小學英語英語故事童話故事CrackandCrook克利克和克羅克

1、Crack and Crook 克利克和克羅克Crack and Crook TOC o 1-5 h z Ina di stant towntherewas a famous thief known as Crack, whomnobody had ever beenableto catch The mainambition of this Crackwasto meet Crook,another notorious thief,and form a partnershipwithhim One day asCrackwas eating lunchat the tavern across

2、thetable from a stranger, he wont to look at his watch and found it missing The only person in this world who could have taken i t wit hout my knowledge, he thought, is Crook So what did Crack do but t urn right around and steal Crooks purse When the stranger got ready to pay for his lunch, he found

3、 his purse gone and said to his t able companion, “Well, well, you must be Crack” “And you must be Crook” “Right” “Fine, we* 11 work togetherThey went to the city and made for the king* s treasury, which was completely surrounded by guards The thieves therefore dug an undergrou nd tunnel into the tr

4、easury and stole everything Surveying his loss, the king had noideahowhe mightcatch therobbers He went toa man named Snare,whohadbeen putin prisonfor stealing, and said, “If you can tell me who committed this robbery, I 11 set you f ree and make you a marquis” Snare replied, “It can be none other th

5、an Crack or Crook, or both of them together, since they are the most notorious thieves alive Bu t I* 11tell youhow you can catch them Havethe price of meat raisedtoone hundred dollars a pound The person who pays thatmuch for itwill be yourthief”Theking had theprice of meat raised to one hundred doll

6、arsa pound,andeverybodystopped buying meat Finally it was reportedthat afriarhad gone toacertainbutcherandboughtmeatSnaresaid,“That had to be Crack or Crook in disguise Ill now disguise myself and go around tothehousesbeggingIfanybodygivesmemeat,I11makea red markonthe front door,andyourguardscango a

7、ndarrest the thieves”But when he made a red mark on Crack* s house, the thief saw it an d went and marked all the other doors in the city with red, so th ere was no telling in the end where Crack and Crook lived Snare said to the king, Didnt I tel 1 you they were foxy? But the res someone else foxie

8、r than they are Here，s the next thing to do: put a tub of boiling pitch at the bottom of the treasury steps W hoever goes down to steal will fall right into it, and his dead bo dy will give him away”Crack and Crook had run out of money in the meantime and decided t o go back to the treasury for more

9、 Crook went in first, but it wa s dark, and he fell into the tub Crack came along and tried to pu 11 his friends body out of the pitch, but it stuck fast in the t ub He then cut off the head and carried it awayThe next day the king went to see if he had caught the thief Thi s time we got him! We got

10、 him!” But the corpse had no head, so t hey were none the wiser about the thief or any accomplices he might have hadSnare said, “Theres one more thing we can do: have the dead man d ragged through the cityby two horses The housewhereyou hearsomeone weeping has to be the thieft s house”In effect, whe

11、n Crook，swife looked out thewindow andsaw herhusbandt s body being draggedthrough the street,shebeganscreamingandcrying But Crack was there and knew rightawaythatwould betheir undoing He therefore started smashing dishes right and left and th rashing the poor woman at the same time Attracted by all

12、that screa mi ng, the guards came in and found a man beating his wife for brea king up all the dishes in the houseThe king then had a decree posted on every street corner that he w ould peirdon the thief who had robbed him, if the thief now managed to steal the sheets out from under him at night Cra

13、ck camo forwar d and said he could do itThat night the king undressed and went to bed with his gun to wait for the thief Crack got a dead body from a gravedigger, dressed i t in his own clothes, and carried it to the roof of the royal pal ace At midnight the cadaver, held by a rope, was dangling bef

14、ore th e king, s windows Thinking it was Crack, the king fired one shot and watched him fall, cord and all He ran downstairs to see if he wa s deadWhiletheking was gone, Crack slippedinto his room andstole the sheets He was therefore pardoned, and so that he wouldnt h ave tostealanylonger, the king

15、married hisdaughter to him(Monferrato)NOTES:“Crack and Crook/， (Cric e Croc) from Comparetti, 13, Monferrato, Pied montThis is one of the oldest and most famous tales, which has occupied the attention of scholars for generations The Piedmontese version I foil owed is fai thful to the oldest traditio

16、n and includes the curio us character-names and a brisk dose of rustic cunning Herodotus (Hist ories) tel 1s in detai 1 about Egyptian King Rhampsini tus* s treasure, ch ief source of the vast narrative tradition concerning wily robbers pu t to the test by a ruler The beheading of a cadaver so it wi

17、ll n ot be recognized is also encountered in Pciusanias, who presents the myth of Trophonius and Agamedes (Description of Greece, IX, 372) Eith er through the Greeks or through oriental tradition the tale enteredmedieval literature, in the various translations of the Book of the Seven Sages and othe

18、r Italian, English, and German texts Li terary v ersions by Italian Renaissance story writers are numerousCopyright: Italian Folktales Selected and Retold by Italo Calvino, translated by George Martin,Pantheon Books, New York 1980克利克和克羅克在一個遙遠的小鎮(zhèn)上，有一個出了名的盜賊，人送外號克利克，并且認為永遠也不會有人 抓到他。這個盜賊很想結識另一個與他同樣知名的外

19、號叫克羅克的盜賊，想與他聯(lián)手作案。 一天，克利克在一家酒館吃飯，同桌坐著一位陌生人。克利克要看時間的時候才發(fā)現(xiàn)懷表已 經(jīng)不翼而匕了?？死讼耄阂沁@人能不被我覺察而偷走我的表，那他一定就是克羅克。他 回手就偷來了那個人的錢包。陌生人要付帳的時候發(fā)現(xiàn)自己的錢包也沒了，便對同桌的人說:“看來你就是克利克了?！绷硪粋€答道：“那你一定就是克羅克嘍?！薄皩Α昂脴O了，我們合伙吧?！本瓦@樣兩個盜賊聯(lián)起手來。兩個人進城，來到了由侍衛(wèi)嚴密把守的國王寶庫。他們挖了 條通向?qū)殠斓牡氐溃I走了寶 庫里的一些東西。國王眼看著寶庫被盜，卻找不到一點盜賊的線索，就去找一位關押在獄的 盜賊，人稱灰漿盆，國王對他說：“你要是能

20、告訴我偷寶庫的人是誰，我就放了你，還封你 為侯爵。”灰漿盆答道：“這一定是克利克和克羅克聯(lián)手干的，他們是兩個最棒的盜賊。不過，我有辦 法抓住他們。您下令把肉價抬高到每磅一百里拉，誰還去買肉，誰就一定是盜賊?！?國土依計把肉價抬到一百里拉一磅，沒有人再去買肉了。好不容易來人報告說有一個修道士 到一家肉鋪買過肉?；覞{盆說：“這一定是克利克或克羅克化裝的。我也化裝成一個乞丐， 挨家挨戶去乞討，誰給我肉吃，我就在他家的門上劃一個紅色標記，這樣侍衛(wèi)就能抓到他?！?但是當他在克利克家門上劃上紅色標記時，克利克覺察了?？死私o城里所有人家的門上都 劃上了同樣的標記，結果灰漿盆一無所獲?；覞{盆又向國王獻計說：“我不是跟您說過他們是兩個很狡猾的人嗎？但是，有人比他們更 狡猾。您這么辦：讓人在寶庫臺階的下面放上一桶滾燙的松樹油，進去