The Frog Who Wished to Be as Big as an Ox

 An Ox, grazing in a meadow, chanced to set his foot on a young Frog and crushed him to death. His brothers and sisters, who were playing near, at once ran to tell their mother what had happened.

 

"The monster that did it, mother, was such a size!" said they.

 

The mother, who was a vain old thing, thought that she could easily make herself as large.

 

"Was it as big as this?" she asked, blowing and puffing¹ herself out.

 

"Oh, much bigger than that," replied the young Frogs.

 

"As this, then?" cried she, puffing and blowing again with all her might.

 

"Nay³, mother," said they; "if you were to try till you burst yourself, you could never be so big."

 

The silly old Frog then tried to puff² herself out still more, and burst herself indeed.

1 puffing   

v.使喷出( puff的现在分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧

参考例句：

• He was puffing hard when he jumped on to the bus. 他跳上公共汽车时喘息不已。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• My father sat puffing contentedly on his pipe. 父亲坐着心满意足地抽着烟斗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 puff   

n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气

参考例句：

• He took a puff at his cigarette.他吸了一口香烟。
• They tried their best to puff the book they published.他们尽力吹捧他们出版的书。

3 nay   

adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者

参考例句：

• He was grateful for and proud of his son's remarkable,nay,unique performance.他为儿子出色的，不，应该是独一无二的表演心怀感激和骄傲。
• Long essays,nay,whole books have been written on this.许多长篇大论的文章，不，应该说是整部整部的书都是关于这件事的。