吹小號的天鵝 第31期:求學生涯(5)

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

“安靜，孩子們!”哈默博瑟姆太太嚴厲地說，“我們下面從字母A開始學。”

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，在黑板上寫了一個大大的“A”。“你來試試，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的那個字母下面寫出了一個完美無暇的“A”。

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

“你看到了嗎?”薩姆說，“他是一只不一般的鳥。”

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

“噢，”哈默博瑟姆太太說，“A 很容易寫。我要教他點更難的。”

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

她在黑板上寫出了“CAT ”這個單詞。“讓我們看你寫cat ，路易斯!” 路易斯寫出了“cat”。

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

“Cat 也太容易寫了，”老師嘀咕，

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

“Cat 這個單詞容易寫是因為它很短。誰能想出一個比cat 更長點的單詞?”

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

“Catastrophe 。”坐在第一排的查利·納爾遜說。

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

“好極了!”哈默博瑟姆太太說，“這真是一個很難的單詞，

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

但誰知道它是什么意思?什么是Catastrophe 呢?”

"An earthquake," said one of the girls.

“一場地震。”一個女孩說。

"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)爭是一場Catastrophe 。”查利·納爾遜說。

"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,

珍妮用尖細的嗓音說：

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

“當你和你的父母準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蘋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

都放到一個保溫箱里，然后你再把這個保溫箱放進你的汽車正準備起程的時候，天突然下起雨來

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

這時你的父母說在雨里可找不到地方野餐，那就是一場大災難。”

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

“很好，珍妮，”哈默博瑟姆太太說，

"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，也沒戰(zhàn)爭那么可怕。

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

不過當一次野餐由于雨來搗亂的緣故被取消時，對一個孩子來說就等于發(fā)生了一場大災難，我猜。

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

不管怎樣，Catastrophe 都是個好詞兒。沒有一只鳥能寫出那個單詞的，我打賭。

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

如果我能教會一只鳥寫Catastrophe ，這將是整個香草鄉(xiāng)里的大新聞。

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

我的照片會上《生活》雜志的。我準會變成名人。”

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”這個單詞寫了出來。

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

“好，路易斯，讓我們看你寫這個單詞!”