Mencius

龍菲

“孟母三遷”出自《孟子題辭》，它告訴人們：人的性格和生活環境有很大的聯系，人們在生活中應善于學習與思考，不要完全被周圍的環境所影響。

When Mencius was a child， his mother and he lived near a 1）graveyard. Therefore， he often played near the grave and 2）imitated people's crying with neighbors' kids. When his mother saw this， she said， “It's not a good place for a child to live in.”

Then she moved the family to a house near a market. Soon Mencius began imitating businessmen's 3）hawking and 4）bargaining with neighbors' kids. His mother found this place still not good for a child to live in. She decided to move away again.

At last they settled down near a school. Before long， Mencius began imitating the students' reading and studying. He became more and more polite. Then his mother said， “This is a good place for a child to live in.”

Mencius studied hard and became a great thinker.

孟子小的時候和他的媽媽住在墓地旁邊。因此，孟子就和鄰居的小孩一起在墓地旁玩起游戲，學著大人哭嚎的樣子。孟子的媽媽看到后，說：“這個地方不適合孩子居住?！?/p>

孟子的媽媽就帶著孟子搬到市集旁邊去住。到了市集，孟子又和鄰居的小孩學起商人沿街叫賣和討價還價的樣子。孟子的媽媽認為這個地方還是不適合孩子居住。她決定再次搬家。

最后，他們搬到了學校附近。不久，孟子開始模仿學生讀書和學習的樣子。他變得越來越有禮貌。這時，孟子的媽媽說：“這才是孩子應該居住的好地方?！?/p>

孟子努力學習并最終成為一位偉大的思想家。

Answer the questions：

1. What did Mencius learn when his family live near the graveyard？

2. What can we know from the story？

Background Knowledge

Mencius was a famous philosopher， thinker， politician and educator. He was the representative figure of the Confucian school after Confucius . He inherited Confucius's idea of “benevolence” and developed it into the idea of “benevolent governance”. He first put forward the idea that “the people are more important than the ruler”.

孟子是著名的哲學家、思想家、政治家、教育家，孔子之后的儒家學派的代表人物。他繼承了孔子“仁”的思想并將其發展成為“仁政”思想，最早提出“民貴君輕”思想。