从前，有个人养了很多羊。
一天早上他准备出去放羊，发现少了一只。
原来羊圈破了个洞，晚上狼从洞里钻进来，把羊叼走了。
邻居劝告他说："赶快把羊圈修一修，堵住那个洞吧!"他说："羊已经丢了，还修羊圈干什么呢?"所以，他没有接受邻居的劝告。
第二天早上，他准备出去放羊，发现又少了一只羊。
原来狼又从洞里钻进来，把羊叼走了。
他很后悔，赶快堵住了那个洞，把羊圈修补得结结实实。
从此，他的羊再也没有被狼叼走过。
羊丢了，把羊圈修补好后，其他的羊就不会再丢了；
犯了错误，立即改正，就能减少错误和损失。
Hover a word for its pinyin & meaning; click to pin it.
narration saved locally, offline — from https://download.mandarinbean.com/audio?source=aHR0cHM6Ly90cmFmZmljLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vbGVhcm5jaGluZXNlL0JldHRlcl9MYXRlX1RoYW5fTmV2ZXItNDA2MC5tcDM&filename=Better-Late-Than-Never.mp3&signature=8ba6af8d1902ff021a802a39dbd65c478d6102d905a42aca53dd3223636573d3
| Chinese | Pinyin | English |
|---|---|---|
| 从前 | cóng qián | previously / formerly / once upon a time |
| 有 | yǒu | to have; there is |
| 个 | gè | classifier for people or objects in general |
| 人 | rén | person; people |
| 养 | yǎng | to raise (animals) / to bring up (children) / to keep (pets) |
| 了 | le | (completed action marker) / (modal particle indicating change of state, situation now) |
| 很多 | hěn duō | many; a lot of |
| 羊 | yáng | sheep; goat |
| 一天 | yī tiān | one day; a day |
| 早上 | zǎo shang | early morning |
| 他 | tā | he; him; his |
| 准备 | zhǔn bèi | to prepare / to intend / to be about to |
| 出去 | chū qù | to go out |
| 放 | fàng | to release / to free / to let go / to let out |
| 发现 | fā xiàn | to notice; to become aware of / to discover; to find; to detect |
| 少 | shǎo | to lack / to be missing |
| 一 | yī | one / single / a (article) |
| 只 | zhī | classifier for birds and certain animals, one of a pair, some utensils, vessels etc |
| 原来 | yuán lái | so, actually, as it turns out |
| 圈 | juàn | livestock enclosure; pen; fold; sty |
| 破 | pò | to break, split or cleave / to get rid of / to destroy / to break with / to defeat / to capture (a city etc) / to expose the truth of |
| 洞 | dòng | cave / hole / zero (unambiguous spoken form when spelling out numbers) |
| 晚上 | wǎn shang | in the evening |
| 狼 | láng | wolf |
| 从 | cóng | from; through; via / (bound form) retainer; attendant / (bound form) assistant; auxiliary; subordinate / (bound form) related by common paternal grandfather or earlier ancestor |
| 里 | lǐ | lining / interior / inside |
| 钻 | zuān | to drill / to bore / to get into / to make one's way into / to enter (a hole) / to thread one's way through / to study intensively / to dig into / to curry favor for personal gain |
| 进来 | jìn lái | to come in |
| 把 | bǎ | (used to put the object before the verb: 把[ba3] + {noun} + {verb}) |
| 叼 | diāo | to hold with one's mouth |
| 走 | zǒu | from / through / away |
| 邻居 | lín jū | neighbor |
| 劝告 | quàn gào | to advise / to urge / to exhort |
| 说 | shuō | to speak; to talk; to say |
| 赶快 | gǎn kuài | quickly; at once |
| 修一修 | xiū yī xiū | to give something a quick repair; fix up a little |
| 堵住 | dǔ zhù | to block up |
| 那 | nà | (specifier) that; the; those / (pronoun) that (referring to persons, things or situations) |
| 吧 | ba | (modal particle indicating suggestion or surmise) / ...right? / ...OK? / ...I presume. |
| 已经 | yǐ jīng | already |
| 丢 | diū | to lose / to put aside / to throw |
| 还 | hái | still, still in progress, yet |
| 修 | xiū | to decorate / to embellish / to repair / to build / to write / to cultivate / to study / to take (a class) |
| 干 | gàn | to manage / to work / to do / to kill (slang) / to fuck (vulgar) |
| 什么 | shén me | what? |
| 呢 | ne | (sentence-final particle) used in questions to link back to prior discourse or context ("what about...?", "and...?") |
| 所以 | suǒ yǐ | therefore / as a result / so |
| 没有 | méi yǒu | haven't / hasn't |
| 接受 | jiē shòu | to accept; to acquiesce |
| 的 | de | possessive particle (of; 's) / modifying particle (used after an attribute to modify a noun or to form a nominal expression) |
| 第 | dì | (prefix indicating ordinal number) |
| 二 | èr | two / 2 |
| 天 | tiān | day |
| 又 | yòu | (once) again |
| 很 | hěn | very; quite |
| 后悔 | hòu huǐ | to regret; to feel remorse |
| 修补 | xiū bǔ | to mend |
| 得 | de | structural particle: used after a verb (or adjective as main verb), linking it to following phrase indicating effect, degree, possibility etc |
| 结结实实 | jiē jiē shí shí | solid and sturdy; firmly and thoroughly made or fixed |
| 从此 | cóng cǐ | from now on / since then / henceforth |
| 再也 | zài yě | (not) ever again; (not) any longer |
| 被 | bèi | used to indicate passive voice (placed before the doer of the action like "by" in English passive-voice sentences, or, if the doer is not mentioned, before the verb) / (sarcastic or jocular) used to indicate that the following word should be regarded as being in air quotes |
| 过 | guo | (experienced action marker) |
| 好 | hǎo | (verb complement indicating completion) |
| 后 | hòu | afterwards / after |
| 其他 | qí tā | other / (sth or sb) else / the rest |
| 就 | jiù | in that case; then |
| 不 | bù | no; not so |
| 会 | huì | to be likely to; to be sure to |
| 再 | zài | again; once more; re- |
| 犯 | fàn | to violate / to offend / to assault / to make a mistake |
| 错误 | cuò wù | error; mistake |
| 立即 | lì jí | immediately |
| 改正 | gǎi zhèng | to correct / to amend / to put right |
| 能 | néng | can / to be able to / might possibly |
| 减少 | jiǎn shǎo | to lessen; to decrease; to reduce; to lower |
| 和 | hé | and; together with |
| 损失 | sǔn shī | loss / damage |