儿童英语读物 Superstar Watch CHAPTER 7 The Final Day

In the morning, Grandfather dropped the children and Watch off at the Greenfield Mall. Day Two of the Wundermutt commercial audition¹ was about to begin.

“Hello,” Lisa said. She bent² over Watch and asked, “Are you ready for a fresh start?”

Watch happily licked her hand.

Jessie held the suspect list and a red pen. “Um, Lisa,” she said. “I have a quick question.” Jessie clicked open her pen. “Yesterday you said you were an inventor. Is your invention a secret?”

“It’s not a secret,” Lisa said. “But no one ever asks me about it. Thanks for being interested.” Lisa smiled and her eyes lit up. Yesterday she had often seemed to be in a bad mood. But not now.

“I created a new kind of pet repellant,” Lisa told them.

“What’s that?” Benny said.

“Repel means to make something go away,” Henry explained.

“Exactly!” Lisa said. “My repellant is a spray that dogs don’t like. Sometimes people want to keep their dogs off the furniture. They can spray this on the couch, and the dogs will stay off. I call it ‘Get Away Spray’” Lisa was talking very fast. “I used all natural ingredients in the mixture,” Lisa said. “I think this stuff will sell like crazy.”

“Sounds interesting,” Henry said. “Did you show it to Mr. Lillipool?”

“Oh, gosh, no,” Lisa said, shaking her head. “He’s too busy and I’m too shy to talk to him.” She looked across the room. Mr. Lillipool had just come in.

Violet nodded. She was shy, too.

“If you don’t show him, how will he know about it?” Benny asked.

“I gave some of my spray to Ms. Werner,” Lisa said. “She said she’d show it to him for me. She told me she has a special meeting with him next week.”

Just then, Ms. Werner called across the room. “Lisa, I need your help.”

“Gotta go,” Lisa said. “I’d give you a sample, but Watch is really well trained. You don’t need it.” Lisa went to help Ms. Werner.

“Maybe Lisa isn’t a suspect anymore,” Henry said. “Her big plan wasn’t to ruin the audition; it was to get Ms. Werner to have a meeting with Mr. Lillipool.”

Jessie crossed out Lisa’s name on the list.

Timmy burst into the room. “Sorry, I’m late,” he said. “But, you are not going to believe my news! My agent just called. I’m going to be the star of Lightning Man! It’s a new superhero movie. After this commercial, I’m going start filming!” Timmy was very happy.

“Wow, Timmy. That is amazing!” Benny said. “I can’t believe I’m talking to the star of a new movie!”

Timmy smiled. “I’m going to go tell Mr. Lillipool.” He hurried off.

“Timmy’s news means that he didn’t need to act with Ninja in this commercial to become a famous movie star,” Violet said. “He figured out how to get a movie job all on his own.”

Jessie crossed Timmy off the suspect list.

Henry looked over Jessie’s shoulder at her list. “There are only four suspects left,” he said. “Mr. Benjamin, Mr. Lillipool, Ms. Werner, and Dante. Let’s watch them carefully.”

Ms. Werner announced to everyone that they were ready to begin. “This will be the last part of the audition.” She carried two bowls of Wundermutt food. Lisa had a third bowl in her hands.

“Wow!” Benny said, looking at the bowls.

These weren’t the plastic bowls they’d used yesterday. These bowls were silver. Each had one of the contestant’s names written on it in gold, glittery letters.

“The dogs must each eat a bowl of our Wundermutt food,” Ms. Werner explained. “We can’t have a commercial starring a dog that doesn’t like our food.”

Jessie looked at Henry. “I’m worried,” she said.

“After the audition is over, the bowls are yours to take home,” Ms. Werner told the dog owners. “They are a gift from Mr. Lillipool.”

Ms. Werner put down Ninja’s and Watch’s bowls. Lisa set the food down for Buffalo³.

“Do you smell citronella again?” Jessie asked Violet.

Violet sniffed⁴ the air. “Yes. Someone around here sure does like that scent,” she said.

“Achoo.” Benny sneezed. “Achoo!”

Jessie gave Benny a tissue from her pocket.

“I wonder if there is a connection between the food and the perfume smell,” Henry said. “I remember smelling it yesterday around the food, too.”

“Maybe,” Jessie said. “But I don’t know what the connection could be.” She took her notebook out of her purse. She wrote on a blank page: citronella and dog food.

“It’s time for our doggie contestants⁵ to eat,” Ms. Werner said. “Buffalo will go first.”

