Once upon a time there was a big bathtub1 that had been thrown in themiddle of the forest. It was the best home for all types of little insects. They had tobe careful of just one thing while living there： To make sure the plughole2remained3 free from obstruction4 because they might all drown5 if rain fellsuddenly6. The burly7 beetles were put in charge8 of keeping an eye on theplughole to make sure that it was never blocked9.

But one day the plughole was blocked by something very big—awatermelon！ The watermelon was so big that not even the biggest beetle， noteven the five biggest， could move it. In fact， it was so big that not even all ofthe beetles working together could move the watermelon from the plughole.

All the strongest insects tried their very best to move the watermelon butcouldn’t move it even the tiniest bit. Some of the insects then tried to come up witha way to move the watermelon， but they had no luck either. At last， the wisestinsects started to plan the run away from the bathtub.

An ant asked if she could take the watermelon away with her.Very funny！ But the ant wasn’t joking at all！ At the end of the day，she came back and this time with thousands upon thousands of otherants. In perfect order， each ant went up to the watermelon， bitoff a piece and walked off with it.

Just a few days later， there was not a single trace10 of thebig watermelon. From that day on， many of the most difficultjobs in the bathtub became small ones that were easier tocarry out little by little.

從前，有一個(gè)巨大的浴缸被扔在森林的中央。這是所有小昆蟲(chóng)最好不過(guò)的家園。住在那里時(shí)，它們只需小心一件事：確保排水孔暢通無(wú)阻，因?yàn)槿绻蝗幌掠?，它們可能都?huì)淹死。那些魁梧的甲蟲(chóng)負(fù)責(zé)盯著排水孔，確保它永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)被堵住。

但是有一天，排水孔被一個(gè)很大的東西堵住了———一個(gè)西瓜！這個(gè)西瓜太大了，即使是最大的甲蟲(chóng)，甚至是五只最大的甲蟲(chóng)一起上也沒(méi)法移動(dòng)它。事實(shí)上，它是如此之大，以至于所有的甲蟲(chóng)一起努力也不能把西瓜從排水孔那兒移走。

所有最強(qiáng)壯的昆蟲(chóng)都盡了最大努力去移動(dòng)那個(gè)西瓜，但卻一點(diǎn)都移動(dòng)不了。還有的昆蟲(chóng)試圖想出一個(gè)移動(dòng)西瓜的方法，但是它們也沒(méi)想出來(lái)。最后，最聰明的昆蟲(chóng)開(kāi)始計(jì)劃逃離浴缸了。

一只螞蟻問(wèn)它是否可以把西瓜帶走。真好笑！但是這只螞蟻一點(diǎn)也沒(méi)有開(kāi)玩笑！在這一天晚上，它回來(lái)了，這次帶著成千上萬(wàn)只螞蟻。所有螞蟻都井然有序地走到西瓜前咬下來(lái)一片，然后輕松帶走。

僅僅幾天后，那個(gè)大西瓜就不見(jiàn)了蹤影。從那天起，浴缸里許多很困難的工作都拆解成了小事，一點(diǎn)一點(diǎn)地就變得更容易完成了。