英语对话成语故事（成语故事100篇）

英语成语故事简单版

传说上古时代有个十分英明的帝王叫尧。他为人非常正直，处处为人民着想，而且特别善于采纳别人的意见，对有才的人尤其重视。

有一次，尧帝听说有个叫许由的世外高人品行高尚，就很想把自己的帝位让给他，以便他治理天下。

于是，尧帝就派人去邀请许由出来治理天下。使者来到许由隐居的地方，见了许由之后，告诉了许由尧帝想把帝位传给他的事，希望他认真考虑。

许由听后，毫不犹豫地说：“我看不上当什么帝王，你回去吧!”

使者没办法，只好走了。尧听说这件事后，还以为许由谦虚，更加敬重，便又派人去请他，说：“如果坚不接受帝位，则希望能出来当个‘九州长’。不料许由听了这个消息，更加厌恶，立刻跑到山下的溪水边去，掬水洗耳。因为许由认为自己可为良民，而不可任高官，所以用洗耳朵来表示自己不愿听

许由的好朋友巢父也和许由隐居在同一个地方。非常碰巧，巢父正牵着他的小牛到溪边饮水。巢父看到许由洗耳朵的样子，感到非常奇怪，就问许由到底怎么回事。

许由把使者对他说的事一五一十地告诉了巢父，说完后又补充了一句：“听了这样不干净的话，我生怕这些名禄之言把自己的耳朵污染了，只好跑到这里来洗洗耳朵。”

巢父听后，感到非常生气，就冷冷地说道：“洗什么耳朵!算了吧，别再把水污染了，从而污染了我的小牛的嘴。”说完，巢父牵着他的小牛，急忙往溪水的上游走去。

许由以自己淡泊名利的崇高节操赢得了后世的尊敬，从而被奉为隐士的鼻祖。战国时代的思想家荀子就曾称赞说：“许由善卷，重义轻利行显明。”

——《梦昭公》

【求解驿站】洗干净耳朵恭恭敬敬听别人讲话。常用于请人讲话时的客气话，形容专心地听。洗耳，擦洗耳朵，比喻很重视听对方说话。

【活学活用】陈兄对这件事有何高见?小弟愿意～。

【妙语点拨】许由听到名禄之言，觉得耳朵受到了污染，得及时清洗。巢父更夸张，他甚至以为许由洗耳后的水也会污染到他的小牛。在追名逐利的滚滚红尘中，与那些利欲熏心的现象比起来，许由与巢父有淡泊名利之心，固然值得称赞。然而，一个人如果有真才实学，却一味地隐居遁世，从某种意义上说，是对国家与人民不负责任的表现。这种做法是不可取的。

【近义】倾耳细听

【反义】充耳不闻

英语成语故事

In the song Dynasty (960-1279),there was a scholar whose name was Wen Tong and who styled himself Yuke. He was not only admired by others for his great learning, but also enjoyed widespread renown for his bamboo drawing. Every day there were always quite a few peoply who called at his house to ask for one of his bamboo drawings.

Actually, Wen Tong loved bamboos so much that he had grown various bamboos everywhere around his house. No matter what season it was and no matter whether it was sunny or rainy, he used to go to the bamboo forest to observe how they were growing. He pondered over the lenght and breadth of the bamboo poles as well as the shapes and colours of the leaves. Whenever he had gained a new understanding, he went back to his study, spread a piece of paper and prepareed some ink by rubbing an ink stick on an ink slab, and drew what was in his mind on the paper. Through accumulation over a long period of time, the images of the bamboo in different seasons, under different weather conditions and at different moments were deeply imprinted in his whenever he stood before the paper and picked up a painting brush with concentrated attention, the various forms of the bamboo which he had observed at ordinary times at once rose before his eyes. And so every time he was drawing bamboos he appeared confident and at ease, and all the bamboos he had painted were very vivid and true to lift.

When people spoke highly of his paintings, he always said modestly that he had just put the images of the bamboo imprinted in his mind on the paper.

A young man wanted to learn bamboo drawing; when he knew that Chao Buzhi had made a profound study of Wen Tong's art of drawing, he went to Chao Buzhi for instruction. Chao Buzhi wrote a poem to him. In the poem, there are the following two lines:

When Yuke was painting the bamboos,

He bad their images ready in his bosom.

