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儿童英语读物 The Growling Bear Mystery CHAPTER 10 A Secret in the Snow

时间:2017-09-05 08:37来源:互联网 提供网友:qing   字体: [ ]
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At six A.M. the next morning, it was early, but it wasn’t bright the way Oz had expected. Jessie woke up first, as she often did. The room looked strange—dim and more quiet than usual.

She tiptoed to the window. “Snow!” she whispered, forgetting that everyone was asleep.

The word snow was magic to Benny. Suddenly he was as wide awake as if it were the middle of the day.

“Snow?” he said.

By this time, the other children were awake, too. They joined Jessie by the window. Sure enough, flakes1 of snow were falling over everything.

“It can’t be snowing,” Violet said. “It’s July.”

“But it is snowing,” Jessie said, smiling at the thought of summer snow. “The guidebook says it can snow almost any time of the year in Yellowstone.”

“That means snowflakes for breakfast,” Benny said. “We just have to stick our tongues out. Can we go outside before it melts? I never saw snow in the summer.”

“I’m already getting my socks on,” Jessie said.

In no time flat, all four Aldens were outside the Old Faithful Inn. They stuck their tongues out to catch the snowflakes. And the children drew their initials in the few inches of snow on the ground.

“Now I need hot chocolate,” Benny declared after a while. “And hot waffles, too. Let’s go inside for breakfast.”

“Hey, Aldens,” the children heard when they entered the lobby. “I hope you folks will be ready for our hike in half an hour.”

The children turned around. Across the lobby stood Mr. Alden and Oz Elkhorn, bundled head to toe in parkas, hats, and mittens2. Next to them were several sets of snowshoes.

“Are those for our hike?” Benny asked.

“They sure are,” Oz said. “This is going to be a real treat. A snow hike in July. I arranged it with the weatherman, just for the Alden family,” he said, winking3 at Mr. Alden. “I’m told there’s already a foot of snow on the upper trails.”

Snowplows made their way up and down the mountains just as if it were the middle of winter.

“See,” Oz told the children from the driver’s seat of his truck, “in Yellowstone we’re always ready for any kind of weather. We keep our snow tires on all year long.”

Awhile later, Oz pulled into the Continental4 Divide lookout5 area. “Hmmm. Some hikers are already here,” he said when he noticed a snow-covered car and truck parked at the end of the lot. “Judging by all the snow on them, it looks as if they’ve been here awhile.”

Indeed, Oz and the Aldens spotted6 snowshoe prints in the trails as well. Soon they, too, were deep in the woods.

“Snow hiking goes fast. No bumps,” Benny said. “It’s easier to see everything better. Like bears and stuff,” he added.

“Somebody must have been pretty determined7 to get out here this early,” Oz said later. “I thought we’d have caught up with these hikers by now. Whoever’s out here must be moving like antelopes8 through these trails. These tracks seem to be heading in the same direction as we want to go.”

The six hikers set off on the trail again. After a while, the snow tapered9 off. In the distance, everyone could see the sun begin to peek10 out between the clouds.

When the sky finally cleared, Oz pointed11 down to the valley. “Here, Benny. Take a look in my binoculars12. They’re focused already. Just point them down that way.”

Benny did as he was told. “Hey! I can see all the way down to the Old Faithful Inn!”

Leading the hikers, Oz called out the names of the different types of trees. He saw small animals way before the children did, and he named every one.

“Did you see that muskrat13?” he asked Jessie and Benny when a creature scurried14 by.

“It just went behind that big lump of snow over there,” Benny said. “Hey! Isn’t a big lump what we’re looking for?”

Off in the distance, everyone could see what Benny was talking about. Some pine trees had toppled over something—a rock or more fallen trees. It was hard to tell.

“Good eyes, Benny,” Jessie said. “And look at the tracks leading over there, too.”

Oz put his fingers to his lips. Everyone stood as still as snow sculptures. At first all they heard was the wind. But the longer they stood, the more they could make out voices in the distance.

“It sounds like a bunch of people talking in there,” Benny whispered.

“Let’s check it out,” Oz said.

Everyone swooshed over the snow. The voices grew louder. A few feet from the mound15 of fallen trees, Oz and the Aldens not only heard loud voices, they heard words.

“Please show us that bag,” a woman’s voice pleaded.

Another voice interrupted. “My sister and I think that bag might have belonged to our great-great-great-grandfather. You can check if you don’t believe me. The Tale of the Lost Cabin Miners tells all about him. His name was Samuel Jackson Crowe.”

The woman spoke16 up next. “Sam’s right. We have some old family journals that mention this cabin and a leather pouch17 the miners left behind. One of those miners was our ancestor.”

