英语读物《神奇树屋》 第十三册 Vacation Under the Volcano 6 The End is Here

　　Jack¹ threw open the door to the room of scrolls³. Heand Annie rushed in and ran over to the shelves.

Jack pulled out the piece of paper with the Latintitle on it:

Vir Fortissimus in Mundo"Okay " he said. "We have to find the scroll² withthis title."They began frantically⁴ unrolling scrolls one by one.

They were all handwritten in Latin.

"Here it is!" said Annie.

She held up a scroll. The words at the top matchedthe one on their paper.

11"Yay," said Jack. "I wish I could read Latin so wecould find out what the story is.""Don't think about it now!" said Annie. "Let's go!"Annie handed the scroll to Jack, then started out ofthe room.

"Come on," she said. "Bring it!""I just want to check and see what the story'sabout," said Jack.

He put the scroll in the leather bag. Then he flippedthrough the book on Roman times, looking for apicture of the ancient scroll. In the middle of the book,he found a picture of a volcano erupting over a town.

Under the picture was written:

For 800 years, Mount Vesuvius was a peacefulmountain, rising above the town of Pompeii. Then, atnoon on August 24, A.D. 79, it erupted into a deadlyvolcano.

"Oh, no," whispered Jack. "August 24, A.D. 79-that'stoday! Oh, man, what time is it?" He lookedaround wildly. "Annie!"She was gone again.

"Annie!"Jack grabbed the leather bag. Then, clutching thebook, he tore out of the scroll room.

"Annie!" he cried.

"What?" Annie appeared at the door to the diningroom.

"V-v-volcano!" stuttered Jack.

"What?" said Annie. "It's--it's coming--a volcano--atnoon!" said Jack. Annie gasped⁵.

"What time is it?" cried Jack.

"So that' s what the soothsayer meant!" Annie said.

"The end is near.""What time is it?" Jack asked again. He lookedaround the garden.

He saw something near the mermaid⁶ fountain.

"A sundial!" he said. "That's how the Romans toldtime!"Jack and Annie raced to the sundial. "What timedoes it say?" said Annie.

"I don't know," said Jack. His hands shook as heturned the pages of the book. He stopped on a pictureof a sundial. It showed examples of different times.

Jack looked back and forth⁷ from the page to the realsundial in the garden.

"Here!" he said. He had found the one that matched.

Jack read the writing under the picture:

The shadow on the sundial can hardly he seen atnoon.

"Oh, man," he whispered. He looked at Annie. "Theend isn't near; the end is here."Just then he heard a terrible blast. It was the loudestsound he had ever heard.

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 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。

3 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

4 frantically   

ad.发狂地, 发疯地

参考例句：

• He dashed frantically across the road. 他疯狂地跑过马路。
• She bid frantically for the old chair. 她发狂地喊出高价要买那把古老的椅子。

5 gasped   

v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要

参考例句：

• She gasped at the wonderful view. 如此美景使她惊讶得屏住了呼吸。
• People gasped with admiration at the superb skill of the gymnasts. 体操运动员的高超技艺令人赞叹。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 mermaid   

n.美人鱼

参考例句：

• How popular would that girl be with the only mermaid mom!和人鱼妈妈在一起，那个女孩会有多受欢迎！
• The little mermaid wasn't happy because she didn't want to wait.小美人鱼不太高兴，因为她等不及了。

7 forth   

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。