蠶絲的故事The Story of The Silk

青青說： 媽媽，這是我從學校帶回來的silkworm。

Qing Qing said: Mom, this is the silkworm I brought back from school.

Look! I took some silkworms back from school.

媽媽說：蠶寶寶，好可愛呀！Mom said (exclaimed): silkworm baby! They are so cute!

蠶寶寶每天都要吃好幾片桑葉，The silkworms consumed several mulberry leaves a day.

青青每天寫筆記，把蠶寶寶生長的情形記下來。Qing Qing kept a journal of the silkworms’ daily life.

(Write down the growth of the silkworm baby.)

過了兩星期，Two weeks later,

蠶寶寶吐出白色的絲把自己包起來，做成一個繭。The silkworms started to spin silk and wrapped themselves into cocoons,

青青說：Qingqing said:

今天老師告訴我們， 蠶絲可以做成布料，The teacher told us today that silk can be made into fabrics,

他的絲巾就是蠶絲做的。Her silk scarf is made of silk.

媽媽說：用蠶絲做衣服，是五千年前中國人發明的。My mother said: Clothing made of silk was invented by the Chinese five thousand years.

Actually, the technique was invented by a Chinese queen five thousand years ago.

我說個故事給你聽—-I’ll tell you a story—- (let me tell you the story)

有一天，皇帝的太太嫘祖在桑樹下喝茶，It happened five thousand One day when the queen was having tea under a mulberry tree.

有個蠶繭掉進他的杯子裡。A silkworm cocoon fell into her teacup.

嫘祖把蠶繭拿出來的時候，她看見一根又亮又軟的絲。When Leizu took out the cocoon out of her cup, and she noticed a shiny and soft sting.

嫘祖想，如果用這種絲做衣服，穿在身上，一定又舒服又好看。Lei Zu had an idea, she thought it would be comfortable and beautiful to wear an outfit made of this kind of material.

於是，嫘祖教全國人民種桑樹、養蠶和織布。Therefore, she started to teach all the people in China how to plant mulberry trees, breed silkworms and weave silk cloth.

古時候，全世界只有中國才有蠶絲。In ancient times, China was the first country to make silk fabrics.

那時候，外國商人帶著金子，走幾千里絲路到中國買絲。 At that time, foreign merchants would carry gold and Travel thousands of miles by foot to China to buy silk.

一直到現在，中國絲還是全世界最有名的。Until now, Chinese silk is still the best in the world.

青青說：媽媽，明天該我上臺說故事，我要把這個故事說給大家聽，

Qing Qing say: Mom, it’s my turn to do Show and Tell tomorrow in school.

I will share this story with my class.

老師一定說我很棒！I am sure the teacher will love it! (Must say that I am great!)