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，一個老园丁发现他的花园一片零乱，花也少了很多。老园丁很生气，他嚷道：“是谁把我的花园搞得一团糟！是谁干的！”

为了不让他的花再遭到破坏，老园丁便在夜里把栅栏关了起来。

第二天一早，老园丁发现他的花又少了。气愤的老园丁决定要查个水落石出。

到了晚上，老园丁静静地坐在一旁守着花园。很快，他看到一只乌龟慢慢地爬进花园里。它进去后便张开大嘴，一口吃掉了一朵花。

老园丁喊道：“这回我可抓到你了。”

乌龟哀求道：“饶了我吧！”

但是老园丁摇着头说：“门儿都没有。”

“仁慈的主人，如果你非要处罚我，”乌龟继续说道，“我也只好认命了，毕竟是我做了错事，理应受到惩罚。可是，你用什么方法处死我都行，就是别淹死我，因为淹死的滋味实在是太痛苦了。”

“你毁坏了我那么多漂亮的花，我必须惩罚你！”话音刚落，老园丁就把乌龟扔进花园旁的湖里。

不一会儿，乌龟浮出水面，高兴地在湖里游来游去。老园丁这才意识到自己被骗了，因为乌龟根本就不怕水。

Vocabulary

dare v. 胆敢

remaining adj. 留下的；剩余的

bite n. 咬

forgive v. 原谅；宽恕

guilty adj. 有过错的

trick v. 欺骗