Later people have summarized the lines as ” having had the images of the bamboo ready in one's bosom,“ which means having had ready plans or designs in one's mind before doing a certain job so that its success is guaranteed. It is also used go mean being calm and cool - headed in dealing with things.

This story comes from an article writted by Su Shi concerning Wen Yuke's art of bamboo drawing.

中国成语故事英语

In the reign of Emperor the Second of the Qin Dynasty (221-207 .), the prime minister Zhao Gao, obsessed with ambitions, was planning to usurp the throne day and night. But he did not know how many of the ministers in the court were allowed to be ordered about by him and how many of them were his opponents. So he thought out a way to test how high his prestige among the ministers was and also to find out who dared to oppose him.

One day when court was held, Zhao Gao let someone bring a stag to the court and, with a broad smile on his face, he said to Emperor the Second of the Qin Dynasty:”Your Majesty, here is a fine horse I'm presenting to you.“ Looking at the animal, Emperor the Second thought that it was obviously a stag and that it couldn't be a horse. So he said smilingly to Zhao Gao:”Mister Prime Minister, you are wrong. This is a stay. Why do you say it is a horse?“ Remaining calm, Zhao Gao said:”Will your Majesty please see more clearly? This really is a horse that covers a thousand li a day.“ Filled with suspicion, Emperor the Second looked at the stag again and said:”How can the antlers be grown on the head of a horse?“ Turning around and pointing his finger at the ministers, Zhao Gao said in a loud voice:”if our Majesty do not believe me, you can ask the ministers.“

The nonsense of Zhao Gao made the ministers totally at a lose, and they whispered to themselves: What tricks was Zhao Gao playing? Was it not obvious whether it was a stag or a horse? But when they saw the sinister smile on Zhao Gao's face and his two rolling eyes which were gazing at each of them, they suddenly understood his evil intentions.

Some of the ministers who were timid and yet had a sense of right eousness did not dare to say anything, because to tell lies would make their conscience uneasy and to tell the truth would mean that they would be persecuted by Zhao Gao later. Some ministers with a sense of justice persisted that it was a stag and not a horse. There were still some crafty and fawning ministers who followed Zhao Gao closely in ordinary times. They immediately voiced their support to Zhao Gao, saying to the emperor:”This really in a horse that covers a thousand li a day.“

After the event, Zhao Gao punished by various means those ministers with a sense of justice who were not obedient to him, even with whole families of some of those ministers executed.

This story appears in ”The Life of the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty“ in The Historical Records written by Sima Qian. From this story people have derived the set phrase ”calling a stag a horse“ to mean deliberately misrepresenting some thing and misleading the public.

英语成语故事

In the Jin Dynasty (265-420) there was a famous writer whose name was Zuo Si who, however, was very naughty and did not like to study when he was a small father often got angry, and yet young Zuo Si was as naughty as ever and would not study hard.

One day, Zuo Sis father was chatting with his friends. his friends envied him his clever and loverly son. Hearing this, Zuo sis father sighed, _Please do not mention him. My son Zuo si does not study as well as I did when I was young, although I did not study well enough myself. It appears that he is actually a good-for-nothing._ So saying, he looked disappointed. All this was witnessed by young Zuo Si. He felt very sad, feeling intensely that he would not be able to have a bright future if he did not study hard. So he was determined to study assiduously from then on.

Day after day and year after year, Zuo Si gradually grew up. Because of his unremitting afforts in hard study, he became an erudite scholar and wrote very excellent essays. The _Ode to the Capital of the State of Qi_, which took him one year to write, showed his brilliant literary talent and laid the foundation for his becoming an outstanding writer. then he planned to write an _Ode to the Capitals of the Three Kingdoms of Wei, Shu Han and Wu_ with the local conditions and customs as well as the produce of the three capitals as its content. In order to achieve the desired effect in content, structure and language, he applied himself to research work with great concentration, and was so absorbed in creative writing as to forget food and sleep. It took him ten whole years to finish the writing of _Ode to the Capitals of the Three Kingdoms of Wei, Shu Han and Wu_, a literary masterpiece.

