the gold colt and the fire dragon shirt 金马驹和火龙衣，巧斗"铁公鸡"财主的故事。

there once lived a landlord who loved money as he loved his own life. in his eyes the smallest coin seemed as large as a millstone. he was always on the lookout for some new way of making money and was very mean to his peasant tenants. they all called him "skinflint."

one year a long spell of drought devastated the area, ruining the entire crop. the peasants, who were used to living from year to year, and never had a reserve of grain to fall back on, were reduced to eating bark and roots to survive, and now even these were all consumed. starvation drove them to ask for a loan of grain from skinflint, whose granaries, big and small, were filled to overflowing. although the grain was sprouting and the flour was swarming with maggots, he was such a miser that he wouldn't part with a single speck of either. his peasants went away seething with anger and resentment, and resolved to find some way to teach him a lesson.

they put their heads together and came up with rather a good plan. they collected together a few tiny silver ingots and also managed to procure a scraggy little horse. they stuffed the silver up the horse's behind and bunged it up with a wad of cotton floss. then they selected one of their number, a peasant whose gift of gab had earned him the nickname "bigmouth" and who was credited with the power of talking the dead out of their graves. they sent him to skinflint with the horse. seeing them enter, skinflint flew into a rage. his whiskers bristled.

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作文地带知识拓展:

• 英语（English）属于印欧语系日耳曼语族西日耳曼语支，最早被中世纪的英国使用，并因其广阔的殖民地而成为世界使用面积最广的语言。英国人的祖先盎格鲁部落是后来迁移到大不列颠岛地区的日耳曼部落之一，称为英格兰。这两个名字都来自波罗地海半岛的Anglia。该语言与弗里斯兰语和下撒克森语密切相关，其词汇受到其他日耳曼语族语言的影响，尤其是北欧语（北日耳曼语），并在很大程度上由拉丁文和法文撰写。

  英语的英文释义：

  English 名词 uk  /ˈɪŋ.ɡlɪʃ/ us  /ˈɪŋ.ɡlɪʃ/

  the language that is spoken in the UK, the US, and in many other countries

  英语

  American/British English

  美式／英式英语

  Do you speak English?

  你会说英语吗？

  English   形容词 adjective   uk  /ˈɪŋ.ɡlɪʃ/ us  /ˈɪŋ.ɡlɪʃ/

  in or relating to the English language

  英语的

  an English teacher

  英语老师

  relating to or from England

  英格兰的;英国的

  English films/food/people

  英国电影／食品／人

  English law

  英格兰法律