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儿童英语读物 The Garden Thief CHAPTER 9 Thinking It Through

时间:2017-12-26 06:04来源:互联网 提供网友:qing   字体: [ ]
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The footprints in the lime showed that Alex had walked away, back toward the Kirk farm.

“Hmmpph,” said Taylor. “I’m going back to my garden, but I’ll talk to Mr. Kirk later. Alex can’t be allowed to steal our vegetables.”

“I have to apologize to a lot of people,” said Roger. “I’ll get started.”

The children and Mr. Yee watched Taylor unlock her garden gate, go into her garden, and lock the gate behind herself. Then they watched Roger walk to the far end of the community gardens, where he began to talk to a gardener.

Mr. Yee still held the big American blue rabbit.

“Is that your rabbit now?” Benny asked. He liked the way the rabbit’s ears moved back and forth1 and how its nose twitched2.

“No, Benny,” said Mr. Yee. “It is probably Lucasta’s rabbit. And I don’t like rabbits.” He fed the rabbit another lettuce3 leaf as he said this.

Henry and Jessie and Violet all smiled at one another.

“Come,” said Mr. Yee. “We’ll go to work.”

Once they were inside the garden, Benny went straight to the strawberries and Henry went to the peas and beans.

Jessie and Violet went to the lettuce and carrots. Mr. Yee followed them.

“Oh, no!” cried Violet when they reached the rows of carrots. She pointed4 to the ground. “The garden thief has been here. He stole all the carrots!”

“What?!” shouted Mr. Yee. “My carrots! I always win a blue ribbon for my carrots!” He was very upset.

Jessie looked around. “Not all the carrots were stolen, Mr. Yee,” she said. “Only some.”

Mr. Yee and Violet looked where Jessie was pointing, and they saw that one long row of carrots had been stolen. But another long row was still growing, the feathery tops standing5 straight up.

“Ooohhh,” said Violet. “The row of purple carrots is still here. So you can still win prizes for your purple carrots, Mr. Yee.”

Mr. Yee handed the rabbit to Jessie. He stooped down and pulled out a carrot. It was long and straight, with a feathery green top.

Violet could smell the carrot the minute Mr. Yee pulled it out of the ground. “That smells so good,” she said.

Mr. Yee snapped the carrot in half. Then he fed part of the carrot to the rabbit that Jessie was holding.

“We must find out who is stealing our vegetables,” he told the girls. “It is a terrible thing to walk into your garden and find your vegetables missing. I think—” Mr. Yee stopped talking in the middle of his sentence. He pointed.

Jessie and Violet looked to where he was pointing. There, at the far end of the row that once held orange carrots, was a burlap bag. A lumpy burlap bag.

Without speaking, Mr. Yee and Jessie and Violet all walked toward the bag. Mr. Yee took the rabbit from Jessie and held it close. “You look,” he told her.

Jessie knelt down and opened the bag. Inside were carrots: dozens and dozens of orange carrots. She took one out and handed it to Mr. Yee. “Is this one of your carrots?” she asked.

Mr. Yee shook his head. “No,” he said. “I can tell by looking that those aren’t my carrots. The variety I planted grow long and slender. The variety in the bag grows short and chunky. I do not understand,” he said. “Somebody stole my carrots, and then that somebody gave me different carrots.”

Benny and Henry came to see what was wrong, and Jessie told them about the carrots.

Henry picked up the bag of carrots and looked at the burlap bag itself, then at the carrots. “I think we have a lot of clues,” he said, “and we can talk about them at lunch, after we help Mr. Yee with his garden.”

“Good idea,” said Jessie. “I brought my notebook.”

And then the Aldens and Mr. Yee returned to garden work: weeding, thinning, tying up vines and climbing plants, and watering.

*  *  *

When it was time for lunch, Mr. Yee, still holding the rabbit, went off to see how Roger was doing with his apologies. The children found a shady spot under a big tree that grew nearby. They sat and opened the lunches that Mrs. McGregor had packed for them.

As they ate, they talked.

“I don’t think that Roger is the thief,” said Henry. “He thought that breaking things in people’s gardens would make them want to move. I don’t think he thought about stealing their vegetables.”

Jessie and Benny and Violet agreed.

