【每週成語】
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成語：歧路亡羊（QI LU WANG YANG）: Lost a sheep at the forked road; sheep will easily get lost when there are too many forked roads; one who seeks truth is apt to get lost when confronted with too many choices.
出處：列子的寓言。
釋義：啟示一個人做事、為人，都要有正確的道路或方法，不然，漫無目標的亂闖，必然像“歧路亡羊”是徒勞無功的。
故事：楊子是戰國時期一個大學文家。有一次他的鄰居走失了一隻羊，那鄰居請了許多親朋好友幫忙去找。楊子說，“走失了一隻羊，何必要那麼多人去找呢？” 鄰人說，“因為歧路太多。不多請人，就不能分頭去找呀. ”等了一會，找羊的人都先後空手回來了。
楊子說，“這麼多的人去找，怎麼還會讓一隻羊走失呢？”鄰人說，“因為歧路太多呀！每條歧路之中又有許多岔路。因此沒有辦法尋找，人們只好空手回來了。”楊子聽了，低下頭，整天悶悶不樂。
一個學生問楊子說，“鄰人走失一隻羊，這不算什麼大事，也和老師沒有什麼牽連，又何必為了這件事整天發愁呢？”楊子說，“你說的也不錯。但是，我整天想的並不單是鄰人走失了羊這件事。我是想到求學問的道理。我們求學問要是沒有正確的方向而只是東鑽鑽，西鑽鑽，那就會白白地花費許多時間和精力，永遠達不到目的。結果，就像鄰人岔路找羊一樣，是什麼也找不到。”
用法：張三對兒子說，“你昨天學音樂，今天學畫畫，明天又去學體育，你這樣做法，可以說是“歧路亡羊”，浪費時間和精力，不會成功的。
故事英譯：Yang Zi was a great scholar of the period of Warring States. Once upon a time, his neighbor lost a sheep and asked a lot of relatives and friends to look for it. “He lost only one sheep,” Yang Zi asked, “why did he invite so many people to look for it?” The neighbor replied,“because there are too many forked roads which need a lot of people to go to find it.” Waiting for a while, every one of those of sheep-seekers came back with empty hands. “So many people went to look for the sheep,” Yang Zi asked, “why did you let a single sheep be lost?” The neighbor answered, “Because there are too many forked roads and each forked road had forked roads, so they couldn’t get the sheep and came back empty-handed.”
After hearing this, Yang Zi bowed and was depressed all day long. A student of Yang Zi asked, “a sheep of the neighbor was lost, that is not a big event and there is no any relation with you, why do you have to be so worry all day long?”
“What you said is right,” Yang Zi said. “But what I’m thinking is not the matter that the neighbor was losing a sheep, but is the way how to learn. For learning, if we have no right way, and we would study here and research there, that would waste a lot of time without reaching our aim, as a result, like that we want to find our lost sheep, we could not get it at last. ”
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