英语 英语 日语 日语 韩语 韩语 法语 法语 德语 德语 西班牙语 西班牙语 意大利语 意大利语 阿拉伯语 阿拉伯语 葡萄牙语 葡萄牙语 越南语 越南语 俄语 俄语 芬兰语 芬兰语 泰语 泰语 泰语 丹麦语 泰语 对外汉语

儿童英语读物 The Mystery of the Midnight Dog CHAPTER 4 Clues in the Park

时间:2017-10-10 05:26来源:互联网 提供网友:qing   字体: [ ]
特别声明:本栏目内容均从网络收集或者网友提供,供仅参考试用,我们无法保证内容完整和正确。如果资料损害了您的权益,请与站长联系,我们将及时删除并致以歉意。
    (单词翻译:双击或拖选)

But Watch didn’t howl anymore that night and when Benny woke up, sunlight was pouring in through the window. He jumped out of bed and got dressed as quickly as he could.

As he and Watch hurried down the stairs, his nose told him that someone had already made biscuits. He joined everyone else in the kitchen for a breakfast of buttered biscuits with blackberry jam, along with grits1 and ham. Even Watch got a piece of ham.

Grandfather said to Benny, “I hear Watch did some midnight singing last night.”

“He howled,” Benny agreed.

“I understand Watch wasn’t the only dog in town who howled at midnight,” Mrs. Wade2 said.

“Something made Watch and all the other dogs howl last night,” Benny said.

Jessie shook her head. But she only said, “I think I’m going to have another biscuit.”

“Me, too,” said Violet. “They are delicious.”

“When we’re finished with breakfast, it’ll be time to go to work,” Kate Frances said.

“Are we going to work with you?” Violet asked.

Kate Frances smiled. “Maybe we can find a job for you, if you want one.”

Elbow Bend State Park was by a big curve in the river. Kate Frances drove past a small ticket booth and waved at the older man inside, who was wearing an ELBOW BEND STAFF cap. She parked the car in a small parking lot behind a building made of rough-cut wood and led the way inside.

“Good morning, Kate Frances. Good morning, Lainey.” A woman came out of a small office right by the front door.

“Good morning, Ms. Hedge,” said Kate Frances. “I’ve brought some volunteers for the day.” She introduced the four Aldens.

“We have plenty of work for you. We need someone to stack all the pamphlets in our information booths and to help hand out maps.”

“I can do that,” Violet said.

“Me, too,” said Benny.

Ms. Hedge said, “Kate Frances, I’m counting on you to help me plan the Stories Under the Stars program. It’s only two days away, you know.”

“Stories Under the Stars?” asked Henry.

Ms. Hedge nodded. “Yes. There is a storyteller who lives near here. She’s a well-known storyteller and she’ll be here tomorrow night at our outdoor theater. You should come. She’s wonderful.”

“We will,” said Jessie.

“We can sit in the employee section,” Kate Frances said. “My grandmother was already planning on coming and I know your grandfather would enjoy it, too.”

“Good,” said Ms. Hedge. She turned to Lainey and continued, “The ground crew needs a little help today, Lainey, if you don’t mind pitching in. Someone knocked over all the litter containers on Bluff3 Trail and Overlook Trail.”

“Good grief,” said Lainey. “Who’d do a thing like that?”

“Maybe it was a wild animal,” said Violet. “A raccoon. Or a bear.”

“No bears around here,” Ms. Hedge said, to Violet’s secret relief. “And I doubt a raccoon is strong enough to turn over those big containers.” Her lips tightened4 a little. “No, it was someone’s stupid idea of a joke.”

“Well, let’s get to work,” said Lainey. “Henry, Jessie, you want to come along?”

“Sure,” said Jessie.

“And we can look for clues,” Henry added. “Maybe we can solve the Mystery of the Garbage Can Litterbug.”

Lainey laughed. “Maybe. Let’s get packs from the equipment room and some sandwiches. We’ll have a picnic lunch on the trail.”

Kate Frances said, “And we’ll have a picnic right here.”