“No! Ninja will go first,” Mr. Benjamin said strongly. He immediately removed Ninja’s leash⁶. Ninja trotted⁷ right past Dante and Buffalo. He went directly to his bowl of food.

Ninja got to his bowl, sniffed the food, then suddenly turned and walked away. “Must not be hungry,” Mr. Benjamin said with a snort. “Ninja eats when Ninja wants to eat.”

“You insisted on going first, so if Ninja doesn’t eat right now,” Ms. Werner said, “he won’t get any points for this part of the audition.”

“I can’t believe you haven’t hired Ninja for this commercial already,” Mr. Benjamin replied, his voice strained. “He did the best by far in all the other parts of the audition! So what if he won’t eat right this second. He’s the best dog actor there is. Ninja deserves this part.” Mr. Benjamin stomped⁸ his foot in anger.

He turned toward the Aldens with an accusing look on his face. “It’s those kids,” he said, pointing at the Aldens. “They must have done something to Ninja’s bowl of food.”

“We didn’t do anything,” Benny replied. “I would never do anything to Ninja. I love his show!”

Jessie put a hand on Benny’s shoulder to quiet him. “Mr. Benjamin,” she said calmly. “We wouldn’t do anything to ruin Ninja’s audition.”

“Sure you would. Your dog did poorly yesterday, so you need to ruin Ninja’s audition today,” Mr. Benjamin said. “Your dog can’t get over a log or under a bench without messing up. And he toppled the entire slide. Well, that’s just bad training.” Mr. Benjamin put his hands on his hips⁹. “Your dog didn’t deserve to win any points yesterday.”

Mr. Benjamin faced Dante. “And your dog! Your dog is an even worse actor. He couldn’t get through that audition with Timmy, could he? I’ll bet he kept running off the stage! Buffalo is a house pet, not an actor.”

“But Buffalo didn’t run off the stage,” Dante said.

“What is Mr. Benjamin talking about?” Benny asked his brother.

“I really don’t know,” Henry replied.

After insulting Watch and Buffalo, Mr. Benjamin turned back to Ms. Werner. “Bring me a fresh bowl of food and I’ll get Ninja to eat it,” Mr. Benjamin said.

“It’s this bowl or no bowl,” Ms. Werner said. “It shouldn’t matter what bowl the food’s in.”

Ms. Werner and Mr. Benjamin stared at each other. They were both angry.

“Wait! I just figured out who’s been ruining the audition for Watch!” Henry said.
 

1 audition   

n.(对志愿艺人等的)面试(指试读、试唱等)

参考例句：

• I'm going to the audition but I don't expect I'll get a part.我去试音，可并不指望会给我个角色演出。
• At first,they said he was too young,but later they called him for an audition.起初，他们说他太小，但后来他们叫他去试听。

2 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

3 buffalo   

n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛

参考例句：

• Asian buffalo isn't as wild as that of America's. 亚洲水牛比美洲水牛温顺些。
• The boots are made of buffalo hide. 这双靴子是由水牛皮制成的。

4 sniffed   

v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说

参考例句：

• When Jenney had stopped crying she sniffed and dried her eyes. 珍妮停止了哭泣，吸了吸鼻子，擦干了眼泪。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The dog sniffed suspiciously at the stranger. 狗疑惑地嗅着那个陌生人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 contestants   

n.竞争者，参赛者( contestant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The competition attracted over 500 contestants representing 8 different countries. 这次比赛吸引了代表8个不同国家的500多名参赛者。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency. 两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 leash   

n.牵狗的皮带，束缚；v.用皮带系住

参考例句：

• I reached for the leash,but the dog got in between.我伸手去拿系狗绳，但被狗挡住了路。
• The dog strains at the leash,eager to be off.狗拼命地扯拉皮带，想挣脱开去。

7 trotted   

小跑，急走( trot的过去分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走

参考例句：

• She trotted her pony around the field. 她骑着小马绕场慢跑。
• Anne trotted obediently beside her mother. 安妮听话地跟在妈妈身边走。

8 stomped   

v.跺脚，践踏，重踏( stomp的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She stomped angrily out of the office. 她怒气冲冲，重步走出办公室。
• She slammed the door and stomped (off) out of the house. 她砰的一声关上了门，暮暮地走出了屋了。 来自辞典例句

9 hips   

abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的

参考例句：

• She stood with her hands on her hips. 她双手叉腰站着。
• They wiggled their hips to the sound of pop music. 他们随着流行音乐的声音摇晃着臀部。 来自《简明英汉词典》