孩子们因为琐事打了起来。
妈妈就把一个大玻璃瓶子拿出来，瓶子里装着满满的石头、玻璃碎片和沙子。
之后，妈妈让孩子们把瓶子里的东西都倒出来，然后再装进去，先从沙子开始。
每个孩子都试了试，最后都发现没有足够的空间装所有的石头。
妈妈指导孩子们重新装这个瓶子。
这次，先从石头开始，最后再装沙子。
石头装进去后，沙子就沉积在石头的周围，最后，所有东西都装进瓶子里了。
妈妈说：“如果我们先从小的东西开始，把小东西装进去之后，大的石头就放不进去了。
生活也是如此，如果你的生活先被不重要的事挤满了，那你就无法再装进更大、更重要的事了。
”
Hover a word for its pinyin & meaning; click to pin it.
narration saved locally, offline — from https://download.mandarinbean.com/audio?source=aHR0cHM6Ly90cmFmZmljLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vc2VjdXJlL2xlYXJuY2hpbmVzZS9GaWxsX3RoZV9ib3R0bGVfLV80MTE4Lm1wMw&filename=Fill-the-bottle.mp3&signature=acdd7496adcbfa1dd36fd65e306a706f4640392bb1905b761e2dee52a8e10bdd
| Chinese | Pinyin | English |
|---|---|---|
| 孩子 | hái zi | child |
| 们 | men | plural marker for pronouns, and nouns referring to individuals |
| 因为 | yīn wèi | because; owing to; on account of |
| 琐事 | suǒ shì | trifle |
| 打 | dǎ | to hit; to strike / to fight |
| 了 | le | (completed action marker) / (modal particle indicating change of state, situation now) |
| 起来 | qǐ lái | indicating the beginning and continuation of an action or a state / indicating an upward movement / indicating completion / expressing preliminary judgment |
| 妈妈 | mā ma | mama / mommy / mother |
| 就 | jiù | in that case; then |
| 把 | bǎ | (used to put the object before the verb: 把[ba3] + {noun} + {verb}) |
| 一 | yī | one / single / a (article) |
| 个 | gè | classifier for people or objects in general |
| 大 | dà | big; large; great / older (than another person) / eldest |
| 玻璃 | bō li | glass |
| 瓶子 | píng zi | bottle |
| 拿 | ná | to hold / to seize / to catch / to apprehend / to take |
| 出来 | chu lai | (after a verb, indicates coming out, completion of an action, or ability to discern or detect) |
| 里 | lǐ | lining / interior / inside |
| 装 | zhuāng | to adorn / to play a role / to pretend / to install / to fix / to wrap (sth in a bag) / to load / to pack |
| 着 | zhe | aspect particle indicating action in progress or ongoing state |
| 满满 | mǎn mǎn | full / closely packed |
| 的 | de | possessive particle (of; 's) / modifying particle (used after an attribute to modify a noun or to form a nominal expression) |
| 石头 | shí tou | stone |
| 碎片 | suì piàn | chip; fragment; splinter; tatter |
| 和 | hé | and; together with |
| 沙子 | shā zi | sand / grit |
| 之后 | zhī hòu | after; behind / (at the beginning of a sentence) afterwards; since then |
| 让 | ràng | to permit / to let sb do sth / to have sb do sth / to make sb (feel sad etc) |
| 东西 | dōng xi | thing / stuff / person |
| 都 | dōu | all; both; entirely |
| 倒 | dào | to invert; to place upside down or frontside back / to pour out / to tip out; to dump / to go backward |
| 然后 | rán hòu | then; after that; afterwards |
| 再 | zài | then (after sth, and not until then) |
| 进去 | jìn qù | to go in |
| 先 | xiān | beforehand; first; earlier / at first; originally / for the time being; for now |
| 从 | cóng | from; through; via / (bound form) retainer; attendant / (bound form) assistant; auxiliary; subordinate / (bound form) related by common paternal grandfather or earlier ancestor |
| 开始 | kāi shǐ | to begin / to start |
| 每 | měi | each / every |
| 试 | shì | to test / to try |
| 最后 | zuì hòu | finally; in the end |
| 发现 | fā xiàn | to notice; to become aware of / to discover; to find; to detect |
| 没有 | méi yǒu | to not have |
| 足够 | zú gòu | enough; sufficient |
| 空间 | kōng jiān | space; room |
| 所有 | suǒ yǒu | all |
| 指导 | zhǐ dǎo | to guide; to direct; to instruct |
| 重新 | chóng xīn | again; once more; re- |
| 这 | zhè | this; these |
| 次 | cì | classifier for enumerated events: time |
| 后 | hòu | afterwards / after |
| 沉积 | chén jī | sediment / deposit / sedimentation (geology) |
| 在 | zài | (of sb or sth) to be (located) at |
| 周围 | zhōu wéi | environs; surroundings; periphery |
| 进 | jìn | to go in / to enter / to put in / to submit / to take in / to admit |
| 说 | shuō | to speak; to talk; to say |
| 如果 | rú guǒ | if; in case; in the event that |
| 我们 | wǒ men | we; us; ourselves; our |
| 小 | xiǎo | small / tiny / few |
| 放 | fàng | to put / to place |
| 不 | bù | no; not so |
| 生活 | shēng huó | life / livelihood |
| 也 | yě | also; too; as well; (not ...) either |
| 是 | shì | to be (followed by substantives only) |
| 如此 | rú cǐ | like this; so; such |
| 你 | nǐ | you |
| 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 |
| 重要 | zhòng yào | important; significant; major |
| 事 | shì | matter / thing / item / affair |
| 挤 | jǐ | to crowd in / to cram in / to force others aside / to press / to squeeze / to find (time in one's busy schedule) |
| 满 | mǎn | full / filled / packed / satisfied / contented |
| 那 | nà | then (in that case) |
| 无法 | wú fǎ | unable to; incapable of |
| 更 | gèng | more / even more / further / still / still more |