Once a scholar (学者) is going to a place by boat. The boatman set sail (启航) in his boat and the boat was moving slowly. The wind was 1 softly (轻柔地). There were beautiful sounds of waves (浪花) and hundreds of birds were flying in the sky. The scholar was feeling 2 . He was very proud of (对……感到自豪) his learning. He asked the boatman if he knew 3 the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. The old man 4 , "No." The scholar told the boatman that his life was 5 .
The boatman said 6 but looked at the scholar. After a while, the scholar asked again if the boatman read 7 before. The boatman politely answered that he never read any book, so he knew nothing about geography. The scholar then told him that half of his life was wasted.
Then the sky became covered with dark clouds. Soon a terrible storm came. The waves were beating 8 against the boat. The scholar became very scared. Seeing this, the boatman asked him if he knew how to swim. The scholar said, "I read many books on swimming and know a lot about it, 9 I never tried swimming." The boatman then told him 10 , "Then you waste your whole life, because the boat is going to sink (下沉)!"
