儿童英语读物《神奇树屋》 第十二册 Polar Bears Past Bedtime 01 Are You Serious?

Whoo. The strange sound came from outside theopen window.

Jack¹ opened his eyes in the dark.

The sound came again. Whoo.

Jack sat up and turned on his light. He put on hisglasses. Then he grabbed the flashlight from his tableand shone it out the window.

A white snowy owl² was sitting on a treebranch.

"Whoo," the owl said again. Its large yellow eyeslooked right into Jack's.

What does he want? Jack wondered. Is he a sign,like the rabbit and the gazelle?

A long-legged rabbit and a gazelle had led Jack andAnnie to the magic tree house for their last twoadventures.

"Whoo.""Wait a second," Jack said to the owl. "I'll getAnnie."Jack's sister, Annie, always seemed to know whatbirds and animals were saying.

Jack jumped out of bed and hurried to Annie'sroom. She was sound asleep.

Jack shook her and she stirred.

"What?" she said.

"Come to my room," whispered Jack. "I thinkMorgan's sent another sign."In a split second, Annie was out of bed.

She hurried with Jack to his room.

Jack led her to the window. The snowy owl wasstill there.

"Whoo," said the owl. Then he raised his whitewings and took off into the night.

"He wants us to go to the woods," said Annie.

"That's what I thought," said Jack. "Meet youdownstairs after we get dressed.""No, no. He says go now. Right now," said Annie.

"We'll have to wear our pajamas³.""I have to put on my sneakers," said Jack.

"Okay, I'll put on mine, too. Meet you downstairs,"said Annie.

Jack pulled on his sneakers. He threw his notebookinto his backpack. Then he grabbed his flashlight andtiptoed downstairs.

Annie was waiting at the front door. They silentlyslipped outside together.

The night air was warm. Moths⁴ danced around theporch light.

"I feel weird," said Jack. "I'm going back to put onsome real clothes.""You can't " said Annie. "The owl said right now."She jumped off the porch and headed across theirdark yard.

Jack groaned⁵. How did Annie know exactly whatthe owl said? he wondered.

Still, he didn't want to be left behind. So he took offafter her.

The moon lit their way as they ran down theirstreet. When they entered the Frog Creek⁶ woods, Jackturned on his flashlight.

The beam of light showed shadows and swayingbranches.

Jack and Annie stepped between the trees. Theystayed close together.

"Whoo"Jack jumped in fear.

"It's just the white owl," said Annie. "He'ssomewhere nearby.""The woods are creepy," said Jack.

"Yeah," said Annie. "In the dark, it doesn't even feellike our woods."Suddenly the owl flapped near them.

"Yikes!" said Annie.

Jack shone his flashlight on the white bird as it roseinto the sky. The owl landed on a tree branch--'rightnext to the magic tree house.

And there was Morgan le Fay, the enchantresslibrarian. Her long white hair gleamed in the beam ofJack's flashlight.

"Hello," Morgan called softly in a soothing⁷ voice.

"Climb up."Jack used his flashlight to find the rope ladder.

Then he and Annie climbed up into the tree house.

Morgan was holding three scrolls⁹. Each one heldthe answer to an ancient riddle¹⁰ that Jack and Anniehad already solved.

"You have journeyed to the ocean, the Wild West,and Africa to find the answers to these three riddles,"said Morgan. "Ready for another journey?""Yes!" said Jack and Annie together._Morgan pulled a fourth scroll⁸ from the folds of herrobe. She handed it to Annie.

"After we solve this riddle, will we become MasterLibrarians?" asked Annie.

"And help you gather books through time andspace?" said Jack.

"Almost..." said Morgan.

Before Jack could ask what she meant, Morganpulled out a book and gave it to him. "For yourresearch," she said.

Jack and Annie looked at the book's title:

ADVENTURE IN THE ARCTIC.

"Oh, wow, the Arctic!" said Annie.

"The Arctic?" said Jack. He turned to Morgan. "Areyou serious?""Indeed I am," she said. "And you must hurry.""I wish we could go there," said Annie, pointing atthe cover.

"Wait--wait a minute--we'll freeze to death!" saidJack.

"Fear not," said Morgan. "I am sending someone tomeet you."The wind started to blow.

"Meet us? Who?" said Jack.

"Whoo?" said the snowy owl. Before Morgan couldanswer, the tree house started to spin.

It spun¹¹ faster and faster.

Then everything was still.

Absolutely still.

1 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

2 owl   

n.猫头鹰，枭

参考例句：

• Her new glasses make her look like an owl.她的新眼镜让她看上去像只猫头鹰。
• I'm a night owl and seldom go to bed until after midnight.我睡得很晚，经常半夜后才睡觉。

3 pajamas   

n.睡衣裤

参考例句：

• At bedtime,I take off my clothes and put on my pajamas.睡觉时，我脱去衣服，换上睡衣。
• He was wearing striped pajamas.他穿着带条纹的睡衣裤。

4 moths   

n.蛾( moth的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The moths have eaten holes in my wool coat. 蛀虫将我的羊毛衫蛀蚀了几个小洞。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The moths tapped and blurred at the window screen. 飞蛾在窗帘上跳来跳去，弄上了许多污点。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

5 groaned   

v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦

参考例句：

• He groaned in anguish. 他痛苦地呻吟。
• The cart groaned under the weight of the piano. 大车在钢琴的重压下嘎吱作响。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 creek   

n.小溪，小河，小湾

参考例句：

• He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
• People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。

7 soothing   

adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的

参考例句：

• Put on some nice soothing music.播放一些柔和舒缓的音乐。
• His casual, relaxed manner was very soothing.他随意而放松的举动让人很快便平静下来。

8 scroll   

n.卷轴，纸卷；(石刻上的)漩涡

参考例句：

• As I opened the scroll,a panorama of the Yellow River unfolded.我打开卷轴时，黄河的景象展现在眼前。
• He was presented with a scroll commemorating his achievements.他被授予一幅卷轴，以表彰其所做出的成就。

9 scrolls   

n.（常用于录写正式文件的）纸卷( scroll的名词复数 )；卷轴；涡卷形（装饰）；卷形花纹v.（电脑屏幕上）从上到下移动（资料等），卷页( scroll的第三人称单数 )；（似卷轴般）卷起；（像展开卷轴般地）将文字显示于屏幕

参考例句：

• Either turn it off or only pick up selected stuff like wands, rings and scrolls. 把他关掉然后只捡你需要的物品，像是魔杖(wand)，戒指(rings)和滚动条(scrolls)。 来自互联网
• Ancient scrolls were found in caves by the Dead Sea. 死海旁边的山洞里发现了古代的卷轴。 来自辞典例句

10 riddle   

n.谜，谜语，粗筛；vt.解谜，给…出谜，筛，检查，鉴定，非难，充满于；vi.出谜

参考例句：

• The riddle couldn't be solved by the child.这个谜语孩子猜不出来。
• Her disappearance is a complete riddle.她的失踪完全是一个谜。

11 spun   

v.纺，杜撰，急转身

参考例句：

• His grandmother spun him a yarn at the fire.他奶奶在火炉边给他讲故事。
• Her skilful fingers spun the wool out to a fine thread.她那灵巧的手指把羊毛纺成了细毛线。