[two_third]
A very basic story about a young elephant who learns a valuable life lesson.
<!--more-->

There is one particularly difficult sentence here, and that's  小象爬到树去学飞“哎哟”一声，摔了一个大跟头. The words themselves aren't too hard, but the sentence arrangement doesn't make a lot of sense when directly translated into English. Let's take it step by step:

小象 - Little Elephant
爬到 - Climbed to / climbed up
树 - tree
去 - go
学飞 - learn to fly
“哎哟” - 'Ai yo!' Sound which means "Yikes!" or "Ow!" 
一声 - Noise, sound
摔了 - to fall
一个大 - a big
跟头 - Fall, trip and fall.

If you look at all these words together, you can more easily process the overall meaning of the sentence, which is, "
[/two_third]
[one_third last=last]
<div class="postintro">
<h4>Click to Listen</h4>
小河 - [pinyin]xiao3 he2[/pinyin] - Brook, stream
飞来飞去 - [pinyin]fei1 lai2 fei1 qu4[/pinyin] - Fly back and forth, fly here and there
爬 - [pinyin]pa2[/pinyin] - Climb
跟头 - [pinyin]gen1 tou5[/pinyin] - Trip and fall, take a fall
本事 - [pinyin]ben3 shi4[/pinyin] - Ability, skill
宽 - [pinyin]kuan1[/pinyin] - Wide
不能比的 - [pinyin]bu4 neng2 bi3 de5[/pinyin] - Cannot compare
钩 - [pinyin]gou1[/pinyin] - Hook
</div>
[/one_third]

<hr />

[one_half]
<div id="chinesetext">

小象生下来的第三天，跟妈妈来到<strong>小河</strong>边，看见一只小鸟在天空<strong>飞来飞去</strong>。小象想：“要是我也会飞，可以看到更多的东西，多好呀！”

小象<strong>爬</strong>到树去学飞“哎哟”一声，摔了一个大<strong>跟头</strong>。

蛇看见了说：“小象，我们有自己的<strong>本事</strong>。我不会飞，可是，我会在树上睡觉。”

狮子说：“我也不会飞，可是，我能跳过<strong>宽</strong>宽的大河。”

老虎说：“我不会飞，可是我会游泳！”

爸爸妈妈对小象说：“我们象的力气大，这是小鸟<strong>不能比的</strong>。”小象明白了。他用长鼻子一钩，大木头就搬走了。
</div>
[/one_half]

[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink="SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION"]
On the third day after he was born, Little Elephant went with his mother to the banks of a stream, and there he saw a bird in the sky flying here and there. Little Elephant said: "If I could fly, I could see even more things, it would be great!"

In order to learn to fly, Little Elephant climbed a tree and, with a yelp of "Ai Yo!", fell heavily to the ground.

Seeing this, the snake said: "Little elephant, we all have our own abilities. I can't fly, but I can sleep in a tree."

Lion said: "I also can't fly, but I can jump across a wide river."

Tiger said, "I can't fly, but I can swim!"

Little Elephant's father and mother said to him, "We elephants have great strength, incomparably greater than that little bird's."

Little Elephant understood. He used his long nose as a hook and moved a large branch.

[/hide-this-part][/one_half]

