So I lived my life alone, without anyone that I could really talk to, until I had a accident with my plane in the Desert of Sahara, six years ago.Something was broken in my engine. And asI had with me neither a mechanic nor any passengers, I set myself to attempt the difficult repairs all alone. It was a question of life or death for me: I had scarely enough drinking water to last a week.

The first night, then, I want  to sleep on the sand, a thousand miles from any human habitation. I was more isolated than a shipwrecked sailor on a raft in the middle of the ocean. Thus you can imagine my amazement, at sunrise, when I was awakened by an odd little voice. It said: 

 "If you please - draw me a sheep !"

 "What ?"

 "Draw me a sheep !"

 I jumped to my feet, completely thunderstruck. I blinked my eyes hard.I looked carefully all around me. And I saw a most extraordinary small person, who stood there examining me with grreat seriousness. Here you may see the best portrait that, later, I was able to make of him. But my drawing is certainly very much less charming than its model .

That, however, is not my fault. The grown-ups discourageed me in my painter's career when I was six years old, and I never learned to draw anything, except boas from the outside and boas from the inside.

Now I stared at this sudden apparition with my eyes fairly starting out of my head in astonishment. Remember, I had crashed in the desert a thousand miles from any inhabited region. Any yet my little man seemed neither to be straying uncertainly among the sands, nor to be fainting from fatigue, or hunger, or thirst, or fear. Nothing about him gave an y suggestion of a child lost in he middle of the desert, a thousand miles from any human habitation. When at last I was able to speak. I said to him:

"But - what are you doing here ? "

 And in answer he repeated , very slowly, as if he were speaking of a matter of great consequence:

"If you please - draw me a sheep.."

When I mystery is too overpowering, one dare not disobey. Absurd as it might seem to me, a thousand miles from any human habitation and in danger if death, I took out of my pocket a sheet of paper and my fountain-pen. But then I remembered how my studies had been concentrated on geography, history, arithmetic, and grammer, and I told the little chap(a little crossly, too) that I did not know how to draw. He answered me:

 "That doesn;t matter. Draw me a sheep..."

But I had never drawn a sheep. So I drew for him one of the two pictures I had drawn so often. It was that of the boa constrictor from the outside. And I was astounded to hear the little fellow greet it with,

"No, no, no! I don't want an elephant inside a boa constictor. A boa constrictor is a very dangerous creature, and an elephant in very cumbersome. Where I live, evething is very small. What I need is a sheep.Draw me a sheep."

 So then I made a drawing.

 He looked at it carefully, then he said:

 "No. This sheep is already very sickly. Make me another."

 So I made another drawing.

My friend smiled gently and indulgently. 

"You see yourself," he said, "that this is not a sheep. This is a ram, It has horns."

So then I did my drawing over once more.

 But it was rejected too, just like the others.

 "This one is too old. I want a sheep that will live a long time."

By this time my patience was exhausted, because I was in a hurry to start taking my engine apart. So I tossed off this drawing. 

And I threw out an explanation with it. 

"This is only his box. The sheep you asked for is inside."

I was very surprised to see a light break over the face of my young judge:

"That is exactly the way I wanted it ! Do you think that this sheep will have to have a great deal of grass?"

"Why?"

"Because where I live everything is very small..."

"There will surely be enough grass of him,"I said. "It is a very small sheep that I have given you."

He bent his head over the drawing:

"Not so small than that - Look ！He has gone to sleep..."

And that is how I made the accquaintance of the little prince.

mechanic 英 [mɪ'kænɪk] 美 [mə'kænɪk] 

n.技工，机修工

adj.手工的

attempt  [ə'tempt]

n.企图，试图；攻击

vt.企图，试图；尝试

scarcely  英['skeəslɪ] 美['skɛrsli]

adv.几乎不，简直不；简直没有

last

vi.持续；维持，够用；持久

vt.度过，拖过；使维持

shipwrecked sailor  ['ʃɪprek] 美['ʃɪprɛk]

n.海难；遇难船

vt.使失事；使毁灭；使失败

thunderstruck 英['θʌndəstrʌk] 美['θʌndɚ'strʌk]

adj.遭雷击的；惊愕的；吓坏了的

extraordinary  英[ɪkˈstrɔ:dnrɪ] 美[ɪkˈstrɔrdənerɪ; ɪkˈstrɔrdnˌɛrɪ]

adj.非凡的；特别的；离奇的；特派的

portrait   英['pɔːtrɪt] 美['pɔrtrɪt]

n.肖像；描写；半身雕塑像

apparition  英[æpə'rɪʃ(ə)n] 美[,æpə'rɪʃən]

n.幽灵；幻影；鬼怪；离奇出现的东西

stray  英[streɪ] 美[stre]

vi.流浪；迷路；偏离

adj.迷路的；离群的；偶遇的

n.走失的家畜；流浪者

faint  英[feɪnt] 美[fent]

adj.模糊的；头晕的；虚弱的；[医] 衰弱的

vi.昏倒；变得微弱；变得没气力

n.[中医] 昏厥，昏倒

fatigue  英[fə'tiːg] 美[fə'tig]

n.疲劳，疲乏；杂役

vt.使疲劳；使心智衰弱

vi.疲劳

adj.疲劳的

overpowering  美['ovɚ'paʊərɪŋ]

adj 压倒性的；无法抵抗的

disobey  英[dɪsə'beɪ] 美['dɪsə'be]

v.违反；不服从

absurd  英[əb'sɜːd] 美[əbˈsɝd]

adj.荒谬的；可笑的

n.荒诞；荒诞作品

fountain-pen  n. 钢笔

astound  英[ə'staʊnd] 美[ə'staʊnd]

vt.使惊骇；使震惊

cumbersome  英['kʌmbəs(ə)m] 美[ˈkʌmbərsəm]

adj.笨重的；累赘的；难处理的

indulgently  [ɪn'dʌldʒəntli]

adv.溺爱地；放任地

toss off   一饮而尽

acquaintance  英[ə'kweɪnt(ə)ns] 美[ə'kwentəns]

n.熟人；相识；了解；知道