“See you this afternoon,” Violet said. She and Benny went to work in the visitors’ center while Henry and Jessie set out on the trails with Lainey.

“Wow,” Jessie said as she stuffed newspaper into the litter sack slung5 over one shoulder. “Some people sure are litterbugs.”

It was hot, hard work. Henry and Jessie looked for clues that might help them figure out who would upend all the litter cans—or why. But there were too many footprints on the trail to point to any one suspect and they could find nothing else that helped.

“Whew! That’s done. Let’s head back,” Lainey said at last. “I just hope whoever pulled the trash can tricks doesn’t come back.”

“Me, too,” said Henry.

As they came out of the woods into the main clearing of the park, Henry said, “What’s that old cabin over there?”

“Oh. That’s one of the cabins of the original European settlers here,” Lainey said. “Or what’s left of it. In this corner of the park and back through the woods are what’s left of several houses of the people who used to live here over two hundred years ago. Dr. Sage6 sometimes camps out here. She’s the archaeologist in charge of digging up the historic sites in the park. Why don’t we go meet her?”

As Lainey, Henry, and Jessie approached the old ruined cabin, a woman peered from around the back of the house. “Stay between the ropes,” she barked. “Or you’ll be trampling7 on history.”

Henry and Jessie were a little startled by this sharp welcome, but Lainey seemed used to it. “Hi, Dr. Sage,” she said. “It’s just me. I brought some friends to meet you. This is Henry and Jessie. They’re staying with Mrs. Wade and doing some volunteer work in the park.”

Dr. Sage came out from around the corner of the house. She was a small, strong-looking woman, with dark skin. Her dark brown eyes seemed to miss nothing. She wiped one hand on the leg of her dirt-smudged jeans and said, “Hello.”

Jessie and Henry said hello and shook hands.

“So you’re volunteering. That’s good. Saves the park money. Money saved is money I can use to do my digging and research,” Dr. Sage said.

“I’m glad,” Jessie replied politely.

Dr. Sage gave a short laugh. “Just don’t mess with anything around our dig. It may look untidy, but we can tell when someone’s been here who shouldn’t have been. People on the tour groups have actually tried to pick up artifacts to take home!”

Jessie and Henry both were about to protest that they knew better than to touch historic ruins uninvited, but Dr. Sage stopped them by raising her voice and shouting, “Brad! You’ve got company!”

“Coming,” a voice called from the edge of the nearby trees. A few seconds later a tall, lanky8 young man with long hair pulled back in a short ponytail came ambling9 out of the woods. Although it didn’t seem possible, he was covered with even more smudges of dirt than Dr. Sage.

“Lainey’s here to say hello to you,” Dr. Sage said.

“And to introduce some volunteers,” Lainey said quickly. Henry noticed that Lainey was blushing. When he looked over at Brad, he thought Brad’s cheeks were red, too, but it might have been sunburn.

Brad smiled and shook hands with the Aldens. “Hi, I’m Brad Thompson.”

“Are you finding anything interesting?” Henry asked Brad after they’d been introduced.

“As a matter of fact, I’ve found some very interesting pottery10 fragments,” Brad said. “It leads me to believe that I’m on the right track to the town dump.”

“Dump?” ask Jessie, thinking of all the garbage and litter they’d just picked up along the trail.

Brad nodded eagerly. “Yes! Isn’t it great news?”

Seeing their puzzled looks, Dr. Sage explained, “If we study what people of earlier times threw away, it can tell us quite a lot.”

Jessie laughed. “Wait until we tell Benny that the scientists here are studying garbage, especially after we cleaned it up all day.”

Lainey shook her head and smiled. “I guess we should go and let you get back to work.”

“Good idea,” Henry agreed.

They all said good-bye to Dr. Sage and Brad. Brad looked up and said, “ ’Bye, Lainey, and, uh ... everyone.”

Dr. Sage didn’t even notice that they were leaving.

“Are they always like that?” Henry asked.

“Worse,” said Lainey with a little sigh. “Brad and Dr. Sage would work all day and all night if they could. They’d be happy if we closed this park to everyone but scientists and historians.”

