An olive tree and a fig¹ tree（无花果树） were talking one winter day.

 

"I feel sorry for you," said the olive tree, "Every year you lose all your leaves and have to shiver through the winter with bare branches. But I stay green and beautiful all the year round. Still,I suppose we can't all be good-looking."

 

The fig tree was silent. Later that day the weather turned very cold. Great grey clouds filled the sky and it was very still. It began to snow heavily.

 

All that night it snowed, and all the next day. Fields and hedges were thickly covered and people had to dig paths from their houses to the roadside. The snow settled on the olive tree, drifting in little piles in the leaves, weighing down the branches so that they snapped（突然中断） and fell to the white ground below. The fig tree was more fortunate. She had no leaves to trap the snow and it drifted harmlessly through the bare twigs².

 

When the thaw³ came she was still standing⁴, ready to put out her new spring leaves; but the olive tree lay broken, a twisted jumble⁵（混乱） of sticks and brown leaves.

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