成语故事《Stealing Light》

Kuang Heng was born in a poor family. He liked reading books very much. He needed to work at daytime, so he had to read books during night. But he was too poor to buy a candle. 

One day, he found his neighbour had candles, but the light couldn’t go through his room. So he dug a small hole on the wall so that he could use the light to read books. From that day, he read books every night until the light went out. 

However, he finished reading all his books and there were no books for him to read. Then he went to a rich man’s house and worked for him without payment. The rich man asked: “ Why don’t you want the money?” Kuang Heng said: “ Because I only want to borrow your books.” The rich man agreed. Kuang Heng read the books one by one. 

Finally, he became a great scholar.

故事梗概

匡衡勤奋好学，但家中没有蜡烛。邻家有蜡烛，但光亮照不到他家，匡衡就在墙壁上凿了洞引来邻家的光亮，让光亮照在书上读书。

县里有个大户人家不怎么识字，但家中富有，有很多书。匡衡就到他家去做雇工，但不要报酬。

主人感到很奇怪，问他为什么这样，他说：“我希望读遍主人家的书。”主人听了，深为感叹，就借给匡衡书。于是匡衡成了一位伟大的学者。

重难点词汇及短语：

candle：蜡烛

go through：穿过

dug：dig的过去式，挖，凿

so that：以便

go out：熄灭

payment：报酬

scholar：学者