一个微不足道的任务

The day when the tasks were handed out was one of the most exciting days forall the children in the class. It took place during the first week of the term. On thatday， every boy and girl was given a task for which they would be responsible for therest of that school year.

分配任务的那一天是班上所有孩子最兴奋的日子之一。它发生在学期的第一周。在那一天，每个男孩和女孩都会被分配到一个任务，他们将在该学年的剩余时间内负责这项任务。

As with everything， some tasks were more interesting than others， and thechildren were eager2 to be given one of the best ones. When giving them out， theteacher took into account which children had been most responsible during theprevious3 year， and those children were the ones who most looked forward to thisday. Among them Rita stood out. She was a kind and quiet girl. And during theprevious year she had carried out the teacher’s instructions perfectly. All thechildren knew Rita was the favorite to be given the best task of all： to look after theclass dog.

就像所有的事情一样，有些任务比其他任务更有趣，孩子们渴望得到最好的任务。在分配这些任务的时候，老师会考虑哪些学生在前一年最负责，这些孩子是最期待这一天的。丽塔在他们中间显得很突出。她是一个善良而安静的女孩。在过去的一年里，她完美地执行了老师的指示。所有的孩子都知道丽塔最有望得到最好的任务：照看班里的狗。

But that year there was a big surprise. Each child received one of the normaltasks， like preparing the books or the radio for the lessons， telling the time，cleaning the blackboard， or looking after one of the pets. But Rita’s task was verydifferent. She was given a little box containing4 some sand and one ant. And eventhough the teacher insisted5 that this ant was a very special ant， Rita could nothelp feeling disappointed. However， Rita， who liked her teacher very much，preferred to show the teacher is wrong by doing something special with that taskof such little interest.

但那一年有个大惊喜。每个孩子都得到了一份常规任务，比如准备上课用的课本或收音机，报时，擦黑板，或照看一只宠物。但丽塔的任务很不一样。她被分到一个里面装着一些沙子和一只蚂蚁的小盒子。尽管老师坚持说这只蚂蚁很特别，丽塔还是忍不住感到失望。然而，丽塔非常喜欢她的老师，她宁愿在那份没什么意思的任务上做点特别的事情，以表明老师错了。

“I will turn this little task into something great，”Rita said to herself.

“我要把这个小任务变成伟大的事业。”丽塔对自己说。

So it was that Rita started studying all about her little ant. She learnedabout the different species6， and studied everything about their habitats andbehaviour. She modified7 the little box to make it perfect for the ant. Rita gavethe ant the very best food， and it ended up growing quite a bit bigger thananyone had expected...

就这样，丽塔开始研究她的小蚂蚁。她了解了不同的蚂蚁品种，研究了它们的栖息地和行为。她改装了小盒子，使它非常适合这只蚂蚁居住。丽塔给了这只蚂蚁最好的食物，结果就是它长得比任何人预想的都要大得多……

One day in spring， when all the children were in the classroom， the dooropened and a man who looked rather important appeared. The teacherinterrupted the class with great joy， and said， “This is Doctor Martinez. He hascome to tell us a wonderful piece of news， isn’t that right？”

春天里的一天，所有的孩子都在教室里时，门开了，一个看起来相当重要的人出现了。老师非常高兴地打断了课堂，然后说道：“这是马丁内斯博士。他是来告诉我们一个好消息的，对吗？”

“Exactly，”said the Doctor. “Today they have published the results of thecompetition， and your class has been chosen to accompany8 me this summer ona journey to the tropical rainforest9， where we will be studying all kinds ofinsects. Among all the schools of this area， without doubt it is this one whichhas best cared for the delicate10 little ant given to you. Congratulations！ Youwill be wonderful assistants11！ ”

“的确是。”那位博士说，“今天他们公布了比赛的结果，你们班被选中在今年夏天陪同我前往热带雨林，我们将在那里研究各种昆虫。在这个地区的所有学校中，毫无疑问，是你们这个学校把送给你们的这只脆弱的小蚂蚁照顾得最好。祝贺你们！你们将成为出色的助手！”

That day the school was filled with joy and celebration. Everyone thanked theteacher for thinking of entering them in the competition， and they thanked Rita forhaving been so patient and responsible. And so it was that many children learntthat to be given the most important tasks you have to know how to be responsibleeven in what are apparently12 the smallest tasks. And without doubt， it was Ritawho was the happiest at this， having said to herself so many times“I will turn thislittle task into something really great”.

那一天，学校里满是欢乐和庆祝活动。每个人都感谢老师想到让他们参加比赛，感谢丽塔一直以来的耐心和负责。就这样，许多孩子学到了：要想被赋予最重要的任务，就必须知道如何对即使是表面上看起来最不起眼的任务负责。毫无疑问，对此最高兴的是丽塔，她曾多次对自己说“我将把这个小任务变成真正伟大的事情”。