The Story ofChinese Zodiac Long, long time ago, people always forgot in which year they were born and couldnot figure out exactly how old they were. The Jade Emperor came up with an idea. It’s too difficult to remember a year. It would be easier to remember an animal. Why don’t we choose twelve animals to represent the years? 福德宮The Jade Emperor asked the Earth God to tell every animal how to be chosen as one of the animals for the twelve signs of the zodiac. 玉皇大帝公告The river- crossing race All animals are welcome to compete. The first twelve animals across the finish line will be chosen as the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac. After the announcement, all the animals got very excited and everyone was talking about the race. At that time, the cat and the rat were very good friends. They met to discuss the race. We can’t swim. How are we gonna cross the river? Let’s join the ox, We can point the way and he can carry us across the river. The cat and the rat went to see the ox. The ox said okay at once. 十二生肖渡河比賽 十二生肖渡 河比賽The day of the race soon came. Early that morning, before the rooster woke up, the ox, the cat and the rat were already at the riverside. The cat and the rat climbed onto the back of the ox. And then they started swimming across the river. The cat became sleepy because he got up so early that morning. He fell asleep as soon as he got on top of the ox’s back. How eager the rat wanted to win first place. When the ox was a few second away from the opposite bank of the river, the rat pushed the cat into the water and went into one of the ox’s ears. The ox had no idea of what had just happened but heard the ...
