Carve on Gunwale of a Moving Boat刻舟求剑

“刻舟求剑”是一个由寓言故事演化而成的成语，出自《吕氏春秋·察今》 。比喻拘泥固执，不知变通。

Long time ago， there was a young man from the State of Chu.He had a nice 1）sword and he loved it very much.

One day， he was crossing a river by boat. Due to carelessness，his sword which hung at his side fell into the water. Not in the leastworried， he slowly took out a small knife and carved a mark on theside of the boat.

Someone on the boat asked him， “Why don’t you jump into thewater at once to fish for your sword？ What’s the use of making thismark on the side of the boat？”

He pointed to the mark on the side of the boat， saying2）unhurriedly， “There is no need to worry. My sword fell into theriver at this marked place. As soon as the boat reaches the 3）dockand pulls into 4）shore， I will jump down fromhere to retrieve my sword.” But in the end，he didn’t retrieve hissword.

1） sword n. 剑；刀

2） unhurriedly adv. 不慌不忙地

3） dock n. 码头

4） shore n. 滨；岸

很久以前，有一个楚国的年轻人，他有一把漂亮的剑，他非常喜欢这把剑。

一天，他坐船过河，一不小心身上挂的剑掉进了河里。他一点儿也不着急，慢腾腾地拿出小刀，在船舷上刻了一个记号。

船上的人问他：“你为什么不赶快下水把它捞起来？你在船舷上刻个记号有什么用啊？”

他指着船舷上的记号，不慌不忙地说：“不用着急。我的剑是从这个刻着记号的地方掉下去的。等船到了码头，靠了岸，我从这里跳下去，就能把剑捞上来。”但最终他还是没捞到剑。

Answer the question：

Have you ever done something foolish that didn’t turn out as you’d hoped？ Think and write down.

Know More

This story tells us that looking at the changes and developments of things froma static perspective will inevitably lead to erroneous judgments. Things in the worldare constantly changing and we should take a development view of things that arechanging.

这个故事告诉我们：从静态的角度看待事物的发展和变化，必然会导致错误的判断。世界上的事情是不断变化的，我们应该以发展的眼光看待变化的事物。