故事: 有趣的打工農村生活 The Amusing Rural Part-time Life

故事第一段:

Story's First Paragraph:

湯姆是一位對自然科學充滿熱情的中學生。他的家鄉位於鄉村，從小就接觸農田務，也對種植水果蔬菜等方面有所涉獵。在這樣的自然環境中長大，讓他對大自然的獨特魅力產生了極大的興趣。但是，鄉村的生活不像城市那樣繁華，打工賺錢的機會也不多。

Tom is a high school student who is passionate about natural sciences. He grew up in a rural area, where he was exposed to farming and dabbled in growing fruits and vegetables. Growing up in such a natural environment, he developed a great interest in the unique charm of nature. However, rural life is not as bustling as the city, and there are not many opportunities to work part-time and earn money.

有一天，湯姆聽到巷口的一家大型中藥舖正在大量徵求兩種中藥的藥材，其中一種甚至可以賺到高額收益。這讓他十分驚訝，因為往常所認識的中藥藥材，通常都需要在深山才能尋找到。像是人參，何首烏，雪蓮等都應該長在深山裡面，或是需要特殊的環境去栽培。

One day, Tom heard that a large traditional Chinese medicine shop in the alley was recruiting a large amount of medicinal materials for two kinds of herbs, and one of them could even bring high profits. This surprised him greatly because the traditional Chinese medicine materials he usually knew had to be found in deep mountains. Herbs like ginseng, polygonum multiflorum, and snow lotus should grow in deep mountains or require a special environment to cultivate.

但這次卻是可以在普通的農田中輕易找到，讓他感到非常好奇。

於是，湯姆向大人詢問實際情況。原來，中藥店所需要的兩種中藥材是蟋蟀和蟬殼。蟋蟀經過曬乾後，成為中藥材裡的利尿藥材，而蟬殼則是蟬脫殼後的殼，是中藥裡的多用途藥材，可用於治療喉嚨腫痛、夜哭等症狀。收購價格因此非常高昂。這時候，湯姆意識到自己常常玩的蟋蟀和蟬竟然還能轉化成賺錢的機會，讓他萌生了一個打工賺錢的念頭。

However, these medicinal materials could be easily found in ordinary farmland, which made him very curious. So, Tom asked the adults about the actual situation. It turned out that the two types of medicinal materials the Chinese medicine shop needed were crickets and cicada shells. After being dried in the sun, crickets become diuretic ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine, while cicada shells are the exoskeletons left behind after cicadas molt and are versatile ingredients in Chinese medicine, used for treating sore throats, night crying, and other symptoms. Therefore, the purchase price is very high. At this moment, Tom realized that the crickets and cicadas he often played with could be turned into money-making opportunities, which gave him the idea to work part-time and earn money.

故事第二段:

Story's Second Paragraph:

湯姆於是呼朋引伴找了村裡的其他小朋友商量一起去打工賺錢。當小朋友們聽到可以透過賣蟋蟀和蟬殼來賺錢時，都躍躍欲試，紛紛報名參加。一開始，他們聽到蟋蟀和蟬殼可以賣錢時都感到不可思議，但經過李仁豪解釋後，大家都恍然大悟。之後，小朋友們開始互相討論各自的想法，許多人認為應該先抓蟬殼，因為價格比較高，但也有些人認為蟋蟀比較好抓，且可以一次抓到很多來賣。最後，湯姆決定將所有小朋友分成兩組，一組抓蟋蟀，另一組抓蟬殼。考量到蟬殼的難度比較高，他決定先幫忙抓蟬殼的那一組人馬。

So, Tom gathered his friends and other children in the village to discuss working together to earn money. When the children heard that they could make money by selling crickets and cicada shells, they were eager to try and signed up one after another. At first, they found it incredible that crickets and cicada shells could be sold for money, but after Li Renhao's explanation, they all understood. Afterward, the children began discussing their ideas with each other. Many believed that they should catch cicada shells first, as the price was higher, but some thought crickets were easier to catch and could be sold in larger quantities. In the end, Tom decided to divide all the children into two groups, one to catch crickets and the other to catch cicada shells. Considering that cicada shells were more difficult to find, he decided to help the group that was catching them first.

