抛砖引玉 / Throw out a brick to attract a jade

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抛砖引玉 / Throw out a brick to attract a jade

在很久很久以前的唐朝，有两位诗人，一位叫常建，另一位叫赵嘏。

A long, long time ago in the Tang Dynasty, there were two poets. One was named Chang Jian, and the other was named Zhao Gu.

赵嘏写的诗可好了，他有一句“长笛一声人倚楼”，连大诗人杜牧都特别赞赏，所以大家都叫他“赵倚楼”。

Zhao Gu wrote excellent poems. He had a line "With the sound of a long flute, a man leans on the balcony", which was especially praised by the great poet Du Mu. So everyone called him "Zhao Leaning on the Balcony".

常建也很喜欢写诗，他觉得自己写得还不错，不过和赵嘏比起来呀，就觉得自己差了一些，他非常佩服赵嘏的才华。

Chang Jian also liked writing poems very much. He thought his own poems were not bad, but when compared with Zhao Gu's, he felt that he was a bit inferior. He admired Zhao Gu's talent very much.

有一天，常建听说赵嘏要到苏州去游玩，他可高兴坏了，心里想：“这可是个难得的好机会，我一定要让赵嘏留下几句好诗来。”

One day, Chang Jian heard that Zhao Gu was going to travel in Suzhou. He was overjoyed and thought to himself, "This is a rare good opportunity. I must make Zhao Gu leave behind a few good poems."

可是，用什么办法呢?

But what method could he use?

常建想来想去，终于想到了一个好主意。

Chang Jian thought about it again and again, and finally came up with a good idea.

他知道灵岩寺是苏州的一个很有名的地方，赵嘏到了苏州肯定会去灵岩寺游玩的。

He knew that the Lingyan Temple was a very famous place in Suzhou. Zhao Gu would surely visit the Lingyan Temple when he arrived in Suzhou.

于是，常建就提前跑到灵岩寺，在寺庙的墙上写了两句诗。

So Chang Jian ran to the Lingyan Temple in advance and wrote two lines of a poem on the wall of the temple.

过了几天，赵嘏真的来到了灵岩寺。

A few days later, Zhao Gu really came to the Lingyan Temple.

他在游玩的时候，看到了墙上常建写的那两句诗，觉得写得还挺好的，就是感觉好像没写完。

When he was visiting, he saw the two lines of the poem written by Chang Jian on the wall. He thought they were quite good, but it seemed that they were not finished.

赵嘏一下子就来了兴趣，他拿起笔来，在常建的诗后面又补上了两句，这样就变成了一首完整的好诗。

Zhao Gu became interested all of a sudden. He picked up a pen and added two more lines after Chang Jian's poem, and thus it became a complete and excellent poem.

后来，人们知道了这件事，都夸赞常建真聪明，他用自己写的两句诗，引出了赵嘏更好的诗句，就好像抛出了一块砖头，却引来了一块美玉一样，于是就有了“抛砖引玉”这个成语。

Later, when people knew about this matter, they all praised Chang Jian for being so clever. He used the two lines of poem he wrote to lead to Zhao Gu's better lines, just like throwing out a brick but attracting a piece of beautiful jade. So the idiom "Throw out a brick to attract a jade" came into being.

这个成语，就是说我们可以先说出自己不太成熟的想法或做出不太好的东西，来引出别人更好的意见或作品哦。

This idiom means that we can first put forward our not-so-mature ideas or create something not-so-good to draw out better opinions or works from others.

重点单词：

poem：/ˈpəʊɪm / 诗

write：/raɪt / 写

travel：/ˈtrævl / 旅行

think：/θɪŋk / 想

method：/ˈmeθəd / 方法

idea：/aɪˈdɪə / 主意

temple：/ˈtempl / 寺庙

wall：/wɔːl / 墙

add：/æd / 增添

people：/ˈpiːpl / 人们

praise：/preɪz / 夸赞

idiom：/ˈɪdiəm / 成语