据民间神话传说，古时天上的水神和火神因故吵架而大打出手。水神输后羞愤地朝西方的不周山撞去, 而不周山是撑天的柱子。撑天柱断了，天顿时失去了平衡，倒下了半边，还出现了一个大窟窿。大地向东南倾斜，海水向陆地上倒灌，淹没了平原。女娲（人首蛇身，传说她用黄土仿照自己造成了人，创造了人类社会）目睹人类遭此大祸，痛心不已。于是决心炼石补天，终止这场灾难。她选用各种各样的五色石子，架起火堆将它们熔化成浆，再用这种石浆将残缺的大窟窿填补好，随后又斩下一只神龟的四脚，当作撑天柱把倒塌的半边天支起来。最后为了堵住海水不再漫流，女娲还收集了大量芦草，把它们烧成灰，塞向四处铺开的洪流。女娲历经千辛万苦，终于把天补好了，把地填平了，把水止止住了。人类的灾难终于结束了！ According to the folklore, in the ancient time, Arethusa and the God of Fire had a fight in the sky, Arethusa lost and shamefully collided the Mount Buzhou, which was the pillar supporting the sky. The pillar broke, making the sky lost balance immediately. Half of the sky collapsed and resulted in a big hole. The earth tilted to the south-east, and the seawater irrigated the earth, submerging the flatlands. Nuwa, who was said to have a human's head but a snake's body, and who created human according to herself and created the human society, was tortured by seeing human-beings suffered from such a catastrophe. She determined to smelt stones to fill the hole to end up this disaster. She selected sorts of five-color stones, smelting them into thick liquid with fire. The thick liquid was used to fill the hole. Afterwards, she cut the legs of a turtle as the pillar to support the half of sky which was collapsed. Finally, she collected a large amount of reeds, and burned them into ashes. She splashed the ashes to the flood to stopping the seawater. The sky was finally repaired, the earth was filled, and the water was stopped because of the efforts made by Nuwa. The catastrophe was eventually over.

-- Jewel@

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In Chinese mythologies, human-being was created by Nuwa. Nuwa not only created human, but also saved human from a severe catastrophe. Today let's hear a mythology about Nuwa patching the sky. Lesson Content: According to the folklore, in the ancient time, Arethusa and the God of Fire had a fight in the sky, Arethusa lost and shamefully collided the Mount Buzhou, which was the pillar supporting the sky. The pillar broke, making the sky lost balance immediately. Half of the sky collapsed and resulted in a big hole. The earth tilted to the south-east, and the seawater irrigated the earth, submerging the flatlands. Nuwa, who was said to have a human's head but a snake's body, and who created human according to herself and created the human society, was tortured by seeing human-beings suffered from such a catastrophe. She determined to smelt stones to fill the hole to end up this disaster. She selected sorts of five-color stones, smelting them into thick liquid with fire. The thick liquid was used to fill the hole. Afterwards, she cut the legs of a turtle as the pillar to support the half of sky which was collapsed. Finally, she collected a large amount of reeds, and burned them into ashes. She splashed the ashes to the flood to stopping the seawater. The sky was finally repaired, the earth was filled, and the water was stopped because of the efforts made by Nuwa. The catastrophe was eventually over.

• disaster [di´zɑ:stə]   n.灾难，不幸   (初中英语单词)
• liquid [´likwid]   n.液体 a.流动的   (初中英语单词)
• amount [ə´maunt]   n.总数；数量 v.合计   (初中英语单词)
• severe [si´viə]   a.严厉的；苛刻的   (初中英语单词)
• pillar [´pilə]   n.支柱 vt.用柱支持   (高中英语单词)
• seeing [si:iŋ]   see的现在分词 n.视觉   (高中英语单词)
• turtle [´tə:tl]   n.海龟；甲鱼   (高中英语单词)
• catastrophe [kə´tæstrəfi]   n.大灾难；(悲剧)结局   (英语四级单词)
• eventually [i´ventʃuəli]   ad.最后，终于   (英语四级单词)
• summary [´sʌməri]   a.&n.摘要(的)   (英语四级单词)