英语寓言故事（Draw a Snake and Add Feet to It）

Draw a Snake and Add Feet to It  画蛇添足

Long long ago, several people had a jar of wine among them and all of them wanted to drink it by himself. So they set a rule that every one would draw a snake on the ground and the man who finished first would have the wine. One man finished his snake very soon and he was about to drink the wine when he saw the others were still busy drawing, so he decided to draw the feet to the snake. However, before he could finish the feet, another man finished and grabbed the jar from him, saying, "Who has ever seen a snake with feet?" The story of "Draw a snake and add feet to It." tells us going too far is as bad as not going far enough.

古时几个人分一壶酒。他们都想独自喝完那壶酒，所以就定了一个规矩：每人在地上画一条蛇，谁画得最快，这壶酒就归谁。有一个人很快就把蛇画好了。他正打算喝这壶酒时，看见别人都还在忙着画，就决定给蛇再画上几只脚。结果，他的蛇脚还没加完，另一个人已经把蛇画好了。那人一下把酒壶夺了过去，说："有谁见过长脚的蛇？"。这个故事告诉我们这样的道理：做得过分和做得不够都是不对的。