A man had a beautiful garden and flower beds，and all kinds of nice things that he planted in his garden。But there was one problem。His neighbor always let his chickens loose，and they ran over to reach the garden to dig out the roots and eat the flowers and make a mess everywhere。And he told his neighbor to keep the hens within his fence。But the neighbor said，“I don’t believe in this kind of restriction，imprisonment。I believe chickens are also the creation of God，and they have the right to go wherever they want。”And so he just let his chickens run all over。And the chickens loved the flowers and the corn and all the things that the neighbor planted。And so they would visit his garden often。
But then one day one of his friends came back，and saw that the man had all the flowers and everything that he planted still in order！So the friend was very surprised，“How did you do that？How did you convince the neighbor to keep the chickens out of your yard？”He said，“Oh，that’s easy。I just hid a dozen eggs in my flower bed，and one day I let my neighbor see that I was collecting them。”After that the neighbor kept his chickens to himself。
赶鸡之道
有个人有一座漂亮的花园，里面种了各式各样的奇花异草。不过，有个问题，就是他的邻居总是放任他养的鸡到处乱跑，闯进花园里，把植物的根挖起来，吃掉花园里的花，搞得乱七八糟。他请邻居把鸡关好，可是那位邻居却说：“我才不想把鸡像犯人一样关起来呢！它们也是上帝创造的，有自由行动的权利。”所以那位邻居就任凭它们跑来跑去，而那些鸡喜欢吃园里种的花草谷物，所以就常常过去光顾。
有一天，这个人的朋友来找他，发现整个花园井然有序，花草树木都很茂盛，就很惊讶地问他：“你是怎么说服邻居把鸡关起来的？”他回答说：“哦！太简单了！我先在花园里藏了一些鸡蛋，然后故意让我的邻居看到我在捡蛋，从此以后他就严加看管他的鸡了。”
chase[teis]vt。追捕，追逐；试图赢得
例：My dog likes chasing rabbits。我的狗喜欢追兔子。
loose[lu：s]adj。松的，宽松的，不牢固的；不精确的，不严密的；自由的，散漫的
例：The horse is loose in the field。马自由自在地在田野里。
make a mess〈口〉拉屎；大便（尤指婴儿，动物）
make a mess of把……弄糟[搞坏]；把……搞得一塌糊涂
imprisonment[impriznmnt]n。关押，监禁
鸡是一种很小的家禽，它的胃当然也很小，吃不了太多东西。chicken feed这一俗语就是来自这种现象。feed在这儿的意思是喂鸡的饲料，chicken feed意为“很小数量的钱，少得像喂鸡的饲料一样”。如：I turned down the job at the hamburger restaurant。They only pay chicken feed-not even enough money to pay my rent。（我没有接受那个汉堡包店的工作。他们付的工资实在太少，还不够我付房租呢。）
英国人对鸡似乎没有什么好感，chicken一词被用于比喻意义时，全属贬意。如指“嘴上没有毛的年轻人，胆小如鼠的人”都为chicken。另外chicken与其他词组成的词组也是含贬义者居多。如：
chicken head笨蛋，蠢人
chicken hearted和chicken livered都为“胆怯的”，“软弱的”意思。
to chicken out临阵逃脱
同属chicken家族的cock似乎给英国人也没有什么好印象。如：
cock指好斗，神气十足的人。
a cock of the school学生中的小霸王（专门欺负小同学）
a cock of the loft草料棚中的公鸡（颇有点汉语中“山中无老虎，猴子称霸王”的味儿）
at full cock一触即发
to cock his nose翘起鼻子，一副看不起人的样子
to cock his hat歪戴帽子