There was no doubt about the next voice. “Nonsense!” Mr. Crabtree said. “Anybody could read that book and say they were related to gold miners. In fact, everybody in Yellowstone has probably read that book. What’s to keep me from saying my ancestors were those miners? Anyway, I’m the one who found the leather pouch, not the two of you.”

“It’s time to go in there,” Oz told the Aldens. “Nobody’d even be here if it weren’t for my granddad’s map!”

Oz and the Aldens began to pull away a pile of pine branches covering the hump.

“The cabin!” Benny yelled when he uncovered a doorway18.

“Who’s there?” Mr. Crabtree called out. “Is there a tour bus coming through here all of a sudden?”

Even Oz had to laugh. “Of course not, Lester. It’s me and the Aldens—hardly a tour bus.”

The hut was so small that Oz and the Aldens had to stand outside to talk to everyone inside: Ranger19 Crowe, Sam Jackson, and Lester Crabtree.

Oz smiled at the two young people. “I hope Lester’s not giving you a hard time. I won’t, either. But can you tell us all what’s going on?”

Before anyone else answered, Lester Crabtree interrupted. “What’s going on? I’ll tell you what’s going on. I got here practically in the middle of the night. Then, not long after, these two arrive, and now you six people. It’s too close for comfort in here.”

Mr. Alden spoke up now. “Well, what’s everyone arguing about? After all, the lost cabin isn’t lost anymore.”

Everyone stepped out of the cabin to settle matters.

Lester Crabtree was holding on to a leather pouch, about the size of a school-bag. Suddenly Sam made a grab for it, and five or six yellowish rocks rolled onto the snow.

Mr. Crabtree bent20 down. “These aren’t gold!” he said in a disgusted voice. “They’re just a bunch of plain old Yellowstone rocks.”

Oz Elkhorn couldn’t help smiling. “That’s why Yellowstone is called ‘Yellowstone,’ Lester. I hope none of you folks was counting on getting rich from what was in this bag. Looks as if those lost miners didn’t leave much behind but this old hut.”

Sam Jackson picked up the leather pouch. He looked inside. “Hey, there are some old papers in here, too. Look, Emily,” he said to Ranger Crowe.

Everyone crowded around to see what Sam Jackson had found.

Sam began reading:

“The unforgiving Yellowstone winter is over at last. The deep snows are melting. We begin the next leg of our trip back to Missouri today, six months after our terrible journey through these mysterious mountains. We leave behind our dreams and return to our old farmland. Samuel Jackson Crowe, 1850.”

“Samuel Jackson Crowe?” Jessie asked Sam. “Is that your full name?”

Sam clutched the old, yellowed paper in his hand. “That is my name. This is my sister, Emily Jackson Crowe. I just used my middle name Jackson out here. Emily and I were afraid that if everyone realized we were a brother and sister with the last name Crowe, they would figure out that we were searching for the lost cabin. So we didn’t tell anyone we were related.”

Ranger Crowe looked upset when she saw all the puzzled faces. “I started working in Yellowstone last year. I knew my ancestor had been a gold miner, but not a successful one. He wound up a poor farmer in Missouri. But then I started hearing stories about some miners leaving gold behind in this old cabin. So I got Sam to come out here, too, so we could look for the cabin together. Now it looks as if our relative just left this bag of rocks.”

Oz took off his hat and unzipped his jacket. “It looks as if your relative played a funny joke on you folks. Now I have to ask you two, did you steal my map? That didn’t belong to you or your relatives. It belonged to my relative—Granddad, then my cousin, then me. Nobody else had any business with that map.”

Sam looked down at his snowshoes. “I took the map when I realized you’d left it in the copier. I know I shouldn’t have. As soon as I discovered you had a mailbox at the inn, I returned it there when no one was looking.”

Ranger Crowe didn’t look any happier than her brother. “Sam was the one I let through the gates when you arrived in Yellowstone,” she explained. “I was allowed to let him go through, of course, since he works in the park.”

Jessie needed to know something. “Did you put the sign up saying the trail was closed?”

Ranger Crowe explained. “This summer, I signed up for all the trail-clearing duty. I worked so hard at it, I was put in charge. Whenever I was out working on the trails, I put up the sign. I didn’t want someone else to find the cabin when we were so close. And I changed the markers, too. There are plenty of other hiking trails around here, anyway.”

Benny listened to all this, but he needed to know more. “What about our map? Oz made a copy, just for us. Henry found it in the Dumpster.”

Sam looked Benny straight in the eye. “I guess it could have fallen off of the dresser and into the trash. But I didn’t notice it when I emptied the trash can into the Dumpster. I just did my job.”

“Same here,” Mr. Crabtree said, “though I wouldn’t have minded using a map instead of my brains to find this cabin. I’ve been looking for this place every summer since I started coming out here with Eleanor.”

The children looked at each other, full of questions.