開始時，蟬殼組的成員都努力地往樹上觀察和尋找。他們知道蟬一般都會躲在樹上，即使脫殼時也會躲在高高的樹枝上。由於樹木數量實在太多，即使每位小朋友分開爬上一棵樹去東看看，西找找，半個小時後他們仍然一無所獲。

這時候，湯姆開始運用自己的自然科學知識和經驗，開始思考如何有效率地找到蟬殼的位置和捉取它們。

In the beginning, the members of the cicada shell group worked hard to observe and search in the trees. They knew that cicadas generally hide in trees, even when they molt, they would hide high up on the branches. Since there were so many trees, even if each child climbed a different tree to look and search, they still found nothing after half an hour. At this point, Tom began to use his knowledge and experience in natural sciences to think about how to efficiently find cicada shells and catch them.

首先他想到蟬的特性，第一個特性就是蟬喜歡待在樹皮光滑，樹幹多汁及樹枝較多的樹木，像是梧桐樹等。另外考量到如果每一棵樹需要爬上去看才知道是不是有蟬殼在上面，這樣的確很花時間而且沒有效率？

最終，他想到了一個有效的方法，即利用竹竿上綁著一面大鏡子，透過反射可以快速知道樹幹上是否有蟬殼。果不其然，很快大家就開始找到第一個蟬殼，沒有多久又找到第二個，第三個，經過一整天努力之後，終於找到了50個。

First, he thought of the characteristics of cicadas. The first characteristic is that cicadas like to stay on trees with smooth bark, juicy trunks, and more branches, such as plane trees. Moreover, considering that it would be time-consuming and inefficient to climb every tree to see if there were cicada shells on it, he eventually came up with an effective method: using a bamboo pole with a large mirror tied to it to quickly see through reflection whether there were cicada shells on the tree trunk. Sure enough, they soon found the first cicada shell, and before long, they found the second, the third, and after a whole day of hard work, they finally found 50 of them.

故事第三段:

Story's Third Paragraph:

此時蟋蟀那一組人馬，大家以為很容易，直接採用守株待兔的方式，在蟋蟀的洞口一直等待。運氣好時，一下子就等到一隻蟋蟀跑來，就用徒手去抓蟋蟀，可想而知，很難抓到蟋蟀。運氣不好時，左等右等就是等不到洞口有蟋蟀跑出來。一整天下來的戰績卻是慘不忍睹，一天只有抓了幾隻蟋蟀。因此湯姆便轉戰過來幫忙。

At this time, the cricket-catching group thought it would be easy, so they adopted a wait-and-see approach, waiting at the entrance of the cricket hole. When they were lucky, a cricket would run out, and they would try to catch it with their bare hands, which, as one can imagine, was quite difficult. When they were unlucky, they would wait and wait but never see a cricket run out of the hole. Their results after a whole day were disastrous, with only a few crickets caught. So, Tom came to help.

一開始的時候，湯姆不急著動手，著重於觀察。後來發現到幾個有趣的現象。蟋蟀動作很快，跳的也很高，如果想要使用徒手去抓的話，幾乎困難重重。需要想一些方式來抓取。後來他想到一種妙招的方式來抓蟋蟀，就是利用一般透明的塑膠袋，將口罩住蟋蟀的洞口，一旦發現有蟋蟀跑出來，就快速把塑膠口綁起來，這樣蟋蟀就不會跑出去了。雖然解決洞口抓蟋蟀問題，但是還有一個關鍵問題還沒有解決，那就是如何可以預知蟋蟀在那一個洞口出沒呢？並不是每一洞口都會跑蟋蟀出來，蟋蟀洞口又非常多，湯姆細心觀察一段時間之後，發現居然沒有規律可言。這樣就更難抓到更多的蟋蟀？

At first, Tom didn't rush into action but focused on observation. Later, he noticed a few interesting phenomena. Crickets move very fast and jump high, making it almost impossible to catch them with bare hands. He needed to think of some ways to catch them. Eventually, he came up with a clever method to catch crickets, which involved using a regular transparent plastic bag to cover the entrance of the cricket hole. Once a cricket was spotted running out, the bag would be quickly tied up, preventing the cricket from escaping. Although this solved the problem of catching crickets at the hole entrance, there was still a crucial issue left unresolved: how to predict which hole the crickets would emerge from? Not every hole would have crickets running out, and there were many cricket holes. After observing carefully for some time, Tom found that there was no pattern to be discerned, making it even harder to catch more crickets.

