Many years ago there lived an emperor. He was quite fond of new clothes, and did not care for his country. He had a coat for every hour of the day. If you asked where he was, people would always answer,“The emperor is in his dressing-room.”

　　emperor n. 皇帝

　　be fond of 喜爱

　　care for 关心

　　dressing-room n. 更衣室

　　One day, two swindlers came to this country. They said that they could make the finest cloth in the world. Their clothes were not only beautiful, but also had some magic quality: they were invisible to any stupid man.

　　wonderful adj.奇妙的

　　sum n. 金额

　　at once 立刻

　　They set up a loom, and pretended to be very hard at work, but they did nothing on the loom.

　　set up 竖起

　　loom n. 织布机

　　pretend v. 假装

　　They asked for the finest silk and the most precious gold cloth, and worked at the empty looms till late at night.

　　ask for 要求

　　till prep. 直到

　　precious adj. 贵重的

　　“I’d like to know how they are getting on with the cloth,” thought the emperor. But he was afraid that he could not see the cloth, so he decided to send somebody else first to the two weavers.

　　get on with 进行

　　weaver n. 织布者

　　“I shall send my honest old minister,” thought the emperor. “He is quite intelligent. No one is better than him.” The good old minister went into the room.“Oh, my God!” He rubbed his eyes. He could not see anything on the loom!

　　minister n. 大臣

　　intelligent adj. 聪明的

　　rub v. 搓揉