“But you’re practically a historian, aren’t you?” Jessie asked.

“I’ll be a historian when I finish college. Right now I’m just a history student,” Lainey said, with one last glance back at Brad.

“Look,” said Jessie. “There’s Violet outside the visitors’ center.”

“And Benny, too,” Henry said.

Violet had a map in her hand and was pointing to it while she talked to an attractive woman with sleek11 black hair. The woman had on tiny square-framed sunglasses and bright red lipstick12.

Violet then gave the map to the pretty tourist, who stuffed it into a pocket and walked away.

Benny and Violet hurried over to join Henry, Jessie, and Lainey.

“We’ve given out about a million maps,” Benny said.

No one got a chance to answer because just then an angry voice shouted, “Hey! Stay on the paths, like you’re supposed to!”

A tall, strongly built man in work pants, work boots, and a long-sleeved shirt that said ELBOW BEND STAFF stomped13 up to them. He had a rake in one hand, which he waved. “Can’t you read?” he demanded. “What does that sign say?” He gestured toward a small green-and-white sign at the base of a tree.

“ ‘Please stay on the ... trails’ ” Benny read aloud.

“And where are you standing14?” the man growled15.

Benny looked down at his feet. He looked over at Violet. “I guess we kind of took a shortcut16 between the trails,” he said.

“Huh,” said the man. “First you walk right through the leaves I’ve raked up. Then you go and knock over all my garbage cans. Tourists!”

“We work here,” Violet said, finding her voice.

“And we didn’t knock over anything,” added Benny.

The man stepped back, pushed up his cap, and studied them.

Just then Kate Frances came up the trail. She said, “It’s true. These are friends of mine and they’re doing some volunteer work.”

“Well,” the man said grudgingly17, “I guess you’re not tourists. I guess you’re not so bad. I’m Joshua Wilson, head of the grounds crew. You can call me Joshua. That’s good enough for me.”

He paused. “But you still have to obey the rules.” He stalked off, waving his rake and muttering to himself.

“Wow. He’s grumpy,” said Jessie.

“He’s proud of this park. It upsets him when people don’t treat it right. And you can’t blame him for being grumpy after someone knocked over all the garbage containers,” Kate Frances told them. “Joshua thinks we should limit the number of tourists allowed in here. He says it would be better for the park.”

“Did you find any clues?” Benny asked, turning to Henry and Jessie, just remembering the garbage can mystery.

Henry shook his head.

“Not a single one,” Jessie said.

Then Benny remembered another mystery. “Hey, Kate Frances,” he said as they walked toward the car to drive home for the evening. “Are there any ghosts in Elbow Bend State Park?”

“Nope,” said Kate Frances. “Not even a ghost dog.”

But as it turned out, Kate Frances was wrong.
 


