英语读物《神奇树屋》 第十四册 Day of the Dragon King 8 The Tomb

       Jack¹ and Annie stood frozen.

The silent soldiers did, too.

Finally, Annie spoke².

"They're fake," she said.

"Fake?" whispered Jack.

"They're not real," she said.

"They look real," said Jack.

Annie walked straight toward the front row ofsoldiers.

Jack held his breath.

Annie pulled the soldier's nose. "Fake!" she said.

"Oh, brother," said Jack. He walked over to thesoldier and touched his painted face. It was as hard asstone.

"It's amazing," Jack said.

Annie nodded. "It's like a museum."She walked down a row between two lines ofsoldiers.

"Wait. This is spooky," said Jack. "What is thisplace?"He put down his sack and pulled out the Chinabook. He found a picture of the frozen army and readaloud:

The Dragon King had 7,000 life-size clay figuresmade for his burial tomb. The clay was baked andpainted.

The Dragon King hoped that the clay army wouldprotect him after he died.

"It's like the pyramid in ancient Egypt," said Jack.

"Remember? The queen was buried with a boat andlots of things to take to the afterlife." He lookedaround. "Annie?""I'm here," she called.

She was far down another row.

"Come back here," yelled Jack.

"No, you come here," said Annie. "It's so cool. Alltheir faces are different."Jack threw the book into his sack. Then he hurrieddown the row to Annie.

"Look," she said. "Just look."In the flickering³ lamplight, they wandered downthe rows of soldiers. No two soldiers had the samenose, the same eyes, or the same mouth.

"Oh, man. No wonder so many people had to workon this tomb," said Jack.

"They really did a good job," said Annie.

"Yeah," said Jack.

There were kneeling archers⁴ and foot soldiersdressed in red and black armor.

There were real bronze swords, daggers⁵, axes,spears, bows, and arrows.

There were even life-size wooden chariots withhorses. The horses looked completely real. They weredifferent colors with white teeth and red tongues.

"I have to take some notes about all this," said Jack.

He pulled out his notebook and pencil. Then,kneeling on the brick floor, he wrote:

No tow faces the same not even the horses"Ja-ack," said Annie. "You know what?""What?""I think we're lost," she said.

"Lost?" Jack stood up. "We're not lost.""Yeah? Then which way is out?" said Annie.

Jack looked around. All he could see were rows ofsoldiers. In front of them, to the right, to the left,behind them--nothing but clay soldiers.

"Which way did we come?" said Annie.

"I don't know," said Jack.

All the rows looked the same. They stretched outendlessly.

Jack tried not to panic.

"I'd better look this up," he said.

"Forget it," said Annie. "Morgan said the researchbook would guide us. But in our darkest hour, onlythe ancient legend would save us.""Is this our darkest hour?" asked Jack.

Annie nodded. "Yeah, it's pretty dark."It does seem to be getting darker in here, thoughtJack. The air was getting thicker too. It seemed harderto breathe.

"Let's ask for help," said Jack.

He reached into the sack and pulled out the bamboobook. He held it up and said, "Save us!"As Jack waited, the tomb seemed unbearably⁶ quiet.

Jack held the book up again. "Please help us findour way out," he said.

He and Annie kept waiting. But nothing happened.

The air was growing even thicker. The light wasgetting dimmer. The countless⁷ rows of soldiersseemed creepier.

Help did not come.

Jack felt faint. "I--I guess we'll just have--have to--""Look!" Annie said.

"What?""The ball of thread! It rolled out of your sack!" shesaid.

"So what?" said Jack.

He looked at his cloth sack lying on the floor. Theball of yellow silk thread had rolled out. And it wasstill rolling, leaving a trail of yellow thread!

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 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 flickering   

adj.闪烁的，摇曳的，一闪一闪的

参考例句：

• The crisp autumn wind is flickering away. 清爽的秋风正在吹拂。
• The lights keep flickering. 灯光忽明忽暗。

4 archers   

n.弓箭手，射箭运动员( archer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The next evening old Mr. Sillerton Jackson came to dine with the Archers. 第二天晚上，西勒顿？杰克逊老先生来和阿切尔家人一起吃饭。 来自辞典例句
• Week of Archer: Double growth for Archers and Marksmen. 射手周：弓箭手与弩手（人类）产量加倍。 来自互联网

5 daggers   

匕首，短剑( dagger的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I will speak daggers to her, but use none. 我要用利剑一样的话刺痛她的心，但绝不是真用利剑。
• The world lives at daggers drawn in a cold war. 世界在冷战中剑拨弩张。

6 unbearably   

adv.不能忍受地，无法容忍地；慌

参考例句：

• It was unbearably hot in the car. 汽车里热得难以忍受。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She found it unbearably painful to speak. 她发现开口说话痛苦得令人难以承受。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。