传说故事丝绸的故事-The Story of Silk

丝绸的故事


【内容提示】

请根据下面的内容要点写一篇关于丝绸的故事：

①丝绸的故事很逗人。大约在4000年前中国人发现了蚕茧（cocoon）的秘密，但是没有人确切知道这一重大发现的时间和由来。

②有一种说法是，一位年轻的公主在花园一边喝茶一边看着蚕（silkworm） 作茧。意外地有一个茧子掉进她的茶水里，热水把茧子给软化了。

③公主要将茧子从茶水中取出来时，茧子散开了，她抽出来一根长长的丝线。

④中国人学会了把丝线织成丝绸的技术。之后的两千年当中，中国人是惟一知道如何制作丝绸的民族。中国商人把丝绸销往整个亚洲和欧洲。丝绸曾经很昂贵，人们把它称为“国王的布”。

⑤人们都想学习做丝绸，但中国人一直在保守秘密。最终秘密还是被人偷去了。

⑥六世纪时，有两个修道士得知蚕茧的情况后在中国住了数年，最后找到一种把蚕卵带出中国的办法。

⑦这两个修道士手里总拿着竹杖。有一天他们把一些蚕卵藏在竹杖的空心里带出了中国。

⑧据说世界各国丝绸业的发展就来自那几只蚕卵。


【作文示范】


The Story of Silk


明华


The story of silk is a funny one.

About 4,000 years ago the Chinese discovered the secret of the cocoon. No one knows exactly how or when this important discovery was made. One story says that a young princess was drinking tea in her garden and watching silkworms spin cocoons. By chance one dropped into her tea and the hot tea made it soft. When the girl tried to take the cocoon out of her tea, it became separated and she pulled out a long silk thread.

The Chinese learned to weave the silk thread into cloth. For 2,000 years they were the only people who knew how to make silk. The Chinese merchants sold silk cloth throughout Asia and Europe and became rich.Silk was so expensive that it was called “the cloth of kings” .

Everyone wanted to learn how to make silk, but the Chinese kept the secret carefully guarded①.

Finally the secret was stolen. In the sixth century, two monks learned about the silkworms and their cocoons. They spent several years in China and finaly found a way to take some silkworm eggs out of the country. The monks always carried bamboo canes②. One day they hid some eggs in the hollow canes, and walked out of China with them. It is said that the development of the silk industry in other countries came from those few eggs which the monks had carried out of China.


【词语解释】

①kept the secret carefully guarded 严守秘密

②bamboo canes 竹手杖


【写法指要】

这是一篇科技故事，讲的是丝绸的发现和发展的事。全文可分三部分：第一部分说的是某公主偶然发现蚕丝；第二部分是把丝织成丝绸销往各国；第三部分讲两个外国修道士如何卧薪尝胆，想方设法盗窃蚕卵并带出中国。这只是一则流传的故事，但是不管这项技术是如何外传的，正如文章最后所言，世界丝绸工业的发展源自古老文明的中国。