The Story of Cao Chong’ s Weighing the Elephant

Dear Lucy,
I learnt from your letter that you would like to know the story of Cao Chong’ s weighing the elephant. Now I will tell you about it.
One day, someone sent Cao Cao an elephant. Cao Cao wanted to know its weight, but there was no big scales to weigh it. Nobody knew how to weigh it. Suddenly, Cao Chong, one of Cao Cao’ s sons, told his father he could weigh the elephant if he had a big boat and plenty of stones. Cao Cao was surprised, but he still ordered his men to get everything ready. Cao Chong let the elephant go onto the boat. When the boat stopped sinking, he asked a man to draw a line [you need to mention that the boat was no somewhere on the sea, because then you couldn't draw a line]. Then, some men were required to put the stones into the boat until the water reached the line. At last, Cao Chong made the men to weigh the stones and calculated the weight of the elephant.
From this story, I know that nothing is impossible if you are active in thinking.
Best wishes for you!
Yours,
Li Hua