在浓雾笼罩的暮光森林里，每当夜幕降临，温柔的月光在树木的枝杈间缓缓游移时，森林里的小动物们都会迷迷糊糊地睡觉去。

In the mist of twilight wonder, when evening shadows gently glided from branch to branch, all of the creatures of the forest softly began to fall asleep.

松鼠们把毛蓬蓬的大尾巴裹在身上，暖暖和和地打着盹儿。在草地上蹦蹦跳跳地玩了一天的小鹿们早就累坏了，这时候依偎在爸爸妈妈身边睡得正香。各种鸟儿都落在了树枝上，困得脑袋一点一点的，在梦境里展翅飞翔。

Squirrels dozed, warmly wrapped in their soft, furry tails. Fawns,exhausted after frolicking in the meadows, slept contentedly, nestled near their parents. Birds of all feathers nodded gently on the branches of the trees, eyes blinking, hoping to dream of beautiful flight.

在松树下的地洞里，一群毛色各异的小兔子正挤成一团，舒舒服服地打着小呼噜。

但是，一只长着下垂的大耳朵的小兔子没有睡，这只小兔子的名字叫利奥。他扭来扭去，来回翻着身，努力想要入睡，但是，一想到那件事，他就睡不着。什么事情让他这么心烦呢？那就是，他不过是一只小小的、可爱的小兔子而已。

“为什么我不是一只大老虎呢？”利奥嘟囔着翻了第一百次身，“为什么我不能是一只大熊呢？哪怕是做一只凶巴巴的麝鼠也好啊。什么都比一只不起眼的小兔子强。”

利奥就这么想啊想啊，长长地呜咽了一声后，终于睡着了。

In a burrow beneath a twisted pine, fluffy bunnies of all sorts snored and sniffed quietly in their slumber.

All of the rabbits, that is, except one lop-eared rabbit called Leo, who just couldn’t fall asleep. He would twitch and pitch trying desperately to fall asleep, but no matter how he tried he couldn’t forget the one thing that kept him awake: he was a tiny cute rabbit.

“Why couldn’t I have been born a tough tiger?” he muttered, as he rolled over for the hundredth time. “A bad bear? A mean muskrat?Anything but an itty bitty fluffy bunny!”

Finally, with a sob, Leo rolled over and fell into a troubled sleep.

当太阳升起来的时候，利奥感觉自己只睡了一小会儿。新的一天开始了。利奥慢慢地揉了揉眼睛，打了一个大哈欠，又伸了两次懒腰，才从软软的苔藓小**爬起来。

“唉，我应该怎么办呢？”他盯着镜子嘟囔道，“我不想做个可爱的小家伙了，我想变得又大又凶又勇敢！”他一边想着，一边努力地眯起眼睛、皱起鼻子，尽量做出一副凶狠的样子。看到自己的模样显得没那么可爱了，利奥才稍微满意了一点儿，连忙刷牙洗脸去学校了。

It seemed to Leo that he had been dreaming for just a moment when,like the crash of a cymbal, the sun brought the beginning of a new day. He slowly rubbed the sleep from his eyes, yawned once, stretched twice, and finally tumbled from his soft bed of moss.

“Oh, what am I going to do?” he mumbled, as he looked into the mirror. “I don’t want to be cute any more. I want to be rough and rugged and brave!” With that he squinted his eyes, scrunched his nose,and looked just as tough as he could. Satisfied that he didn’t look quite as cute, Leo brushed his teeth, and hurried off to creature school.

利奥用最快的速度沿着弯弯曲曲的小路跑着，一直跑到当教室用的那片小空地上。就像往常一样，今天利奥也迟到了一小会儿。

他匆匆忙忙地跑到位置上坐好，小鸟们被他逗得叽叽喳喳地直笑，小松鼠们也咯咯地笑出了声，其他同学都忍不住笑了起来，因为利奥还是那副努力让自己显得凶巴巴的模样。

除了坐在教室前头的猫头鹰老师，教室里的所有小动物都笑个不停。

Leo ran just as fast as his little legs would carry him, through the twisted trail, until he reached the clearing in the wood that served as the classroom. As usual, he was just a little bit late.

As he hurried to sit down, the squirrels giggled, the little birds twittered, and all the creatures smiled because Leo was still trying to look rough, tough, and mean.

All the creatures were laughing, except the old grey owl who sat on a branch at the head of the class.

