英语故事30字：The Birth Of A Banyan Tree[1]

　　Once upon a time， there was a big banyan tree in the forest beneath the mighty Himalayas. Living near this banyan tree were three very good friends. They were a quail， a monkey and an elephant. Each of them was quite smart.

　　Occasionally the three friends got into a disagreement. When this happened， they did not consider the opinion of any one of them to be more valuable. No matter how much experience each one had， his opinion was treated the same as the others. So it， took them a long time to reach an agreement. Every time this happened， they had to start from the beginning to reach a solution.

　　After a while they realized that it would save time， and help their friendship， if they could shorten their disagreements. They decided that it would certainly help if they considered the most valuable opinion fi rst. Then， if they could agree on that one， they would not have to waste time， and possibly even become less friendly， by arguing about the other two.

　　Fortunately， they all thought the most valuable opinion was the one based on the most experience. Therefore， they could live together even more peacefully if they gave higher respect to the oldest among them. Only if his opinion were clearly wrong， would they need to consider others.

　　Unfortunately， the elephant and the monkey and the quail had no idea which one was the oldest. Since this was a time before old age was respected， they had no reason to remember their birthdays or their ages.

　　Then one day， while they were relaxing in the shade of the big banyan tree， the quail and the monkey asked the elephant， “As far back as you can remember， what was the size of this banyan tree?”

　　The elephant replied， “I remember this tree for a very long time. When I was just a little baby， I used to scratch my belly by rubbing it over the tender shoots on top of this banyan tree.”

　　Then the monkey said， “When I was a curious baby monkey， I used to sit少儿英语