The Little Elephant that Wanted to

A very basic story about a young elephant who learns a valuable life lesson.
Basic Chinese Reading PracticeThere is one particularly difficult sentence here, and that’s 小象爬到树去学飞“哎哟”一声，摔了一个大跟头. The words themselves aren’t too hard, but the sentence arrangement doesn’t make a lot of sense when directly translated into English. Let’s take it step by step:
小象 – Little Elephant
爬到 – Climbed to / climbed up
树 – tree
去 – go
学飞 – learn to fly
“哎哟” – ‘Ai yo!’ Sound which means “Yikes!” or “Ow!”
一声 – Noise, sound
摔了 – to fall
一个大 – a big
跟头 – Fall, trip and fall.
If you look at all these words together, you can more easily process the overall meaning of the sentence, which is, “In order to learn to fly, Little Elephant climbed a tree and, with a yelp of “Ai Yo!”, fell heavily to the ground.”
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小河 – xiǎo hé – Brook, stream
飞来飞去 – fēi lái fēi qù – Fly back and forth, fly here and there
爬 – pá – Climb
跟头 – gēn tou – Trip and fall, take a fall
本事 – běn shì – Ability, skill
宽 – kuān – Wide
不能比的 – bù néng bǐ de – Cannot compare
钩 – gōu – Hook
小象生下来的第三天，跟妈妈来到小河边，看见一只小鸟在天空飞来飞去。小象想：“要是我也会飞，可以看到更多的东西，多好呀！”
小象爬到树去学飞“哎哟”一声，摔了一个大跟头。
蛇看见了说:“小象，我们有自己的本事。我不会飞，可是，我会在树上睡觉。”
狮子说:“我也不会飞，可是，我能跳过宽宽的大河。”
老虎说:“我不会飞，可是我会游泳！”
爸爸妈妈对小象说:“我们象的力气大，这是小鸟不能比的。”小象明白了。他用长鼻子一钩，大木头就搬走了。
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On the third day after he was born, Little Elephant went with his mother to the banks of a stream, and there he saw a bird in the sky flying here and there. Little Elephant said: “If I could fly, I could see even more things, it would be great!”
In order to learn to fly, Little Elephant climbed a tree and, with a yelp of “Ai Yo!”, fell heavily to the ground.
Seeing this, the snake said: “Little elephant, we all have our own abilities. I can’t fly, but I can sleep in a tree.”
Lion said: “I also can’t fly, but I can jump across a wide river.”
Tiger said, “I can’t fly, but I can swim!”
Little Elephant’s father and mother said to him, “We elephants have great strength, incomparably greater than that little bird’s.”
Little Elephant understood. He used his long nose as a hook and moved a large branch.