這部份的確讓其傷透腦筋，後來湯姆靈光一現，他想到三國時期很有名的一個戰役，那就是關羽想出的『水淹七軍』。這時候我們就來個『水淹蟋蟀』吧。

首先將一些洞口堵住，將水灌從幾個洞口灌進去，其他洞口就可以以逸待勞的方式，使用塑膠袋的方式來抓。這樣方法真的有效，成果豐收，一整天下來總共抓到600多隻的蟋蟀。

This part indeed gave him a headache. Later, Tom had a sudden inspiration, recalling a famous battle from the Three Kingdoms period, Guan Yu's "Flooding of the Seven Armies." This time, they would try a "Flooding of the Crickets" approach. First, they blocked some of the holes, poured water into a few of the remaining holes, and then used the plastic bag method to catch the crickets at the other hole entrances in a more relaxed manner. This method indeed worked well, yielding a bountiful harvest. After a whole day, they caught more than 600 crickets.

故事第四段:

Story's Fourth Paragraph:

經過好幾天的努力，大家終於豐收了不少，蟬殼總共抓到了304個，蟋蟀部分總共抓到了3122隻。

然而，湯姆也深刻考慮到了大自然的生態平衡，不可以將所有的蟋蟀和蟬殼全部抓光，這樣會破壞掉大自然的環境。所以這一次的打工賺錢的活動總算告一個段落。

After several days of hard work, they finally reaped a considerable harvest, catching a total of 304 cicada shells and 3,122 crickets. However, Tom was also deeply concerned about the ecological balance of nature, realizing that they should not catch all the crickets and cicada shells, as doing so would disrupt the natural environment. Thus, this money-making venture came to an end.

經過這次的打工經驗，湯姆深深體會到了賺錢不易的道理。雖然一整天都在外面日曬雨淋，有時還要爬上爬下，但是第一次靠自己的努力賺來的錢，讓他感到非常有成就感。此外，與村裡的大小朋友同心協力，一起同甘苦的經驗也讓大家的感情更加融洽。

Through this work experience, Tom deeply understood that earning money is not easy. Although he spent the whole day outside, exposed to the sun and rain, and sometimes had to climb up and down, he felt a great sense of accomplishment for the money he earned through his own efforts. Moreover, the experience of working together with the other children in the village, sharing hardships, and achieving goals strengthened their bonds.

經過這次的打工賺錢活動，湯姆體驗到了自己的實力和能力，也體會到了努力付出的回報和成就感。在這個過程中，他不僅學到了許多關於大自然和生態的知識，也感受到了與村里的大小朋友一起努力、一起經歷困難和收獲的感情。此外，這次活動也讓湯姆深刻了解到了保護環境的重要性，以及生態平衡對於維持生命和自然系統運行的不可或缺性。他決定要以後更加注重環境保護，積極參與各種保護大自然和維護生態平衡的活動。

Through this money-making activity, Tom experienced his own strength and capabilities, as well as the rewards and satisfaction that came from hard work. In the process, he not only learned a lot about nature and ecology but also experienced the emotional bond that comes from working together with the other children in the village, overcoming difficulties, and reaping the rewards. In addition, the activity made Tom deeply understand the importance of protecting the environment and the indispensability of ecological balance for sustaining life and the functioning of natural systems. He decided to pay more attention to environmental protection in the future and actively participate in various activities to protect nature and maintain ecological balance.

最後，湯姆感謝這個機會，讓他能夠經歷這樣一個充滿挑戰和收穫的經驗，讓他成長和進步。他相信，這樣的體驗將會伴隨著他一生，成為他堅強的後盾和不斷前進的動力。

Finally, Tom was grateful for the opportunity to experience such a challenging and rewarding journey, which contributed to his growth and progress. He believes that this experience will stay with him for the rest of his life, serving as a strong support and continuous motivation to move forward.