绿野仙踪 第4期:旋风来了(4)

 Then a strange thing happened. 然后一件怪事发生了。

The house whirled¹ around two or three times and rose slowly through the air. 这屋子旋转了几次，慢慢地升上空中。

Dorothy felt as if she were going up in a balloon. 多萝茜觉得好像坐在一个轻气球里缓缓地上升。

The north and south winds met where the house stood,  那南风和北风在屋子四周会合，

and made it the exact center of the cyclone². 屋子便成了旋风的中心。

In the middle of a cyclone the air is generally still,  在旋风的中央，通常是平稳的，

but the great pressure of the wind on every side of the house raised it up higher and higher, until it was at the very top of the cyclone;  但是四周的强大风力压迫着这屋子，使它变得越来越高，直到旋风的最高点；

and there it remained and was carried miles and miles away as easily as you could carry a feather. 就这样，屋子在旋风中被带走好几里，轻易的就像你带走一根羽毛一般。

It was very dark, and the wind howled horribly around her,  这时候，天空异常黑暗，风在屋子的周围可怕地怒吼着。

but Dorothy found she was riding quite easily. 但多萝茜却坐得很舒服。

After the first few whirls³ around, and one another time when the house tipped badly,  在第一次稍微旋转以后，当那屋子剧烈地震颤时，

she felt as if she were being rocked gently, like a baby in a cradle⁴. 她似乎觉得自己被轻轻地摇荡着，像一个婴儿躺摇篮里。

Toto did not like it. He ran about the room, now here, now there, barking loudly;  托托显然不喜欢这样子摇荡。它满屋子乱跑，一会儿这里，一会儿那里，大声地吠着；

but Dorothy sat quite still in the floor and waited to see what would happen. 但是多萝茜却静静地坐在地板上，等待着着接下来发生的事情。

Once Toto got too near the open trap door, and fell in;  有一次，托托太靠近那打开着的活动地板的门掉了进去；

and at first the little girl thought she had lost him. 多萝茜本以为它是掉下去了。

But soon she saw one of his ears sticking up through the hole,  然而过了一会儿，她看见它的耳朵，竖起在洞口，

for the strong pressure of the air was keeping him up so that he could not fall. 强大的空气压力托住了它，使得它掉不下去。

She crept⁵ to the hole, caught Toto by the ear, and dragged him into the room again,  她爬到洞口，捉住了托托的耳朵，把它拉进屋子里来，

afterward⁶ closing the trap door so that no more accidents could happen. 然后关上了那活动的地板门，防止意外事情再次发生。

1 whirled   

v.（使）飞快移动，使旋转( whirl的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Leaves whirled in the wind. 落叶在风中旋转。
• A tornado whirled into the town last week. 龙卷风上周袭击了这座城市。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 cyclone   

n.旋风，龙卷风

参考例句：

• An exceptionally violent cyclone hit the town last night.昨晚异常猛烈的旋风吹袭了那个小镇。
• The cyclone brought misery to thousands of people.旋风给成千上万的人带来苦难。

3 whirls   

v.（使）飞快移动，使旋转( whirl的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The earth whirls on its axis. 地球绕轴自转。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The wind was driving the snow before it in curious, interesting whirls. 风吹起了雪花，在希奇地有趣地打旋。 来自辞典例句

4 cradle   

n.摇篮，策源地，支船架；vt.把...放在摇篮里

参考例句：

• The baby was rocked to sleep in a cradle.婴儿在摇篮里被摇得睡着了。
• Tokyo was the cradle of Japanese culture.东京是日本文化的发源地。

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 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。