英语美文：茶杯的故事

   A couple often went shopping together. They both liked teacups. One day they saw a beautiful teacup in a store. As they picked it up, it suddenly spoke¹.

    "I haven’t always been a teacup. Once I was red earth. My master rolled me over and over and I shouted, but he only smiled."

    "Then I was placed on a rolling wheel and suddenly I went around and around. 'Stop!’I cried, but the master only nodded."

    "Then he put me in the oven²*. I had never felt so hot. I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips³, 'Not yet.’"

    "Finally the door opened, and he took me out and put on a shelf. Then he brushed me and put back into the oven. This time it was twice as hot. I begged. I cried. I could see him through the opening, nodding his head, saying, 'Not yet.’"

    "Then I knew there wasn’t any hope. I was ready to give up, but the door opened and I was taken out and placed on a shelf. Later he handed me a mirror and said, 'Look at yourself.’I said, 'That can’t be me. It’s beautiful!’"

    "'I want you to remember,’he said, 'if I had just left you without rolling, you’d have dried up. If I had stopped rolling you around on the wheel, you would have been crushed⁴. If I hadn’t put you in the oven, you would have broken. If I hadn’t brushed you all over, you would not have any color in your life, and if I hadn’t put you back in that second oven, you wouldn’t survive for very long, because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. You are what I had in mind when I first started with you.’"

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 oven   

n.烤炉；烤箱

参考例句：

• You put food inside an oven to cook it.你把食物放进烤箱里热一下。
• She baked bread in an oven.她用烤炉烤面包。

3 lips   

abbr.logical inferences per second 每秒的逻辑推论n.嘴唇( lip的名词复数 )；（容器或凹陷地方的）边缘；粗鲁无礼的话

参考例句：

• Her lips compressed into a thin line. 她的双唇抿成了一道缝。
• the fullness of her lips 她丰满的双唇

4 crushed   

a.压碎的，倒碎的

参考例句：

• The car was completely crushed under the truck. 小轿车被卡车压得完全变形了。
• The box was crushed when the car ran over it. 汽车辗过箱子时把它给压碎了。