童话故事的听众除儿童之外也包括成人但19世纪及20世纪之后，童话故事开始渐渐转变成儿童文学的一部份。

　　夫人属“牛”

　　In the past, an official celebrated1 his birthday.

　　A small official under him heard that he was born in the year of "the rat". To curry2 the official's favour, he had a gold rat cast as a birthday present and went to the official's house to congratulate him on his birthday.

　　The official was very pleased at the sight of the gold rat and said: "Do you know? In a few days my wife will celebrate her birthday too. She was born in the year of 'the ox'".

　　从前，有个官员过生日。

　　他手下的一个小官听说他属“鼠”，为了巴结他，铸了一只金鼠作为寿礼，登门祝寿。

　　这个官员一见金鼠，很是高兴，说：“你们知道吗?过几天，我的夫人也要过生日了，她是属‘牛’”。

　　洪水

　　Towards the end of the Age of Bronze the human world became very cruel.

　　Men grew hungry,impolite and ungodly.Neither rightn or law was respected any longer,and the rule of hospitality was forgotten.Dressed up in human form,Zeus visited Arcadia andThessaly,and disliked the deadly wrongs of men .He decidedto clear the earth of them all.Without hesitation he released therainy south wind and called upon the heartless Poseidon to help.Soon the whole world sank in a vast ocean, and the entire humanrace disappeared in the unheard of flood,all but two poor Thessalians .

　　These were an old childless couple,kind and faithful and contented with life.The man was called Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha.Son of Prometheus,Deucalion had been warned beforehand by his father of the coming flood and made himself a hugechest.When the roaring flood came the couple hid themselves init and floated for nine days until it touched land again on Mt Parnassus.