A sage（先知） was passing through the capital city of a famous king. While walking, he spotted a coin and picked 【小题1】 up. Content with his simple life, he had no use of that coin. So, he planned to donate it to the one 【小题2】 was in need of it. He strolled around throughout the day but didn't find any such.

Next morning, he 【小题3】(see) the king was ready to invade another state with his army. 【小题4】 (catch) sight of the sage, the king ordered his army 【小题5】 (stop). He came to the sage and said, "Oh, great sage, I am going to war to win another state. So please bless me to be victorious."

After thinking 【小题6】 (brief), the sage gave the coin to the king, saying, "Oh, great king! I found this coin yesterday while strolling around the 【小题7】 (street) of your city, but I had no use of it. Therefore, I had decided to donate it to someone who is needy, but I found no one such. It seemed that they were satisfied with 【小题8】 they had had. But today, you, the king of this state, still have the desire to gain 【小题9】 (much), so I feel you are in need of this coin."

Hearing this, the king realized his mistake and gave up the 【小题10】 (intend) war.

Once there was a fish who lived in the great ocean, and 【小题1】 the water was transparent and always conveniently got out of the way of his nose【小题2】he moved along, he didn’t know he was in the ocean. Well, one day the fish began to think: “Surely I am a most remarkable being, 【小题3】 I can move around like this in the middle of empty space.” Then the fish became confused after thinking about moving and swimming.

【小题4】 he looked down and saw the ocean depths, he was terrified that he would drop. Then he thought: “【小题5】 I could catch hold of my tail in my mouth, I could hold myself up.” 【小题6】 he went on trying to catch hold of his tail, the yawning black abyss below became even more terrible, and he was brought to the edge of total nervous breakdown.

The fish was about to give up 【小题7】 the ocean said, “What are you doing?” “Oh,” said the fish, “ I’m trying to catch hold of my tail in my mouth to hold myself up, 【小题8】 I’m terrified of falling into the deep dark abyss.” The ocean said, “I am the Great Ocean, 【小题9】 you live and move and are able to be a fish, and it is I 【小题10】 support you all the time you swim. You are wasting your time pursuing your own end.”

Chinese proverbs are rich and they are still widely used in Chinese people’s everyday life. 【小题1】 these proverbs there are often interesting stories. For example, the proverb, “plucking (拔) up crops 【小题2】 (help) them grow”, is based on the following story. 

It is said that a short-tempered man in the Song dynasty (宋朝) was very anxious to help his rice crops grow up 【小题3】 (quick). He was 【小题4】 (think) about it day and night. But the crops were growing much slower than he expected. One day, he came up 【小题5】 an idea that he would pluck up all of his crops a few inches. He did so the next day. He was very tired after 【小题6】 (do) this for a whole day, 【小题7】 he felt very happy since the crops did “grow” 【小题8】 (high). His son heard about this and went to see the crops. Unfortunately the leaves of the crops began to wither (枯萎). 

This proverb is saying we have to let things go in their 【小题9】 (nature) course. Being too anxious to help an event develop often 【小题10】 (result) in the contrary (相反) to our intention.