美国小学英语教材2:第48课 金色蜘蛛网(2)

 What the Spiders Did 蜘蛛做了什么

That night, when everything was quiet, the kind fairy sent for the spiders. 那天晚上，万籁俱静时，善良的仙女把蜘蛛送了过去。

So the spiders came creeping¹, creeping downstairs from the attic². 于是，蜘蛛从阁楼上慢慢地、慢慢地爬下来。

They came creeping, creeping upstairs from the cellar³. 它们从地窖里慢慢地、慢慢地爬上楼来。

"Now syou may go in," said the fairy. “现在你们可以进去了，”仙女说。

They crawled⁴ along the floors and around the corners into the very room where the Christmas tree stood. 它们沿着地板和墙角爬进了圣诞树所在的那个房间。

All the spiders were there, wise old father spiders, fat mother spiders, and tiny, tiny baby spiders. 所有的蜘蛛都到了，聪明的蜘蛛爸爸，胖胖的蜘蛛妈妈，还有小小的蜘蛛宝贝。

They crowded around the tree. And then they looked! 它们挤在树周围，然后看圣诞树。

"What a beautiful sight!" they said. “多么美丽的画面啊！”它们说。

They crawled up the trees so that they could see everything on it. 它们爬上树，以便能看到上面的一切。

Then they crawled over all the branches, from the top to the bottom. 然后它们从上到下爬过所有的树枝。

Round and round, up and down, in and out among the branches they went. 它们在树枝间从上到下、从里到外一圈圈地爬着。

The spiders crept⁵ over and over the dolls. 蜘蛛蹑手蹑脚地爬过布娃娃。

They crawled round and round the drum and in and out of the horn. 它们不停地绕着鼓爬，在喇叭里进进出出。

They crept all over the jumping-jack from his red cap to his white toes. 它们蹑手蹑脚地从“弹跳杰克”的红色帽子爬到它的白色脚趾头上

Back went the spiders to the cellar and the attic. 蜘蛛回到了地窖和阁楼。

But they went away happy, for they had seen the Christmas tree. 但是它们离开时很开心，因为它们看到了圣诞树。

In the middle of the night the fairy came to the tree. 午夜时分，仙女来到了圣诞树旁。

"I must see if the beautiful tree is all ready for Christmas morning." she said. “我必须看看这棵美丽的树是否已经准备好迎接圣诞节的早晨了。”她说。

But when she looked at it, what do you think? 但是当她看到它时，你觉得会怎样呢？

The tree was covered from top to bottom with webs! 这棵树从上到下都被网覆盖了！

Everywhere a spider had crawled, it had left a web. 蜘蛛爬过的所有地方都留下了蜘蛛网。

There were webs around the silver star. They were on all the branches. 银星周围有蜘蛛网。所有树枝有蜘蛛网。

They went around and around the pink ball and nearly hid the dolls in their bright dresses. 粉球周围有一圈圈的蜘蛛网，甚至娃娃鲜艳的裙子里也藏着蜘蛛网。

What could the fairy do? "Now I see why the mother swept all the spiders away," she said. 仙女能做什么？“现在我明白为什么母亲把所有的蜘蛛都赶走了。”她说，

"It will never do to trim⁶ a Christmas tree with spider webs." “永远不能用蜘蛛网来装饰圣诞树。”

So the fairy thought and thought. 于是，仙女想了又想。

After a while she smiled happily and said, "I know just what to do." 过了一会儿，她高兴地笑道：“我知道该怎么做了。”

Then she touched every one of the webs and changed them all to gold. 然后她摸了所有的蜘蛛网，把它们都变成了金色。

"Oh, what beautiful trimmings!" cried the fairy. “哦，多么美丽的装饰啊！”仙女叫道。

The golden spider webs were shining like diamonds! 金色的蜘蛛网像钻石一样闪闪发光！

And that is why bright trimmings are still used on Christmas trees. 这就是圣诞树仍然使用明亮装饰品的原因。

1 creeping   

n.& adj.爬行（的）v.蹑手蹑足地走( creep的现在分词 )；缓慢地行进；爬行；匍匐

参考例句：

• I heard my landlady creeping stealthily up to my door. 我听到我的女房东偷偷地来到我的门前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• It is hard to prevent concrete from creeping. 很难防止水泥变形。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

2 attic   

n.顶楼，屋顶室

参考例句：

• Leakiness in the roof caused a damp attic.屋漏使顶楼潮湿。
• What's to be done with all this stuff in the attic?顶楼上的材料怎么处理？

3 cellar   

n.地窖，地下室，酒窖

参考例句：

• He took a bottle of wine from the cellar.他从酒窖里拿出一瓶酒。
• The little girl hid away in the cellar.小姑娘藏在地下室里。

4 crawled   

v.爬( crawl的过去式和过去分词 )；（昆虫）爬行；缓慢行进；巴结

参考例句：

• They crawled along on their bellies. 他们匍匐前进。
• She crawled onto the river bank and lay there gulping in air. 她爬上河岸，躺在那里喘着粗气。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 crept   

v.蹑手蹑足地走( creep的过去式和过去分词 )；缓慢地行进；爬行；匍匐

参考例句：

• I crept up the stairs, trying not to wake my parents. 为了尽量不吵醒父母，我蹑手蹑脚地上了楼。
• He had crept up on his unsuspecting victim from behind. 他从背后悄悄逼近了那毫无戒备的受害者。

6 trim   

vt.修剪；装饰；n.修剪；adj.修长的；整齐的

参考例句：

• We shall have to trim our spending down to fit our income.我们只得削减开支以使收支平衡。
• You must trim your costs if you want to make bigger profits.如果你想获得更大的利润，就必须削减开支。