The _Ode to the Capitals of the Three Kingdoms of Wei, Shu Han and Wu_ was well received by the broad masses of readers after it made its appearance to the public, and people considered it as superbly written as the _Ode to the Western Capital (Changan) and to the Eastern Capital (Luoyang)_ written by Ban Gu (32-92) and the _Ode to the Western Capital and to the Eastern Capital_ written by Zhang Heng of the Han Dynasty (206 . to ). As the art of printing had not been invented at that time, people who were fond of this _Ode_ had to make handwritten copies of it themselves. As there were so many people who vied with each other in making handwritten copies, the supply of writing paper fell short of the demand in Luoyang went up greatly.

This story comes from _The life of Zuo Si_ in the book _Literary Field_ of The History of the Jin Dynasty. Based on this story, people have coined the set phrase _the price of writing paper went up greatly_, meaning the overwhelming popularity of a new work causes shortage of printing paper, to show how popular an outstanding piece of literary work is.

晋代文学家左思，小时候是个非常顽皮、不爱读书的孩子。父亲经常为这事发脾气，可是小左思仍然淘气得很，不肯好好学习。

有一天，左思的父亲与朋友们聊天，朋友们羡慕他有个聪明可爱的儿子。左思的父亲叹口气说：“快别提他了，小儿左思的学习，还不如我小时候，看来没有多大的出息了。”说着，脸上流露出失望的神色。这一切都被小左思看到听到了，他非常难过，觉得自己不好好念书确实很没出息。于是，暗暗下定决心，一定要刻苦学习。

日复一日，年复一年，左思渐渐长大了，由于他坚持不懈地发奋读书，终于成为一位学识渊博的人，文章也写得非常好。他用一年的时间写成了《齐都赋》，显示出他在文学方面的才华，为他成为杰出的文学家奠定了基础。这以后他又计划以三国时魏、蜀、吴首都的风土、人情、物产为内容，撰写《三都赋》。为了在内容、结构、语言诸方面都达到一定水平，他潜心研究，精心撰写，废寝忘食，用了整整十年，文学巨著《三都赋》终于写成了。

《三都赋》受到谅也评，人们把它和汉代文学杰作《两都赋》相比。由于当时还没有发明印刷术，喜爱《三都赋》的人只能争相抄阅，因为抄写的人太多，京城洛阳的纸张供不应求，一时间全城纸价大幅度上升。

英文成语故事

A farmer in the state of Song once got a piece of stone with jade init.宋国人有个农夫得到一块含宝玉的石头后，将它献给了相国子罕。

He presented this stone to Prime Minister Zi Han. But Zi Han refused toaccept it. The farmer explained, “It looks like just a stone, butthere is jade inside. It actually is a piece of treasure and suitable forhonorable men like you, not for us common people.”子罕拒绝接受这块石头，农夫解释说：“表面上它是块石头，但里面含有宝玉，是个宝物，适合您这样的贵人使用，我们普通百姓用它就不合适了。”

“I know there is jade inside,” Zi Han said,” but I disagree with think to have the virtue of declining things that do not belongto oneself is the real treasure. ”子罕说：“我知道里面是宝玉。但我的观点和你不同，我认为具有不接受不应得的东西的品德才是真正的宝玉。”

英语对话成语故事

At the end of the Qin Dynasty(221-206 .) the State of Chu and the State of Han fought for control for the country. Xiang Yu, the king of Chu, was besieged（包围） at a place called Gaixia by the Han army led by Liu Bang. Xiang Yu was in a desperate situation, with little food and only a few soliders. At night, the surrounding Han troops started to sing Chu folk songs. Xiang Yu was very surprised at this, and said:_Has Liu Bang occupied the whole of Chu? How can he have drafted so many Chu people into his army?_ Then he fled together with the remainder of his forces.

This idiom is used metaphorically to mean to be in a helpless and critical situation, surrounded by the enemy on all sides.