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 grits 7f442b66774ec4ff80adf7cdbed3cc3c     
n.粗磨粉;粗面粉;粗燕麦粉;粗玉米粉;细石子,砂粒等( grit的名词复数 );勇气和毅力v.以沙砾覆盖(某物),撒沙砾于( grit的第三人称单数 );咬紧牙关
参考例句:
  • The sands [grits] in the cooked rice made my tooth ache. 米饭里的砂粒硌痛了牙。 来自辞典例句
  • This process also produces homing and corn grits. 此法也产生玉米麸(homing)和玉米粗粉。 来自辞典例句
2 wade nMgzu     
v.跋涉,涉水;n.跋涉
参考例句:
  • We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
  • We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。
3 bluff ftZzB     
v.虚张声势,用假象骗人;n.虚张声势,欺骗
参考例句:
  • His threats are merely bluff.他的威胁仅仅是虚张声势。
  • John is a deep card.No one can bluff him easily.约翰是个机灵鬼。谁也不容易欺骗他。
4 tightened bd3d8363419d9ff838bae0ba51722ee9     
收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 ); (使)变紧; (使)绷紧; 加紧
参考例句:
  • The rope holding the boat suddenly tightened and broke. 系船的绳子突然绷断了。
  • His index finger tightened on the trigger but then relaxed again. 他的食指扣住扳机,然后又松开了。
5 slung slung     
抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 ); 吊挂; 遣送; 押往
参考例句:
  • He slung the bag over his shoulder. 他把包一甩,挎在肩上。
  • He stood up and slung his gun over his shoulder. 他站起来把枪往肩上一背。
6 sage sCUz2     
n.圣人,哲人;adj.贤明的,明智的
参考例句:
  • I was grateful for the old man's sage advice.我很感激那位老人贤明的忠告。
  • The sage is the instructor of a hundred ages.这位哲人是百代之师。
7 trampling 7aa68e356548d4d30fa83dc97298265a     
踩( trample的现在分词 ); 践踏; 无视; 侵犯
参考例句:
  • Diplomats denounced the leaders for trampling their citizens' civil rights. 外交官谴责这些领导人践踏其公民的公民权。
  • They don't want people trampling the grass, pitching tents or building fires. 他们不希望人们踩踏草坪、支帐篷或生火。
8 lanky N9vzd     
adj.瘦长的
参考例句:
  • He was six feet four,all lanky and leggy.他身高6英尺4英寸,瘦高个儿,大长腿。
  • Tom was a lanky boy with long skinny legs.汤姆是一个腿很细的瘦高个儿。
9 ambling 83ee3bf75d76f7573f42fe45eaa3d174     
v.(马)缓行( amble的现在分词 );从容地走,漫步
参考例句:
  • At that moment the tiger commenced ambling towards his victim. 就在这时,老虎开始缓步向它的猎物走去。 来自辞典例句
  • Implied meaning: drinking, ambling, the people who make golf all relatively succeed. 寓意:喝酒,赌博,打高尔夫的人都比较成功。 来自互联网
10 pottery OPFxi     
n.陶器,陶器场
参考例句:
  • My sister likes to learn art pottery in her spare time.我妹妹喜欢在空余时间学习陶艺。
  • The pottery was left to bake in the hot sun.陶器放在外面让炎热的太阳烘晒焙干。
11 sleek zESzJ     
adj.光滑的,井然有序的;v.使光滑,梳拢
参考例句:
  • Women preferred sleek,shiny hair with little decoration.女士们更喜欢略加修饰的光滑闪亮型秀发。
  • The horse's coat was sleek and glossy.这匹马全身润泽有光。
12 lipstick o0zxg     
n.口红,唇膏
参考例句:
  • Taking out her lipstick,she began to paint her lips.她拿出口红,开始往嘴唇上抹。
  • Lipstick and hair conditioner are cosmetics.口红和护发素都是化妆品。
13 stomped 0884b29fb612cae5a9e4eb0d1a257b4a     
v.跺脚,践踏,重踏( stomp的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • She stomped angrily out of the office. 她怒气冲冲,重步走出办公室。
  • She slammed the door and stomped (off) out of the house. 她砰的一声关上了门,暮暮地走出了屋了。 来自辞典例句
14 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。
15 growled 65a0c9cac661e85023a63631d6dab8a3     
v.(动物)发狺狺声, (雷)作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 );低声咆哮着说
参考例句:
  • \"They ought to be birched, \" growled the old man. 老人咆哮道:“他们应受到鞭打。” 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He growled out an answer. 他低声威胁着回答。 来自《简明英汉词典》
16 shortcut Cyswg     
n.近路,捷径
参考例句:
  • He was always looking for a shortcut to fame and fortune.他总是在找成名发财的捷径。
  • If you take the shortcut,it will be two li closer.走抄道去要近2里路。
17 grudgingly grudgingly     
参考例句:
  • He grudgingly acknowledged having made a mistake. 他勉强承认他做错了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Their parents unwillingly [grudgingly] consented to the marriage. 他们的父母无可奈何地应允了这门亲事。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎点击提交分享给大家。
------分隔线----------------------------
顶一下
(0)
0%
踩一下
(0)
0%
最新评论 查看所有评论
发表评论 查看所有评论
请自觉遵守互联网相关的政策法规,严禁发布色情、暴力、反动的言论。
评价:
表情:
验证码:
听力搜索
推荐频道
论坛新贴