武太白·白话英语2016-2021文章总目录
上图是用Word 2019检测出来的本故事文本适用年级信息，其中Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level=7.7。一般来说，中国学生的英语阅读能力比英美学生落后4-6年。按照中位值，7.7+5=12.7年级，相当于国内使用人教版统编英语教材的高二高三年级学生。上海地区的小朋友初三高一年级即可试读本故事。
内容提要：一个夏日的清晨，小裁缝坐在窗边的桌子上，看着来来往往的人群，心情愉悦地做着手里针线活。这时一个农村妇女在卖果酱，小裁缝买了一罐，然后把果酱抹在面包上，准备做完手里的活再享用美食。就在这时，一群苍蝇盯上了这顿美味，小裁缝赶走了它们。但是不一会儿它们又卷土重来了，小裁缝生气了，一击下去，不多的不少正好打死了七个。小裁缝把这件事缝在了腰带上，并且开始了自己的冒险之旅！
One summer’s morning a little tailor was sitting on his table by the window; he was in good spirits, and sewed with all his might. Then came a peasant woman down the street crying: ‘Good jams, cheap! Good jams, cheap!’ This rang pleasantly in the tailor’s ears; he stretched his delicate head out of the window, and called: ‘Come up here, dear woman; here you will get rid of your goods.’ The woman came up the three steps to the tailor with her heavy basket, and he made her unpack all the pots for him. He inspected each one, lifted it up, put his nose to it, and at length said: ‘The jam seems to me to be good. I’ll buy a jar.” The women, who had hoped to sell far more jam, gave him what he wanted but went away grumbling.
‘Now, this jam shall be blessed by God,’ cried the little tailor, ‘and give me health and strength’; so he brought the bread out of the cupboard, cut himself a piece right across the loaf and spread the jam over it. ‘This won’t taste bitter,’ said he, ‘but I will just finish the jacket before I take a bite.’ He laid the bread near him, sewed on, and in his joy, made bigger and bigger stitches. In the meantime the smell of the sweet jam rose to where the flies were sitting in great numbers, and they were attracted and descended on it in hosts. ‘Hey! who invited you?’ said the little tailor, and drove the unbidden guests away. The flies, however, understood no German, and came back again in ever-increasing companies. The little tailor at last lost all patience, and drew a piece of cloth from the hole under his work-table, and saying: ‘Wait, and I will give it to you,’ struck it mercilessly on them. When he drew it away and counted, there lay before him no fewer than seven flies, dead and with legs stretched out.
The tailor looked at the flies that he had killed, and could not help admiring his own bravery. ‘The whole town shall know of this!’ he said. And the little tailor hastened to cut himself a belt, stitched it, and embroidered on it in large letters: ‘Seven dead at one stroke!’ ‘What, the town, the whole world shall hear of this!’ he exclaimed. and his heart wagged with joy like a lamb’s tail. The tailor put on the girdle, and resolved to go forth into the world, because he thought his workshop was too small for his valour. Before he went away, he looked around the house to see if there was anything which he could take with him; however, he found nothing but an old cheese, and that he put in his pocket. In front of the door he observed a bird which had caught itself in the thicket. It had to go into his pocket with the cheese. Now he took to the road boldly, and as he was light and nimble, he felt no tiredness.
The road led him up a mountain, and when he had reached the highest point of it, there sat a powerful giant looking peacefully about him. The little tailor went bravely up, spoke to him, and said: ‘Good day, comrade, so you are sitting there overlooking the wide-spread world! I am just on my way there, and want to try my luck. How about you come with me?’ The giant looked contemptuously at the tailor, and said: ‘You wretch! You miserable creature!’
‘Oh, indeed?’ answered the little tailor, and unbuttoned his coat, and showed the giant the belt, ‘there may you read what kind of a man I am!’ The giant read: ‘Seven dead at one stroke,’ and thought that they had been men whom the tailor had killed, and began to feel a little respect for the tiny fellow. Nevertheless, he wished to try him first, and took a stone in his hand and squeezed it together so that water dropped out of it. ‘Do that,’ said the giant, ‘if you have strength.’ ‘Is that all?’ said the tailor, ‘that is child’s play!’ and put his hand into his pocket, brought out the soft cheese, and pressed it until the liquid ran out of it. The giant did not know what to say, and could not believe it of the little man.
Then the giant picked up a stone and threw it so high that the eye could scarcely follow it. ‘Now, little mite of a man, do that,’ ‘Well thrown,’ said the tailor, ‘but after all the stone came down to earth again; I will throw you one which shall never come back at all,’ and he put his hand into his pocket, took out the bird, and threw it into the air. The bird, delighted with its liberty, rose, flew away and did not come back. ‘How does that shot please you, comrade?’ asked the tailor. ‘You can certainly throw,’ said the giant, ‘but now we will see if you are able to carry anything properly.’ He took the little tailor to a mighty oak tree which lay there felled on the ground, and said: ‘If you are strong enough, help me to carry the tree out of the forest.’ ‘Readily,’ answered the little man; ‘take you the trunk on your shoulders, and I will raise up the branches and twigs; after all, they are the heaviest.’
The giant took the trunk on his shoulder, but the tailor seated himself on a branch, and the giant, who could not look round, had to carry away the whole tree, and the little tailor into the bargain: he behind, was quite merry and happy, and whistled the song: ‘Three tailors rode forth from the gate,’ as if carrying the tree were child’s play. The giant, after he had dragged the heavy burden part of the way, could go no further, and cried: ‘Now I shall have to let the tree fall!’ The tailor sprang nimbly down, seized the tree with both arms as if he had been carrying it, and said to the giant: ‘You are such a great fellow, and yet cannot even carry the tree!’
（to be continued)
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