Cao Chong weighs an elephant 曹冲称象
One day， Sun Quan sent Cao Cao a present. It was a huge elephant. Cao Cao wanted to find out the weight of the elephant.一天孙权送给曹操一个礼物，一头大象。曹操想知道大象的重量。
“What a huge animal it is! Can anyone tell me how to weigh it?” he asked the crowd around him.“好大的动物!认有办法把这头大象称一称?”他问他周围的人们。
“Can we get a large scale?” asked a soldier. However， no one could find a scale large enough.一个士兵问“能给我们一个大秤吗?”，但是，没有人能找到一个足够大的秤。
“Can we cut it up?” asked another soldier. “No. I don’t want to kill it，” said Cao Cao. Just then， young Cao Chong had a wonderful idea. “I can weigh the elephant!” he said “let me have a try.”
另一个士兵问道“我们能把它切开吗?”曹操说“不，我不想杀了它”。这时，年幼的曹冲有了主意。“我能称象”他说，“让我试试”。
Cao Chong asked some soldiers to lead the elephant onto a boat. As the heavy animal walked onto it， the boat went lower into the water. Cao Chong drew a line on the side of the boat to mark how low it went. The elephant was then taken off the boat and the boat was filled with rocks until it went down again and water reached the line on the boat.
曹冲让一些士兵把象带到大船上。当这个庞大的动物走上船时，船在水中下沉了。曹冲在船的一边画了一条线，来标记水面所达到的位置。接下来把大象赶下船，再让船装载石头，让水面也达到记号的那条线。
Cao Chong then weighed the rocks. He added up the weight of all the rocks and said， “This is the weight of the elephant.”
曹冲接下来称了各块石头的重量，把所有石头的重量加了起来。然后他说“这就是大象的重量”。
Cao Cao was very happy with his son. “ My son is very clever， isn’t he” he said. Everyone agreed.曹操对他的儿子很满意。他说，“我儿子很聪明，对吗”。每个人都赞同他的话。
