I was telling my boy Tony the story .of the hare (野兔) and tortoise (乌龟). In the end I said,
"Son, remember: slow and steady, but wins the race. Don’t you think there’s something to learn from the tortoise"
He opened his eyes wide. "Do you mean next time when I’m entering for the 60-meter race, I should wish that Billy and Tom and Sandy would all fall asleep half-way"
I was shocked. "But the tortoise didn’t wish the hare would fall asleep!"
"He must have wished that," Tony said. "Otherwise how could he be so stupid as to race with the hare He knew very well the hare ran a hundred times faster than he himself did."
"He didn’t have such a wish," I insisted. "He won the race by perseverance (坚韧不拔), by pushing on steadily."
Tony thought for a while. "That’s lie," He said. "He won because he was lucky. If the hare hadn’t happened to fall asleep, the tortoise would never have won the race. He could be as steady as you like, or a hundred times steadier, but he’d never have won the race. That’s for sure."
I gave up. Today’s children are not like what we used to be. They are just hopeless.
Tony believed that the tortoise______.