Aesop at Play
An Athenian seeing Aesop in a crowd of boys at play with nuts，stopped and laughed at him for a madman．As soon as the sage——One who was good at laughing at others rather than one who was prone 1 to be laughed at—perceived this，he placed an unstrung bow in the middle of the road；“Hark you，wise man，”said he，“unriddle what I have done．”
People gathered around them．The man racked his brains for along time，but could not make out the reason of the question put for-ward．At last he gave up．Upon this，the bow，if you always keep it bent；but if you loosen 2 it，it will be fit for use when you want it．Exercises：
回答下列问题：
①Why did an Athenian laugh at Aesop？
②What did Aesop do when he knew someone laughed at him？
③Did the Athenian understand the intention of Aesop？
④What did Aesop mean by doing that？
- Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
- He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。