“咳咳！”猫头鹰老师清了清嗓子掩饰笑容，“既然所有同学都到了，咱们就开始上课吧！今天咱们来造句，每个同学想一句话，说说自己看起来是什么样子的。”

每个小动物都认真地想了想，然后一个接一个地从座位上站起来，对猫头鹰老师说了自己想出来的句子。小鸟们叽叽喳喳地说：“我们看起来长满了羽毛。”大棕熊用低低的声音说：“我看起来是棕色的。”所有小动物都用一句话说出了自己的模样，很快就轮到利奥发言了。

利奥深深地吸了一口气，看了看身边的同学们，飞快地回答：“我看起来非常勇敢！”

“Ahem!” muttered the old owl as he covered a smile. “Now that everyone is here we’ll begin the lesson for today. I would like each of you to think of a word that best describes the way you look this morning.”

All the creatures thought and thought. Then, one by one, they each stood and told the old owl the word they had thought of:“We look feathery,” chirped the birds. “I look brawny,” rumbled the bear. And on they went, describing how they looked in a single word. They finally came to Leo.

Leo took a deep breath, looked carefully about him and then blurted out quickly:“I look brave!”

教室里安静了一小会儿，接着，整个森林里都回**着响亮的笑声。就连猫头鹰老师也藏不住脸上的笑意了。“我不知道‘我看起来非常勇敢’这样的话有什么好笑的！”利奥又伤心又生气地喊了出来。

“利奥，是这样的，”猫头鹰老师笑呵呵地解释，“可能你用‘我看起来毛茸茸的’或者‘我看起来很可爱’这样的话来描述自己比较合适。”

“可是我不想再看上去又小又可爱了！”利奥擦了擦眼泪，“我想显得又凶又强悍！”所有动物又哄笑起来。利奥的眼泪止不住地往下淌，他在原地站了一小会儿，接着头也不回地跑进森林里去了。

There was a moment of silence. Then the forest glade rang with laughter. Even the owl couldn’t hide his smile. “I don’t see anything funny about my being brave,” cried a very hurt and angry Leo.

“Well, Leo,” the old owl chuckled, “perhaps fluffy or cute would have better described how you look.”

Leo wiped at a furry tear as he shouted, “I don’t want to be fluffy or little anymore. I want to be tough and rugged!” Once again all the creatures broke into fits of laughter. Leo stood for just a moment, tears streaming from his eyes, and then rushed into the forest.

利奥在森林里溜达了好几个小时。“我该怎么办呢？”他自言自语，“也许我应该把身上的毛剃一剃，或者开始练练举重什么的……”

他俯身看着镜子一样的溪水，又努力地挤出了一个难看、凶狠的表情。可是他一点儿也开心不起来，因为“可爱”“毛茸茸”这些词还在他的脑子里不住地打着转儿。不知不觉地，利奥在森林中越走越远了。

He wandered the forest for hours and hours. “What do I have to do?”he asked himself. “Maybe if I shaved off all my fur, or lifted weights or something...”

Leo gazed into the calm waters of a stream and made ugly, tough faces,but even these couldn’t make him forget the words “cute” and “fluffy”. So he kept wandering farther and farther into the forest.

森林里的其他动物忙忙碌碌地做着每天的活计，谁也没留意到一棵大树的树干里缓缓地钻出了一缕烟雾。一只灰松鼠正从这棵大树的枝杈间路过，他抬头闻了闻。“这好像是烟味呀，可能是谁生了一堆篝火吧。”松鼠一边这么想着，一边毫不在意地继续赶路了。

可是，到了太阳快要落山的时候，那一点点的烟雾已经变成了成团的烟云。很快，小空地就被冲天高的火苗包围了。

As the other creatures frisked about the forest glade, doing their daily chores, a wisp of smoke snaked about the boughs of a tree and climbed toward the sky. A brown squirrel sat on his haunches, sniffing at the afternoon air. “I smell smoke, but it’s probably just a campfire,”he thought as he continued on his way.

By dusk, though, the wisps of smoke had turned into billowing clouds. Suddenly, all around the clearing ,flames shot high into the air.

