Gild the Lily画蛇添足

“画蛇添足”最早出自《战国策·齐策二》，指画蛇时给蛇添上脚。后比喻做事节外生枝，不但多余无益，反而害事；也比喻虚构事实，无中生有，多此一举。

In old times， a family in the State ofChu held a 1）sacrificial activity to theirancestors， and after that they rewarded thepeople who helped in the 2）ceremony withthe pot of wine used in it.

There were many helpers but only onepot of wine. Who will drink it？

Then someone suggested， “ L e teveryone draw a snake. Whoever drawsfastest and most lifelike will get the pot ofwine.” All people thought that was a goodidea.

One man drew very fast. He finished itin the blink of an eye， and of course he wasgiven the pot of wine. At this moment， hesaw that the others had not finished yet， sohe wanted to 3）flaunt his skill.

从前，楚国的一户人家为他们的祖先举行了祭祀活动，等祭祀完，他们把一壶祭祀时用过的酒给帮忙办事的人喝。

办事的人很多，可是酒只有一壶。到底给谁喝呢？

有人提议说：“让每个人都在地上画一条蛇，谁画得最快、最像，就把这壶酒给谁喝。”大家都认为这个办法很好。

有一个人画得很快，一转眼，就把蛇画好了，理所当然这壶酒应该归他。可是，这时候，他看别人都没有画好，就想再炫耀一下自己的技能。

He said proudly， “How slow you are！Even though I give the snake more feet andyou won’t finish it！” Holding the wine pot inhis left hand， he began to add feet to thesnake with his right hand.

When he was just adding feet to thesnake， another man finished his drawing.He 4）grabbed the wine pot at once， saying，“A snake has no feet. How could youadd feet to it？ The first one who finisheddrawing a snake is me， not you.”

After saying this， the man drank off thewine.

他得意扬扬地说：“你们画得真慢啊！我就是给蛇再添上脚，你们也追不上我！”他左手拿着酒壶，右手又开始给画好了的蛇添上脚。

当他正在给蛇画脚的时候，另一个人却把蛇画好了。那个人立刻把酒壶夺了过去，说：“蛇是没有脚的，你怎么画上了脚？第一个画好蛇的是我，不是你！”

说完，那个人就将那壶酒一饮而尽。

1） sacrificial adj. 献祭的

2） ceremony n. 仪式；典礼

3） flaunt v. 炫耀；卖弄

4） grab v. 攫取；抓住

Fill in the blanks：

1.Whoever draws the snake__________and most__________will get the pot of wine.

2.The man__________feet to the snake ended up with nothing.

Know More

The idiom tells us that we should be practical andrealistic whatever we do， or it may lead a bad ending.

这个成语故事告诉我们：无论做什么都要实事求是，否则会把事情弄砸。

参考答案：

1.fastest; lifelike

2.added