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In this short story, a garden rake (草耙 - [pinyin]cao3 pa2[/pinyin]) teaches one stuck-up kid a lesson in humility. HSK 3-4.

<h4>Some language stuff</h4>
父亲这儿 [pinyin]fu2 qin1 zhe4 er[/pinyin] - 父亲, as we know, means "father", and "这儿" usually means "here". But this phrase does not mean "father is here". In this case, 这儿 is colloquial Chinese meaning "place". So, 父亲这儿 means "father's place" - most often, "place" refers to someone's house, but it can also mean "hometown", or simply "where someone is". 

给我当个帮手 [pinyin]gei3 wo3 dang1 ge bang1 shou3[/pinyin] - You can probably figure this one out for yourself if you break down the meaning of each character: 

给 - Give
我 - me
当 - be / act as
个 - a
帮手 - helping hand

The difficulty here lies in the fact that both 给 and 当 are used simultaneously, since in English, we'd only either say "give me a helping hand", or "be my helping hand", not "give me be a helping hand". But we can probably parse this a little better if we understand the definition of 给 not as "give", but as "for". In that case, the sentence becomes "be a helping hand for me". And that makes more sense.

干活 [pinyin]gan1 huo2[/pinyin] - Beginners usually first see the character 活 in the word 生活, "life". But 活 in this case means "labor". So 干活 is "to do labor", usually labor done with the hands. It's also sometimes used derogatorily to describe mindless busywork, as in "This isn't a career, it's just 干活." 

Finally, we've got two idioms at the very end. Those are:

恃才傲物 [pinyin]shi4 cai2 ao4 wu4[/pinyin] - To be conceited and contemptuous.

夜郎自大 [pinyin]ye4 lang2 zi4 da4[/pinyin] - I've actually got a whole post on this idiom <a href="http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/11/01/story-behind-the-idiom-yelang-zi-da/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>, if you'd like to dig deeper， but in essence, it means "to think too highly of oneself".  
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<h4>有学问的儿子</h4>

上大学的儿子从城里回到农村，回到<span class="highlightText">父亲这儿</span>。

父亲说：“今天你和我一起去割草，你去拿草耙，<span class="highlightText">给我当个帮手</span>。”

可是儿子不愿<span class="highlightText">干活</span>，他说：“我学的是科学，乡下人的<span class="highlightText">活</span>我全都忘记了。草耙是什么样的东西?”

他刚刚走进院子，就一脚踩在草耙上，草耙的把儿一下子打在他的脑门上。这时他终于想起了什么是草耙。

做人不能忘本，更不能因为学了一点本事而<span class="highlightText">恃才傲物</span>，<span class="highlightText">夜郎自大</span>。
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[hide-this-part morelink="Show English translation"]
A college student came back from the city to [his] village, returning to his father's place.

His father said, "Today we're going to cut the grass, go get the rake, and be my helping hand." 

But his son wasn't willing to do the work, and he said, "I studied science, and I've forgotten all [the particulars of] village work. What kind of thing is a rake?" 

[The son] had just walked into the yard, when he trod upon the rake with his foot, and the rake's handle suddenly [sprung up and] hit him in the head. That's when he finally remembered was a rake was.

People must not forget their roots, and moreover [they] shouldn't be full of themselves just because they've learned a few things. 
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