动物们纷纷惊慌起来，他们一边喊着“着火啦！着火啦！”，一边惊恐地收拾起小窝中的东西准备逃跑。

猫头鹰老师飞到森林正中间的空地上，对着大家高喊起来：“大家慢一点儿，千万不要慌！”动物们听了猫头鹰老师的话，纷纷逐渐聚到他身边。猫头鹰老师继续说道：“咱们必须镇定下来，这样惊慌失措的话会受伤的！赶紧看一看，大家都在吗？”

所有动物都在身边数了又数，突然，不知道是谁喊了起来：“大家都在！就是小兔子利奥不知跑到哪里去了！”

猫头鹰老师想了一会儿才说：“我们也只能希望他不在着火的这片林子里了。咱们必须马上转移到安全的地方去。”

可是，这时候的烟雾实在是太浓了，他们左看右看，怎么也看不清楚应该往哪边走。

All of the creatures began running about, packing up their nests,dashing here and there in absolute pandemonium. “Fire! Fire!” they shouted.

The old grey owl fluttered to the ground in the center of the glade and shouted, “Now everybody just slow down and don’t panic!” The animals gathered around as the owl continued, “We must all be as calm as possible or someone will get hurt. Now, is everyone here?”

They all looked around and then someone shouted, “Yes, it looks like we’re all here. All of us, that is, except that little rabbit, Leo!”

The owl thought for a moment and then said, “We’ll just have to hope that he’s outside the fire area. Now we must leave and move to safety.”

They all looked about the clearing but the smoke was so thick that no one could see which way to go.

利奥都快要溜达到森林的另一头了，才远远地看见了滚滚升起的浓烟。“不好！着火的地方看起来好像是我家附近的那片空地呀！”他想了想该怎么办，然后立刻朝着起火的方向跑了过去。

他跑呀跑呀，虽然累得上气不接下气，却没有停下来。利奥一直跑到被浓烟和大火包围的林地外边，却没有看到自己的朋友们。“糟糕啦！”他想，“他们一定是被困在里面了！”

想到这里，利奥把自己的安危抛在脑后，毫不犹豫地压低身子贴着地面，穿过厚厚的浓烟，沿着一条没有火的小道钻进了空地。

Leo had been moping at the far edge of the forest when he first saw the columns of smoke. “Oh no!” he said. “That fire looks like it’s burning right in the middle of the clearing where I live.” He wondered for a moment about what he should do, then rushed off towards the fire.

He ran and ran until he ran out of breath and then he ran some more.Finally he reached the edge of the smoke and flames that enclosed the clearing where he lived. To his dismay he could find none of his friends. “Oh dear!” he thought, “they must be trapped inside.”

Without a second thought for his own safety he crouched real low to the ground and began to follow the path into the clearing, through the thick grey smoke.

利奥终于爬进了林地中间，在那里看到了正在寻找逃生之路的其他动物。“快跟我来！”利奥大声喊道，“大家手拉着手，千万别走丢了！”

这时候的利奥看起来自信极了，一点儿也不害怕，其他动物就放心地跟了过去。在利奥的带领下，他们小心翼翼地穿过浓烟，逃向了安全的地方。

Leo finally reached the center of the clearing where all the creatures were searching for a way out of the inferno. “Quickly,” shouted Leo,“everybody hold hands and follow me.”

Leo looked so sure of himself and so unafraid that everyone followed him without question and they were led carefully through the heavy smoke towards safety.

最后，所有的动物都安全地逃离了可怕的森林大火，跑到了森林外的小山上。他们欢呼着把利奥围在中间，连声称赞他的勇敢。

猫头鹰老师说：“利奥，我说你描述自己的句子造得不对，那可真是大错特错了，因为你今天非常非常勇敢。”

“不是这样的。”利奥的脸红了，“如果我的个子不是这么小，我就不能贴到地面上，找到安全逃出来的路了。我想我现在明白了，哪怕你长得又小又可爱，甚至毛茸茸的，你也可以表现得很勇敢。”听到利奥这么说，动物们的喝彩声更响亮了，欢呼声在夜幕中久久地回**。勇敢的利奥就这样得到了“狮心小兔”这个美名。

Finally they reached the safety of a hill on the far side of the forest,away from the fire. All the animals gathered around Leo, cheering and shouting.

“Well,” said the owl, “I certainly was wrong about you and your chosen word. For today you were certainly brave.”

“No,” said Leo blushing deeply, “if it had not been for the fact that I was small, I would never have been low enough to the ground to see the trail into the clearing. I guess being cute and furry doesn’t mean you can’t be brave.” With that the other animals cheered Leo the brave and Leo the lion-hearted and continued their cheering far into the night.

不管你又小又可爱，还是又大又强壮，狮心小兔利奥的故事都是有意义的一课。

SO IF YOU’RE CUTE AND FURRY,OR EVEN IF YOU’RE NOT,

REMEBER LEO THE LION-HEARTED

AND THE LESSON THAT HE GOT.