The day when the tasks were handed out was one of the most exciting days forall the children in the class. It took place during the first week of the term. On thatday， every boy and girl was given a task for which they would be responsible for therest of that school year.

分配任務(wù)的那一天是班上所有孩子最興奮的日子之一。它發(fā)生在學(xué)期的第一周。在那一天，每個(gè)男孩和女孩都會(huì)被分配到一個(gè)任務(wù)，他們將在該學(xué)年的剩余時(shí)間內(nèi)負(fù)責(zé)這項(xiàng)任務(wù)。

As with everything， some tasks were more interesting than others， and thechildren were eager2 to be given one of the best ones. When giving them out， theteacher took into account which children had been most responsible during theprevious3 year， and those children were the ones who most looked forward to thisday. Among them Rita stood out. She was a kind and quiet girl. And during theprevious year she had carried out the teacher’s instructions perfectly. All thechildren knew Rita was the favorite to be given the best task of all： to look after theclass dog.

就像所有的事情一樣，有些任務(wù)比其他任務(wù)更有趣，孩子們渴望得到最好的任務(wù)。在分配這些任務(wù)的時(shí)候，老師會(huì)考慮哪些學(xué)生在前一年最負(fù)責(zé)，這些孩子是最期待這一天的。麗塔在他們中間顯得很突出。她是一個(gè)善良而安靜的女孩。在過(guò)去的一年里，她完美地執(zhí)行了老師的指示。所有的孩子都知道麗塔最有望得到最好的任務(wù)：照看班里的狗。

But that year there was a big surprise. Each child received one of the normaltasks， like preparing the books or the radio for the lessons， telling the time，cleaning the blackboard， or looking after one of the pets. But Rita’s task was verydifferent. She was given a little box containing4 some sand and one ant. And eventhough the teacher insisted5 that this ant was a very special ant， Rita could nothelp feeling disappointed. However， Rita， who liked her teacher very much，preferred to show the teacher is wrong by doing something special with that taskof such little interest.

但那一年有個(gè)大驚喜。每個(gè)孩子都得到了一份常規(guī)任務(wù)，比如準(zhǔn)備上課用的課本或收音機(jī)，報(bào)時(shí)，擦黑板，或照看一只寵物。但麗塔的任務(wù)很不一樣。她被分到一個(gè)里面裝著一些沙子和一只螞蟻的小盒子。盡管老師堅(jiān)持說(shuō)這只螞蟻很特別，麗塔還是忍不住感到失望。然而，麗塔非常喜歡她的老師，她寧愿在那份沒(méi)什么意思的任務(wù)上做點(diǎn)特別的事情，以表明老師錯(cuò)了。

“I will turn this little task into something great，”Rita said to herself.

“我要把這個(gè)小任務(wù)變成偉大的事業(yè)?！丙愃?duì)自己說(shuō)。

So it was that Rita started studying all about her little ant. She learnedabout the different species6， and studied everything about their habitats andbehaviour. She modified7 the little box to make it perfect for the ant. Rita gavethe ant the very best food， and it ended up growing quite a bit bigger thananyone had expected...

就這樣，麗塔開(kāi)始研究她的小螞蟻。她了解了不同的螞蟻品種，研究了它們的棲息地和行為。她改裝了小盒子，使它非常適合這只螞蟻居住。麗塔給了這只螞蟻?zhàn)詈玫氖澄?，結(jié)果就是它長(zhǎng)得比任何人預(yù)想的都要大得多……

One day in spring， when all the children were in the classroom， the dooropened and a man who looked rather important appeared. The teacherinterrupted the class with great joy， and said， “This is Doctor Martinez. He hascome to tell us a wonderful piece of news， isn’t that right？”

春天里的一天，所有的孩子都在教室里時(shí)，門開(kāi)了，一個(gè)看起來(lái)相當(dāng)重要的人出現(xiàn)了。老師非常高興地打斷了課堂，然后說(shuō)道：“這是馬丁內(nèi)斯博士。他是來(lái)告訴我們一個(gè)好消息的，對(duì)嗎？”

“Exactly，”said the Doctor. “Today they have published the results of thecompetition， and your class has been chosen to accompany8 me this summer ona journey to the tropical rainforest9， where we will be studying all kinds ofinsects. Among all the schools of this area， without doubt it is this one whichhas best cared for the delicate10 little ant given to you. Congratulations！ Youwill be wonderful assistants11！ ”

“的確是。”那位博士說(shuō)，“今天他們公布了比賽的結(jié)果，你們班被選中在今年夏天陪同我前往熱帶雨林，我們將在那里研究各種昆蟲。在這個(gè)地區(qū)的所有學(xué)校中，毫無(wú)疑問(wèn)，是你們這個(gè)學(xué)校把送給你們的這只脆弱的小螞蟻照顧得最好。祝賀你們！你們將成為出色的助手！”

That day the school was filled with joy and celebration. Everyone thanked theteacher for thinking of entering them in the competition， and they thanked Rita forhaving been so patient and responsible. And so it was that many children learntthat to be given the most important tasks you have to know how to be responsibleeven in what are apparently12 the smallest tasks. And without doubt， it was Ritawho was the happiest at this， having said to herself so many times“I will turn thislittle task into something really great”.

那一天，學(xué)校里滿是歡樂(lè)和慶?；顒?dòng)。每個(gè)人都感謝老師想到讓他們參加比賽，感謝麗塔一直以來(lái)的耐心和負(fù)責(zé)。就這樣，許多孩子學(xué)到了：要想被賦予最重要的任務(wù)，就必須知道如何對(duì)即使是表面上看起來(lái)最不起眼的任務(wù)負(fù)責(zé)。毫無(wú)疑問(wèn)，對(duì)此最高興的是麗塔，她曾多次對(duì)自己說(shuō)“我將把這個(gè)小任務(wù)變成真正偉大的事情”。