亡羊补牢
1、从前有个人，养了几只羊①。
2、一天，他去羊圈②，发现少了一只羊。
3、邻居告诉他，羊圈破了个洞，洞口还有狼③的脚印④，劝他赶快把洞修补好。
4、这个人听了邻居的话，心想：反正羊已经丢了，修羊圈有什么用呢？
5、第二天，他去羊圈，发现又少了一只羊，他后悔⑤极了。
6、于是，他赶快修好羊圈。从此，他的羊再也没有丢过。
Mend the pen after the sheep are lost
1、Once there was a man who had raised a couple of sheep and kept them in a pen.
2、One day, he went to the pen and found a sheep lost.
3、The neighbors told him that the pen was broken and there were footprints of the wolf near a hole in the fence. They advised him to mend it as soon as possible.
4、The man ignored his neighbors' advice. He thought that since the sheep had been lost, there's no use mending the pen.
5、The next day, the man went to his pen again, only to find that another sheep was lost. He deeply regretted ever having not followed his neighbors' advice.
6、Then he hurried to have the pen mended and from then on he never lost his sheep.
New Words
①羊：sheep ②羊圈：the（sheep）pen ③狼：wolf ④脚印：footprints ⑤后悔：regret
Language Tips
成语"亡羊补牢"就是讲的这个故事。亡：丢失；牢：牲口圈。这个成语的意思
是羊丢失了，再去修补羊圈。比喻出了差错及时补救还来得及。
The Chinese idiom"亡羊补牢"（sometimes means "lock the stable door after the horse has bolted"） comes from this story. Here"亡"means "be lost" and"牢"refer to "the pen". This idiom, meaning one doesn't mend his pen until the sheep are lost, is a metaphor used to advise someone that even when he has made a mistake and suffered losses, he can still remedy it by drawing lessons from the mistake.
Practice
1.这则寓言故事要告诉人们一个什么道理？（ ）
(a)遇到失败时，只要总结经验教训，及时补救，就可以避免更大的损失。
(b)羊已经丢了，修补羊圈也没有用。
2.选正确的一项
.
(1)牧羊人一共丢了几只羊？（ ）
(a)一只 (b)二只
(2)牧羊人是怎么知道他的羊丢了的？（ ）
(a)自己发现的 (b)邻居告诉他的
(3)牧羊人的羊是怎么丢的？（ ）
(a)羊圈破了个洞，狼从洞里把羊叼走了。
(b)羊圈破了个洞，羊自己从洞口逃走了。
(4)为什么牧羊人以后再没有丢过羊？（ ）
(a)把狼打死了 (b)把羊圈修补好了
Practice
1. What can we learn from the story? （ ）
(a) After we discover the loss, we can avoid greater losses so long as we take remedial measures in time.
(b) Since the sheep have been lost, there's no use mending the pen.
2.Choose the right answer.
(1) How many sheep were lost in all? （ ）
(a) One (b) two
(2) How did the man find his sheep lost？（ ）
(a) He found it on his own (b) The neighbors told him
(3) How were the man's sheep lost? （ ）
(a) The pen was broken. The wolf got into the pen through the hole in the fence and hunted the sheep.
(b) The pen was broken. The sheep bolted through the hole in the fence by itself.
(4) Why did the man never lost his sheep from then on？（ ）
(a) The wolf was beaten to death (b) The pen was mended very well