美国语文第三册 第82期:威利是怎样逃出枯井的(1)

 　　Willie's aunt sent him for a birthday present a little writing book. 威利的阿姨送了他一个笔记本作为生日礼物。

　　There was a place in the book for a pencil. 本子上有个地方插着铅笔。

　　Willie thought a great deal of this little book, and always kept it in his pocket. 威利非常喜欢这个小本子，总是把它放在口袋里。

　　One day, his mother was very busy, and he called his dog,and said, "Come, Caper¹, let us have a play." 有一天，威利的妈妈很忙。威利把他的小狗叫过来：“凯普过来，咱们玩个游戏。”

　　When Willie's mother missed him, she went to the door and looked out, and could not see him anywhere; but she knew that Caper was with him, and thought they would come back before long. 当威利的妈妈想起他来，她走到门口四处张望，却哪儿也没有威利的身影。妈妈知道小狗凯普和威利在一起，心想他们不久之后自然就会回来。

　　She waited an hour, and still they did not come. 等了一个小时，他们还是没有回来。

　　When she came to the gate by the road, she met Mr. Lee, and told him how long Willie had been gone. 她走到路边的大门口，遇到了李先生，于是告诉他威利有多久不见踪影了。

　　Mr. Lee thought he must have gone to sleep under the trees. 李先生猜想威利一定是在树荫下睡着了。

　　So they went to all the tree sunder² which Willie was in the habit of playing, but he was now here to be found. 于是他们到威利平常习惯去玩耍的地方寻找，然而所有的树底下，都没有找到小威利。

　　By this time the sun had gone down. The news that Williewas lost soon spread over the neighborhood, 到了太阳下山的时候，“威利不见了”的消息已经迅速传开。

　　and all the men and women turned out to hunt. They hunted all night. 邻居们男男女女都到外面帮忙寻找，足足找了一整夜。

　　The next morning the neighbors were gathered round, 第二天早晨，邻居们聚集在房间里。

　　and all were trying to think what to do next, when Caper came bounding³ into the room. 大家都一筹莫展，想不出下一步应该怎么做。就在这个时候，小狗凯普突然跑了进来。

　　There was a string tied round his neck, and a bit of paper tied to it. 在凯普的脖子上系着一根绳子，绑着一张小纸条。

　　Willie's father, Mr. Lee, took the paper, and saw that it was a letter from Willie. 威利的爸爸李先生取下了纸条，发现那是威利写的一封信。

　　He read it aloud. It said, "O father! Cometo me. I am in the big hole in the pasture⁴." 他大声地读出来，信上是这样写的：“噢，爸爸！快来救我！我在牧场的那个大坑里。”

1 caper   

v.雀跃，欢蹦；n.雀跃，跳跃；续随子，刺山柑花蕾；嬉戏

参考例句：

• The children cut a caper in the yard.孩子们在院子里兴高采烈地乱蹦乱跳。
• The girl's caper cost her a twisted ankle.小姑娘又蹦又跳，结果扭伤了脚踝。

2 sunder   

v.分开；隔离；n.分离，分开

参考例句：

• Lightning tore the tree in sunder.闪电把树劈成两半。
• Nothing can sunder our friendship.什么也不能破坏我们的友谊。

3 bounding   

v.跳( bound的现在分词 )；弹回；向上弹；向上跳

参考例句：

• The little horse is bounding. 小马在跳跃。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Big rocks were bounding down. 巨石从上面滚下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 pasture   

n.牧场，牲畜饲养

参考例句：

• This is the place where they used to pasture.这就是他们过去经常放牧的地方。
• The boy got up very early every morning to pasture cattle.这男孩每天起得很早去放牛。