Victor提出一个建议，“我们轮流来养仙人掌吧，每个人养一星期，看看它最后能长多大!”大家都同意了。于是Victor成了第一个把仙人掌带回家的人。

　　Victor excitedly watered and fertilized the cactus, but after a week it didn’t grow even a tiny bit.

　　Victor兴冲冲地给仙人掌浇水施肥，可等了一个星期，仙人掌连一丁点都没有长大。

　　Victor disappointedly brought the cactus to Pandora’s house. She said confidently, “Let me handle it. I can make it grow.” Pandora put the cactus in the sun, and sang to it every day, but it didn’t change at all.

　　Victor沮丧地把仙人掌送去Pandora的家。Pandora自信地说：“交给我，我一定能让它长大。”Pandora把仙人掌放在有阳光的窗边，每天给仙人掌唱歌。可一个星期过去了，仙人掌还是一点变化都没有。

　　Pandora was also disappointed, and brought the cactus to Oxford’s house. He heard the cactus wasn’t growing, so he ran to the library and found a book on plants. It said that only green cacti would grow big, so Oxford grabbed his paint set and painted the cactus green. He thought that now the cactus would finally start to grow. Sadly, though, after a week, it still hadn’t grown.

　　Pandora失望地把仙人掌送去了Oxford家里。Oxford听说仙人掌没有长大，很快从图书馆找到一本有关植物的书，书上说只有绿色的仙人掌才会长大。于是Oxford用颜料把仙人掌涂成了绿色，他心想，这一回仙人掌总该长大了吧。令人灰心的是，一个星期后，仙人掌还是没有动静。

　　The cactus was now at Junior’s house. He had also heard it wasn’t growing, and was very anxious. He thought maybe it just needed a little help, so he put on his gloves and pulled the cactus up out of the ground ever so slightly. It looked as if it had gotten taller. Junior was very happy, and pulled the cactus out of the dirt a little more each day.

　　它很快又到了Junior家里。Junior听说仙人掌没有长大，心里很着急。他心想，这棵仙人掌可能需要人帮它一把。于是Junior戴上手套，把仙人掌从土里拔出来一点。仙人掌看上去好像长大变高了。Junior很开心，于是每天都把仙人掌拔出来一点。

　　But on the last day of the week, the cactus died. Junior began to cry as he told his classmates the news, but Teacher Rolin just laughed. “You were all anxious for it to grow. You did different things to the cactus to try to make it grow, but the end result is that you killed it. Did you know that cacti grow very slowly? You wanted to help it, but you only hurt it. You can’t be worried about it, but just let it happen.”

　　可是七天之后，仙人掌却死了。Junior哭着告诉大家这个消息，一旁的Rolin老师却笑了：“你们因为着急，所以做了很多事情，反而把仙人掌弄死了。你们知道吗?仙人掌本来就是长得很慢的植物，你们想帮它，反而害了他。所以凡事都不能着急，要让它自己成长。”

　　Only then did they understand what foolish thing they’d done. They decided to bring the cactus back to the park, but saw Iris sitting down and sulking.

　　大家这才明白，他们干了一件傻事。他们决定一起把这棵仙人掌送回公园，却看到Iris以一个坐在旁边生闷气。

　　Why? What happened? We’ll find out next week!

　　Iris出什么事了呢?我们下周再见喽。