The Mantis Stalks the Cicada,Unaware of the Oriole Behind 螳蝴捕蟬，黃雀在后

王梓菲

“螳螂捕蟬，黃雀在后”出自《莊子·山木》，比喻目光短淺，只貪圖眼前利益而不顧后患。

During the Spring and Autumn Period， theKing of Wu was going to invade the State of Chu，not allowing anyone to give advice.

A young man wanted to 1）dissuade the Kingbut he didn't dare. Then an idea occurred to him.

The young man pointed to a tree and said，“In the garden there is a cicada in the tree. The cicada is high above， 2）chirping 3） leisurely andtaking in the 4）dew freely， but he has no idea that a mantis is right behind him . The mantis， pressing his body in a concealed place， is intent on catching the cicada， but he doesn't know that an oriole is hiding right be- hind him. However， the oriole doesn't know under the tree is a man witha slingshot. Look！ All of them make effort only to get the benefit beforethem， but they ignore the danger behind them at the same time.”

The King of Wu was suddenly enlightened after hearing this and gaveup the plan to invade the State of Chu.

春秋戰國時期，吳王要進攻楚國，不準別人提意見。

有一個年輕人想去勸阻但又不敢。于是，他想到了一個辦法。

年輕人指著一棵樹說：“這個園子里的一棵樹上有一只蟬。蟬爬得高高的，悠閑地叫著，自由自在地吸著露水，卻不知道有一只螳螂在它身后。而蟬身后的螳螂把身子緊緊地貼在隱蔽的地方，只想去捕蟬，卻不知道有一只黃雀躲在它的身后。而黃雀卻不知道樹下有人正拿著彈弓?？?！它們只是力求得到眼前的利益，卻全然不顧身后隱伏著禍患??！”

吳王聽了年輕人的話后恍然大悟，于是放棄了進攻楚國的計劃。

Fill in the blanks：

The young man wanted to remind the King should not only see the ________ before them， but ________ the danger behind them at the same time.

Background Knowledge

Fu Chai， King of Wu， was the son of He Lu during the Spring and Autumn Period. He was extremely warlike. As a result of successive years of wars， the State became weak. In 473 BC， the State of Yue invaded and the State of Wu was destroyed. Fu Chai committed suicide at the age of 55.

夫差，春秋時期吳國君主，吳王闔閭之子。他極其好戰，由于連年發兵出征，造成吳國國力空虛。公元前473年，越國興兵入侵，吳國被滅，夫差自刎，時年55歲。