“Roger was very upset when his cucumbers were stolen,” said Benny. “He was not cool.”

The others laughed.

“No, Benny, he wasn’t as cool as a cucumber,” said Jessie.

“When it comes to the garden thief,” said Henry, “some clues are more important than others.”

“When it comes to the thief, the burlap bags aren’t important,” said Violet as she munched6 on one of the cucumbers that Mrs. McGregor had packed.

“I agree,” said Jessie. “And when it comes to the thief, the footprints aren’t important, either.”

“Well,” said Benny impatiently, “what is important when it comes to the thief?”

“Green trash bags are important,” said Henry.

“Lucasta has a green trash bag,” offered Benny. “We saw Henry put it away.”

“That’s right,” said Jessie. She paused in the middle of eating her sandwich. “The cobbler’s apron7 is equally important.”

“We saw a cobbler’s apron hanging in the barn,” said Violet. “But Alex put it away as soon as we saw it.”

“We saw the apron not long after we saw Taylor’s leg weights,” said Jessie thoughtfully. “Her leg weights have pockets, and so does a cobbler’s apron.”

“Are there any more cucumbers?” asked Benny.

Jessie gave him one of hers. “Blue ribbons are also important,” she said.

“Blue ribbons are important to Taylor,” said Henry. “She’s never won one.”

“And to Lucasta,” said Benny. “She wants every one of her rabbits to win a blue ribbon.”

“So,” said Jessie, counting on her fingers, “we have three important clues about the thefts: the green trash bags; the cobbler’s apron; the blue ribbons; and—” She looked at her sister.

“The purple carrots,” said Violet.

“But nobody stole the purple carrots,” Benny argued. “How can they be a clue?”

“Because,” said Henry, “sometimes what isn’t stolen is as important a clue as what is stolen.”

The children got up and brushed the grass and twigs8 off their shorts.

“I wish the burlap bags were a clue,” said Benny. “I really like the burlap bags!”

Jessie tousled Benny’s hair. “Oh, the burlap bags are an important clue, Benny. They just aren’t a clue to the thief.”

“That’s right,” said Henry. “Where have we seen burlap bags recently?”

“In the Kirk barn,” Benny answered eagerly. “They were hanging on the walls near the rabbit hutches.”

“Taylor was with us,” said Jessie. “She saw them, too.”

“The burlap bags are important,” said Henry, “but what’s inside them is even more important.”

Jessie spoke9. “It’s time for another trip to the Kirk barn,” she said.


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 forth Hzdz2     
adv.向前;向外,往外
参考例句:
  • The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
  • He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。
2 twitched bb3f705fc01629dc121d198d54fa0904     
vt.& vi.(使)抽动,(使)颤动(twitch的过去式与过去分词形式)
参考例句:
  • Her lips twitched with amusement. 她忍俊不禁地颤动着嘴唇。
  • The child's mouth twitched as if she were about to cry. 这小孩的嘴抽动着,像是要哭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
3 lettuce C9GzQ     
n.莴苣;生菜
参考例句:
  • Get some lettuce and tomatoes so I can make a salad.买些莴苣和西红柿,我好做色拉。
  • The lettuce is crisp and cold.莴苣松脆爽口。
4 pointed Il8zB4     
adj.尖的,直截了当的
参考例句:
  • He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
  • She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。
5 standing 2hCzgo     
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的
参考例句:
  • After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
  • They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。
6 munched c9456f71965a082375ac004c60e40170     
v.用力咀嚼(某物),大嚼( munch的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • She munched on an apple. 她在大口啃苹果。
  • The rabbit munched on the fresh carrots. 兔子咯吱咯吱地嚼着新鲜胡萝卜。 来自辞典例句
7 apron Lvzzo     
n.围裙;工作裙
参考例句:
  • We were waited on by a pretty girl in a pink apron.招待我们的是一位穿粉红色围裙的漂亮姑娘。
  • She stitched a pocket on the new apron.她在新围裙上缝上一只口袋。
8 twigs 17ff1ed5da672aa443a4f6befce8e2cb     
细枝,嫩枝( twig的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Some birds build nests of twigs. 一些鸟用树枝筑巢。
  • Willow twigs are pliable. 柳条很软。
9 spoke XryyC     
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说
参考例句:
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
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