两千多年前，中国是汉朝。有一个小男孩叫匡衡。他家很穷，住在又小又旧的房子里。
More than two thousand years ago, China was ruled by the Han dynasty. There was a little boy named Kuang Heng. His family was very poor and lived in a small, old house.
匡衡很喜欢读书，可是书很贵。那时候没有印刷机，书要一个字一个字地抄，所以一般人家买不起。
Kuang Heng loved to read, but books were expensive. There were no printing presses then; books had to be copied by hand, character by character, so ordinary families could not afford them.
匡衡家里一本书也没有。白天，他去给有钱人干活，挣一点钱，用来买书，或者借书来抄。
Kuang Heng’s family did not own a single book. By day he worked for wealthy people, earning a little money to buy books or to borrow books and copy them.
到了晚上，他很想读书，可是家里没有灯。油灯和蜡烛都要花钱，他家买不起。
At night he badly wanted to read, but his family had no lamp. Oil lamps and candles cost money, and his family could not afford them.
有一天晚上，他发现墙上有光。原来，隔壁邻居家里点着蜡烛，光从墙缝里透了过来。
One evening he noticed light on the wall. It came from next door: the neighbours had lit a candle, and its light was coming through a crack.
匡衡小心地把墙缝弄大了一点，做成了一个小洞。邻居的烛光就从洞里照进他的房间。
Kuang Heng carefully widened the crack into a small hole. The neighbours’ candlelight now shone through it into his room.
他把书举到洞边，借着这一点光，一个字一个字地读。每天晚上，他都读到很晚。
He held his book up to the hole and read, character by character, by that little light. Every night he read until very late.
就这样，匡衡读了很多书，学问越来越好。后来他成了有名的学者，还做了大官，最后当上了丞相。
In this way Kuang Heng read many books and grew more and more learned. In time he became a famous scholar and a high official, and at last rose to Chancellor.
今天，人们用“凿壁偷光”形容家里穷、条件差，却仍然想尽办法坚持读书的人。这里的“偷”，只是“借”的意思，不是偷东西。
Today people use 凿壁偷光 — “boring a hole in the wall to borrow light” — to describe someone who studies on against poverty and poor conditions. Here 偷 means only “to borrow”, not to steal anything.