壹蘋派生活美語　破解迷思！沙漠之舟的神祕駝峰

　　In 1902, British author Rudyard Kipling published Just So Stories, a book that explains the origins of animals to children. One of these stories tells how the camel was given its hump as punishment for its laziness. In the story, after the world was created, animals started to work for humans. Some animals asked the camel to help out, but the camel refused each of them with an impolite “Humph!” Man found the camel too bad-tempered to be of any use and made the other animals work harder as a result.

　　1902 年，英國作家魯德亞德．吉卜林出版了《原來如此的故事》，這是一本向兒童解釋動物起源的書。其中一個故事講述駱駝是如何獲得牠的駝峰，以作為其懶惰的懲罰。在故事中，世界被創造之後，動物開始為人類工作。有些動物請求駱駝幫忙，但駱駝卻以一聲無禮的「哼！」一一拒絕了。人類認為駱駝脾氣太差而毫無用處，結果使其他動物更辛勤工作。

生活必備字詞：

bump　n. 腫塊，隆起

punishment　n. 處罰

punish　vt. 懲罰，處罰

laziness　n. 懶惰

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本文節錄自《常春藤生活英語》雜誌，完整內容請見九月號。