Uncle Li and Uncle Wang
李叔叔和王叔叔
Uncle Li and Uncle Wang are good friends. They are neighbors and their farms are both at the foot of the mountain in the south. So they can help each other. But neither of them likes to use his head, but they like to dream. They’re both poor laborers, though they are hard workers and not lazy. Most villagers have built new houses, but they still live in the low and broken houses. They are not very good at mathematics. They seldom had a good idea. Most people thought they were crazy.
One early April Monday morning, Uncle Li went east to the town on the coast to buy some medicine for his wife. In the town he heard the tomatoes in the city were expensive. He discussed this with Uncle Wang as soon as he went back. They decided to carry some fresh tomatoes to the city market. Theyborrowed some money from their friends, and brought nearly one thousand kilograms of tomatoes from the village to the city on a tractor. Bad luck! A lot of tomatoes had already been carried there when they arrived. A few days later they had to sell them at a low price. They felt sad and returned to their village, their heads hanging, with only a few dollars and cents to divide and put in their drawers.
“I can’t understand why, while compared to the competition, we lost money in business,” Uncle Li asked one day.
“The tractor was probably too small to give us a proper advantage. What a pity.” Uncle Wangmentioned without thinking “We’ll carry more tomatoes on a truck next time! Double the size! The maximum!”
“I agree, you’re correct! That’s a deal!” Uncle Li said with laughter “How silly we were! We shall prove that we have some sense and can make a big sale.”
译文
李叔叔和王叔叔是好朋友。他们是邻居，并且他们的农场都在南边的山脚下。因此他们可以互相帮忙。但是他们两人都不喜欢动脑筋，只喜欢做白日梦。尽管他们工作努力，也很勤快，却都是贫穷的劳动者。大部分村民都建了新房子，而他们仍然住在又矮又破的房子里。他们俩的数学都不好，也很少能想出什么好主意。大部分人都认为他们有些疯疯癫癫。
在四月初的一个周一的早晨，李叔叔往东区沿海城市给他的妻子买药。在城市里，他听说这里的西红柿卖得很贵。他一回去就和王叔叔商量了这件事。他们决定运一批新鲜的西红柿去城里的市场。他们从朋友那里借来一些钱，从村里带了近一千公斤的西红柿，用拖拉机运往城市。不幸运的是，当他们到达时，那里已经运来了大量的西红柿。几天后，他们不得不低价卖了这些西红柿。他们难过地回到了村里，低着头，把赚到的一点点钱放进去抽屉里。
李叔叔有一天问道：“我不明白为什么和其他人相比，我们做生意总是亏。”
“可能是我们的拖拉机太小，没什么优势。真可惜啊。”王叔叔不经思考地说道，“下次我们用卡车运更多的西红柿，比以前多一倍，最大量的！”
“我统一，你完全正确，就这么干！”李叔叔笑着说，“我们以前多傻啊！我们将证明我们很有头脑，也能做大买卖。”
Uncle Li and Uncle Wang are good friends. They live next to each other and their farms are both at the foot of the mountain. So they can help each other. But neither of them likes to use his head. They're both poor though they work hard. Most villagers have built new houses, but they still live in the low and broken houses. They never find out why.
Once Uncle Li went to town to buy some medicine for his wife. In the town he heard the apples in a city were expensive. He told Uncle Wang about it as soon as he went back. They decided to carry some apples to the city. They borrowed some money from their friends and bought nearly 1,000 kilograms of apples in the villages and carried them to the city on a tractor（拖拉机）. Bad luck! A lot of apples had already been carried there when they arrived. A few days later they had to sell them at a low price (价格)。They felt unhappy and returned to their village.
"I can't understand why we sustained (蒙受) losses in business while others always profit (盈利)" Uncle Li asked one day. "The tractor was too small " Uncle Wang said without thinking. "We'll carry more apples on a truck next time!" "I agree!" said Uncle Li.
How foolish they were !
【小题1】Uncle Li and Uncle Wang live in the low and broken houses because __________.
A. they hope to save money
B. they're both poor
C. their farms are at the foot of the mountain
D. they're not far from their farms
【小题2】The two farmers carried the apples to the city to _________.
A. make a journey B. visit some places of interest
C. meet their friends D. make a profit
【小题3】the two farmers had to sell their apples at a low price because ________.
A. theirs weren't as good as the others'
B. theirs were much less than the others'
C. a lot of apples had been already carried to the city
D. they forgot to carry them on a truck
答案：BDC