It was summer. A duck was sitting in her nest. Her little ducklings were about to hatched.
One egg after another began to crack,but the biggest one was still there. At last, it cracked.The baby was big and ugly.
The next day,the mother duck with her family went down to the moat. One duckling jumped in after another. The big ugly one swam about with them.But the poor duckling was chased and harassed by all the ducklings because he was very ugly.The ducks bit him,the hens pecked him. And the girl who fed them kicked him aside.
Then he ran off and soon came to a great marsh where the wild ducks lived. He stayed there for two whole days.A big dog appeared close beside him,but he did not touch the duckling. "Oh,I am so ugly that even the dog won`t bite me." Sighed the duckling. In the evening,he reached a little cottage. Because he could not lay eggs,he was driven away by the hen.
one evening,he saw some swans.He flew into the water and swam towards them. What did he see in the clear water? He was no longer a dark grey ugly bird. He wa s himself a swan.
He said to himself,"I never dreamed that I could be so happy when I was the ugly duckling."
译文：夏天到了，一只鸭子正坐在它的窝里。它的小宝宝们就要孵出来了。
一只又一只的蛋开始裂开，但是最大的蛋仍然在那里。最后，它破裂了。宝宝又大又丑。第二天，鸭妈妈带着一家去河沟里去了。一只又一只的小鸭子跳了进去。这个又大又丑的鸭子在别的鸭子边上游泳。但因为它长得很丑，不但没有被鸭群接受，还挨啄、被排挤、被讪笑。而且在鸡群中也是这样。他因此觉得很自卑。无奈之下，丑小鸭飞过篱笆逃走了。有一次，他遇到了一只猎狗，但那只猎狗只是闻闻他，并没有把他抓住。他暗自庆幸，“我丑得连猎狗也不敢咬我了！”他为自己逃生而庆幸，同时为自己长得丑而懊丧。在这以后，丑小鸭遇到了很多磨难。后来，对美好大自然、美好生活的向往与追求驱使着丑小鸭不再依靠别人生活。有一天，三只美丽的白天鹅从树阴里一直游到他面前来，小鸭认出了这些美丽的动物，于是心里感到一种说不出的难过。小鸭感到自己要游向他们，就算他们把自己弄死也没关系，因为他有一颗追求美的心。但他在水里看到的是什么呢，不再是那只丑陋的小鸭了，而是——一只美丽的天鹅！