项羽和刘邦原来约定以鸿沟（在今河南荣县境贾鲁河）东西边作为界限，互不侵犯。后来刘邦听从张良和陈平的规劝，觉得应该趁项羽衰弱的时候消灭他，就又和韩信、彭越、刘贾会合兵力追击正在向东开往彭城（即今江苏徐州）的项羽部队。终于布置了几层兵力，把项羽紧紧围在垓下（在今安徽灵璧县东南）。这时，项羽手下的兵士已经很少，粮食又没有了。夜里听见四面围住他的军队都唱起楚地的民歌，不禁非常吃惊地说：“刘邦已经得到了楚地了吗？为什么他的部队里面楚人这么多呢？”说看，心里已丧失了斗志，便从床上爬起来，在营帐里面喝酒，并和他最宠爱的妃子虞姬一同唱歌。唱完，直掉眼泪，在一旁的人也非常难过，都觉得抬不起头来。虞姬自刎于项羽的马前，项羽英雄末路，带了仅剩兵卒至乌江，最终自刎于江边。

以后人们就用“四面楚歌”这个词，形容人们遭受各方面攻击或逼迫，而陷于孤立窘迫的境地。凡是陷于此种境地者，其命运往往是很悲惨的。例如某人因经常与坏人为伍，不事生产，游手好闲，但后来却被那些坏人逼迫得无以为生，而求助于别人时，别人又因他平日行为太坏，绝不同情理睬，这人所处的境地便是“四面楚歌”。

英语对话成语故事

In the Spring and Autumn Period, a farmer in the State of Song was one day working in the fields when he saw a rabbit bump into a tree stump(树桩) accidentally and break its neck.

The farmer took the rabbit home, and cooked himself a delicious meal.

That night he thought, I neednt work so hard. All I have to do is wait for a rabbit each day by the stump.

So from then on he gave up farming, and simply sat by the stump waiting for rabbits to come and run into it.

This idiom satirizes(讽刺，挖苦) those who just wait for a stroke of luck, rather than making efforts to obtain what they need.

英语对话成语故事

Going South by Driving the Chariot North

Once a man wanted to go to the south, but his carriage was heading north. A passer-by asked him:“If you are going to south, why is your chariot heading north?” The ma answered, “My horse is good at running, My driver is highly skilled at driving a carriage, ad I have enough money.”The man didint consider that the direction might be wrong; the better his conditions were, ther further he was away from his destination.

The idiom derived froim this story indicates that one's action was the opposite effect to one's intention.

英语对话成语故事

Quenching Thirst by Watching Plums

One summer, Cao Cao was leading his troops in a punitive expedition against Zhang Xiu. It was extraordinarily hot. The burning sun was like a fire, and the sky was cloudless. The soldiers were walking on the winding mountain paths. The dense forest and the hot rocks exposed to the sun on both sides of the paths made the soldiers feel suffocated. By noontime the soldiers' clothes were wet through with sweat, and the marching speed slowed down. Some solders of weak physique even fainted on the roadside.

Seeing that the marching speed was slower and slower, Cao Cao was very worried because he feared that he might bungle the chance of winning the battle. But how could they quicken their speed? Cao Cao at once callde the guide and asked him on the quiet whether there was a source of water nearby. The guide shook his head, saying that the spring water was on the other side of the mountain, which was very far to have to make a detour to reach. Cao Cao realized that time didn't permit them to make such a detour. After thinking for a moment, he said to the guide, ”Keep quiet. I'll find a way out.“ He knew that it would be to no avail to order his troops to quicken the steps. He had a brain wave and found a good solution. He spurred his horse and came to the head of the column. Pointing his horsewhip to the front, Cao Cao said, ”Soldiers, I know there is a big forest of plums ahead. The plums there are both big and delicious. let's hurry along, and we will reach the forest of plums after bypassing this hill.“ When the solders heard this, they immediately slobbered. Picturing in their minds the sweet and sour flavour of the plums, the soldiers felt as if they were actually eating the plums, the soldiers felt as if they were actually eating the plums themselves. The morale greatly boosted, the soldiers quickened their steps a great deal automatically.

This story comes from ”The Fake Tangery“ in Anecdotes of This World by Liu Yiqing of the Southern Dynasties period (420-589). From this story, people have derived the set phrase ”quenching thirst by watching plums“ to refer to trying to comfort oneself of others by idle dreams.