the golden reed pipe

a yao folktale

once upon a time there lived in the mountains a woman and her daughter. the daughter liked to dress in red. hence her name, little red.

one day they were plowing and sowing in the fields. all of a sudden, a gale blew up and in the sky there appeared an evil dragon who stretched down his claws, caught little red in a tight grip and flew off with her towards the west. her mother vaguely heard daughter's words carried on the wind:

oh mother, oh mother, as dear as can be!
my brother, my brother will rescue me!
wiping away her tears, her mother gazed into the sky and said, "but i only have a daughter. who can this brother be?"

she staggered home and had got halfway there when her white hair was caught up in the branches of a bayberry tree growing by the roadside. while she was disentangling her hair, she spotted a red, red berry dangling from a twig. she picked it and swallowed it without thinking.

when she arrived home, the woman gave birth to a boy with a round head and red cheeks. she named the boy little bayberry.

bayberry grew up very quickly and in a few days he was a young lad of fourteen or fifteen.

his mother wanted to ask bayberry to rescue his sister but couldn't bring herself to inflict such a dangerous task on him. all she could do was weep to herself in secret.

one day a crow alighted on the eaves of her house and cried:

your sister's suffering out there, out there!
she's weeping in the evil dragon's lair!
bloodstains on her back,
she's digging rocks with hands so bare!
upon hearing this, bayberry asked his mother, "do i have a sister?"

编辑:Liuxuepaper.Com

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