Tom is a high school student who is passionate about natural sciences. He grew up in a rural area, where he was exposed to farming and dabbled in growing fruits and vegetables. Growing up in such a natural environment, he developed a great interest in the unique charm of nature. However, rural life is not as bustling as the city, and there are not many opportunities to work part-time and earn money.
One day, Tom heard that a large traditional Chinese medicine shop in the alley was recruiting a large amount of medicinal materials for two kinds of herbs, and one of them could even bring high profits. This surprised him greatly because the traditional Chinese medicine materials he usually knew had to be found in deep mountains. Herbs like ginseng, polygonum multiflorum, and snow lotus should grow in deep mountains or require a special environment to cultivate.
However, these medicinal materials could be easily found in ordinary farmland, which made him very curious. So, Tom asked the adults about the actual situation. It turned out that the two types of medicinal materials the Chinese medicine shop needed were crickets and cicada shells. After being dried in the sun, crickets become diuretic ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine, while cicada shells are the exoskeletons left behind after cicadas molt and are versatile ingredients in Chinese medicine, used for treating sore throats, night crying, and other symptoms. Therefore, the purchase price is very high. At this moment, Tom realized that the crickets and cicadas he often played with could be turned into money-making opportunities, which gave him the idea to work part-time and earn money.
故事第二段:
Story's Second Paragraph:
湯姆於是呼朋引伴找了村裡的其他小朋友商量一起去打工賺錢。當小朋友們聽到可以透過賣蟋蟀和蟬殼來賺錢時,都躍躍欲試,紛紛報名參加。一開始,他們聽到蟋蟀和蟬殼可以賣錢時都感到不可思議,但經過李仁豪解釋後,大家都恍然大悟。之後,小朋友們開始互相討論各自的想法,許多人認為應該先抓蟬殼,因為價格比較高,但也有些人認為蟋蟀比較好抓,且可以一次抓到很多來賣。最後,湯姆決定將所有小朋友分成兩組,一組抓蟋蟀,另一組抓蟬殼。考量到蟬殼的難度比較高,他決定先幫忙抓蟬殼的那一組人馬。So, Tom gathered his friends and other children in the village to discuss working together to earn money. When the children heard that they could make money by selling crickets and cicada shells, they were eager to try and signed up one after another. At first, they found it incredible that crickets and cicada shells could be sold for money, but after Li Renhao's explanation, they all understood. Afterward, the children began discussing their ideas with each other. Many believed that they should catch cicada shells first, as the price was higher, but some thought crickets were easier to catch and could be sold in larger quantities. In the end, Tom decided to divide all the children into two groups, one to catch crickets and the other to catch cicada shells. Considering that cicada shells were more difficult to find, he decided to help the group that was catching them first.
In the beginning, the members of the cicada shell group worked hard to observe and search in the trees. They knew that cicadas generally hide in trees, even when they molt, they would hide high up on the branches. Since there were so many trees, even if each child climbed a different tree to look and search, they still found nothing after half an hour. At this point, Tom began to use his knowledge and experience in natural sciences to think about how to efficiently find cicada shells and catch them.
First, he thought of the characteristics of cicadas. The first characteristic is that cicadas like to stay on trees with smooth bark, juicy trunks, and more branches, such as plane trees. Moreover, considering that it would be time-consuming and inefficient to climb every tree to see if there were cicada shells on it, he eventually came up with an effective method: using a bamboo pole with a large mirror tied to it to quickly see through reflection whether there were cicada shells on the tree trunk. Sure enough, they soon found the first cicada shell, and before long, they found the second, the third, and after a whole day of hard work, they finally found 50 of them.
At this time, the cricket-catching group thought it would be easy, so they adopted a wait-and-see approach, waiting at the entrance of the cricket hole. When they were lucky, a cricket would run out, and they would try to catch it with their bare hands, which, as one can imagine, was quite difficult. When they were unlucky, they would wait and wait but never see a cricket run out of the hole. Their results after a whole day were disastrous, with only a few crickets caught. So, Tom came to help.
At first, Tom didn't rush into action but focused on observation. Later, he noticed a few interesting phenomena. Crickets move very fast and jump high, making it almost impossible to catch them with bare hands. He needed to think of some ways to catch them. Eventually, he came up with a clever method to catch crickets, which involved using a regular transparent plastic bag to cover the entrance of the cricket hole. Once a cricket was spotted running out, the bag would be quickly tied up, preventing the cricket from escaping. Although this solved the problem of catching crickets at the hole entrance, there was still a crucial issue left unresolved: how to predict which hole the crickets would emerge from? Not every hole would have crickets running out, and there were many cricket holes. After observing carefully for some time, Tom found that there was no pattern to be discerned, making it even harder to catch more crickets.
This part indeed gave him a headache. Later, Tom had a sudden inspiration, recalling a famous battle from the Three Kingdoms period, Guan Yu's "Flooding of the Seven Armies." This time, they would try a "Flooding of the Crickets" approach. First, they blocked some of the holes, poured water into a few of the remaining holes, and then used the plastic bag method to catch the crickets at the other hole entrances in a more relaxed manner. This method indeed worked well, yielding a bountiful harvest. After a whole day, they caught more than 600 crickets.
After several days of hard work, they finally reaped a considerable harvest, catching a total of 304 cicada shells and 3,122 crickets. However, Tom was also deeply concerned about the ecological balance of nature, realizing that they should not catch all the crickets and cicada shells, as doing so would disrupt the natural environment. Thus, this money-making venture came to an end.
經過這次的打工經驗,湯姆深深體會到了賺錢不易的道理。雖然一整天都在外面日曬雨淋,有時還要爬上爬下,但是第一次靠自己的努力賺來的錢,讓他感到非常有成就感。此外,與村裡的大小朋友同心協力,一起同甘苦的經驗也讓大家的感情更加融洽。Through this work experience, Tom deeply understood that earning money is not easy. Although he spent the whole day outside, exposed to the sun and rain, and sometimes had to climb up and down, he felt a great sense of accomplishment for the money he earned through his own efforts. Moreover, the experience of working together with the other children in the village, sharing hardships, and achieving goals strengthened their bonds.
Through this money-making activity, Tom experienced his own strength and capabilities, as well as the rewards and satisfaction that came from hard work. In the process, he not only learned a lot about nature and ecology but also experienced the emotional bond that comes from working together with the other children in the village, overcoming difficulties, and reaping the rewards. In addition, the activity made Tom deeply understand the importance of protecting the environment and the indispensability of ecological balance for sustaining life and the functioning of natural systems. He decided to pay more attention to environmental protection in the future and actively participate in various activities to protect nature and maintain ecological balance.
Finally, Tom was grateful for the opportunity to experience such a challenging and rewarding journey, which contributed to his growth and progress. He believes that this experience will stay with him for the rest of his life, serving as a strong support and continuous motivation to move forward.