吹小號(hào)的天鵝 第31期:求學(xué)生涯(5)

"Quiet, children!" said Mrs. Hammerbotham sternly. "We'll start with the letter A."

“安靜，孩子們!”哈默博瑟姆太太嚴(yán)厲地說(shuō)，“我們下面從字母A開(kāi)始學(xué)。”

She picked up a piece of chalk and made a big A onthe blackboard. "Now you try it, Louis!"

她拿起一枝粉筆，在黑板上寫(xiě)了一個(gè)大大的“A”。“你來(lái)試試，路易斯!”

Louis grabbed a piece of chalk in his bill and drew aperfect A right under the one the teacher had drawn.

路易斯用嘴叼起一枝粉筆在老師寫(xiě)的那個(gè)字母下面寫(xiě)出了一個(gè)完美無(wú)暇的“A”。

"You see?" said Sam. "He's an unusual bird."

“你看到了嗎?”薩姆說(shuō)，“他是一只不一般的鳥(niǎo)。”

"Well," said Mrs. Hammerbotham, "A is easy. I'll give him something harder."

“噢，”哈默博瑟姆太太說(shuō)，“A 很容易寫(xiě)。我要教他點(diǎn)更難的。”

She wrote CAT on the board. "Let's see you write cat, Louis!" Louis wrote cat.

她在黑板上寫(xiě)出了“CAT ”這個(gè)單詞。“讓我們看你寫(xiě)cat ，路易斯!” 路易斯寫(xiě)出了“cat”。

"Well cat is easy, too," muttered the teacher.

“Cat 也太容易寫(xiě)了，”老師嘀咕，

"Cat is easy because it is short. Can anyone think of a word that is longer than cat?"

“Cat 這個(gè)單詞容易寫(xiě)是因?yàn)樗芏?。誰(shuí)能想出一個(gè)比cat 更長(zhǎng)點(diǎn)的單詞?”

"Catastrophe," said Charlie Nelson, who sat in the first row.

“Catastrophe 。”坐在第一排的查利·納爾遜說(shuō)。

"Good!" said Mrs. Hammerbotham. "That's a good hard word.

“好極了!”哈默博瑟姆太太說(shuō)，“這真是一個(gè)很難的單詞，

But does anyone know what it means? What is a catastrophe?"

但誰(shuí)知道它是什么意思?什么是Catastrophe 呢?”

"An earthquake," said one of the girls.

“一場(chǎng)地震。”一個(gè)女孩說(shuō)。

"Correct!" replied the teacher. "What else?"

“正確!”老師回答，“還有別的嗎?”

"War is a catastrophe," said Charlie Nelson.

“戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)是一場(chǎng)Catastrophe 。”查利·納爾遜說(shuō)。

"Correct!" replied Mrs. Hammerbotham. "What else is?"

“正確!”哈默博瑟姆太太回答，“還有嗎?”

A very small, redheaded girl named Jennie raised her hand.

一個(gè)很小的，名叫珍妮的紅頭發(fā)女孩舉起了她的手。

"Yes, Jennie? What is a catastrophe?"

“珍妮?什么是Catastrophe ?”

In a very small, high voice, Jennie said,

珍妮用尖細(xì)的嗓音說(shuō)：

"When you get ready to go on a picnic with your father and mother and you make peanut-butter sandwiches and jelly rolls

“當(dāng)你和你的父母準(zhǔn)備去野餐而且你也做好了花生醬三明治和果凍面包卷

and put them in a thermos box with bananas and an apple and some raisin cookies

并把它們和香蕉還有一個(gè)蘋(píng)果還有一些葡萄曲奇餅

and paper napkins and some bottles of pop and a few hard-boiled eggs

還有紙巾還有幾瓶汽水還有幾個(gè)熟透了的雞蛋

and then you put the thermos box in your car and just as you are starting out it starts to rain

都放到一個(gè)保溫箱里，然后你再把這個(gè)保溫箱放進(jìn)你的汽車(chē)正準(zhǔn)備起程的時(shí)候，天突然下起雨來(lái)

and your parents say there is no point in having a picnic in the rain, that's a catastrophe.

這時(shí)你的父母說(shuō)在雨里可找不到地方野餐，那就是一場(chǎng)大災(zāi)難。”

"Very good, Jennie," said Mrs. Hammerbotham.

“很好，珍妮，”哈默博瑟姆太太說(shuō)，

"It isn't as bad as an earthquake, and it isn't as bad as war.

“雖然這不像地震一樣糟糕，也沒(méi)戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)那么可怕。

But when a picnic gets called on account of rain, it is a catastrophe for a child, I guess.

不過(guò)當(dāng)一次野餐由于雨來(lái)?yè)v亂的緣故被取消時(shí)，對(duì)一個(gè)孩子來(lái)說(shuō)就等于發(fā)生了一場(chǎng)大災(zāi)難，我猜。

Anyway, catastrophe is a good word. No bird can write that word, I'll bet.

不管怎樣，Catastrophe 都是個(gè)好詞兒。沒(méi)有一只鳥(niǎo)能寫(xiě)出那個(gè)單詞的，我打賭。

If I can teach a bird to write catastrophe, it'll be big news all over the Sweet Grass country.

如果我能教會(huì)一只鳥(niǎo)寫(xiě)Catastrophe ，這將是整個(gè)香草鄉(xiāng)里的大新聞。

I'll get my picture in Life magazine. I'll be famous."

我的照片會(huì)上《生活》雜志的。我準(zhǔn)會(huì)變成名人。”

Thinking of all these things, she stepped to the blackboard and wrote CATASTROPHE.

這么想著，她走到黑板前，把“CATASTROPHE”這個(gè)單詞寫(xiě)了出來(lái)。

"O.k., Louis, let's see you write that!"

“好，路易斯，讓我們看你寫(xiě)這個(gè)單詞!”