“But why did you tell Mrs. Crabtree you weren’t hiking yesterday? She said you told her you were in your trailer all day. But we saw you through our binoculars, right before our bear scare.”

Mr. Crabtree looked more upset than Sam and Emily Crowe put together. “Well, I might as well tell the rest of the story,” he went on. “Eleanor doesn’t care much for hiking, so I go by myself. I know I shouldn’t go too far in the woods alone. But once I had a bee in my bonnet21 about the lost cabin, I kept going farther and farther on the trails. I just didn’t want to tell Eleanor about hiking alone, you understand?”

Everyone was smiling now, except Mr. Crabtree.

“There, there, Lester,” Oz said. “If you don’t want Eleanor to know about this, we don’t have to mention it. After all, you found the cabin, and you’re safe and sound. No harm done.”

Mr. Crabtree pulled down the brim of his orange hat. Without looking up, he continued talking. “Well, there is some harm done to these four children,” he said, turning to the Aldens. “And it has to do with bears.”

“You saw a bear!” Benny cried.

Mr. Crabtree loosened the straps22 of his backpack and dropped it to the ground. He reached inside. Everyone heard a button click on. “Grrr,” they heard next. “Grrr.” The growls23 were followed by some thuds and the sounds of snapping branches.

Everyone but Mr. Crabtree felt prickles of fear on the backs of their necks.

“This tape recorder is the bear you heard,” Mr. Crabtree said. He held up a portable tape recorder and showed it to everyone. Mr. Crabtree pressed another button. “There. I’m erasing24 this. I made this bear tape to keep hikers away from here, especially after I saw the four of you come down from the trails the other afternoon when I was up on the porch of the inn. I knew I was getting closer to the cabin, and I just wanted to find it once and for all. I owe everyone an apology.”

“But there was a bear,” Benny insisted. “I know there was.”

Everyone looked at each other and smiled. There was no way of checking on Benny’s bear.

Benny jiggled his bear bells. “See these? They scared away our bear, and it never came back.”

“Grrr,” Jessie said, putting her arms around Benny. “Have a bear hug.”


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 flakes d80cf306deb4a89b84c9efdce8809c78     
小薄片( flake的名词复数 ); (尤指)碎片; 雪花; 古怪的人
参考例句:
  • It's snowing in great flakes. 天下着鹅毛大雪。
  • It is snowing in great flakes. 正值大雪纷飞。
2 mittens 258752c6b0652a69c52ceed3c65dbf00     
不分指手套
参考例句:
  • Cotton mittens will prevent the baby from scratching his own face. 棉的连指手套使婴儿不会抓伤自己的脸。
  • I'd fisted my hands inside their mittens to keep the fingers warm. 我在手套中握拳头来保暖手指。
3 winking b599b2f7a74d5974507152324c7b8979     
n.瞬眼,目语v.使眼色( wink的现在分词 );递眼色(表示友好或高兴等);(指光)闪烁;闪亮
参考例句:
  • Anyone can do it; it's as easy as winking. 这谁都办得到,简直易如反掌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • The stars were winking in the clear sky. 星星在明亮的天空中闪烁。 来自《简明英汉词典》
4 continental Zazyk     
adj.大陆的,大陆性的,欧洲大陆的
参考例句:
  • A continental climate is different from an insular one.大陆性气候不同于岛屿气候。
  • The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old.大陆地壳最古老的部分有40亿年历史。
5 lookout w0sxT     
n.注意,前途,瞭望台
参考例句:
  • You can see everything around from the lookout.从了望台上你可以看清周围的一切。
  • It's a bad lookout for the company if interest rates don't come down.如果利率降不下来,公司的前景可就不妙了。
6 spotted 7FEyj     
adj.有斑点的,斑纹的,弄污了的
参考例句:
  • The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
  • Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。
7 determined duszmP     
adj.坚定的;有决心的
参考例句:
  • I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
  • He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。
8 antelopes ca529013a9640792629d32a14a98d705     
羚羊( antelope的名词复数 ); 羚羊皮革
参考例句:
  • One jump, and you're out, and we'll run for it like antelopes.' 你只要一跳就出来了,我们可以像羚羊那样飞快地逃掉。”
  • Most antelopes can withhold their young for weeks, even months. 绝大部分羚羊能把分娩期推迟几个星期,甚至几个月。
9 tapered 4c6737890eeff46eb8dd48dc0b94b563     
adj. 锥形的,尖削的,楔形的,渐缩的,斜的 动词taper的过去式和过去分词
参考例句:
  • The tail tapered to a rounded tip. 尾部越来越细,最后成了个圆尖。
  • The organization tapered off in about half a year. 那个组织大约半年内就逐渐消失了。
10 peek ULZxW     
vi.偷看,窥视;n.偷偷的一看,一瞥
参考例句:
  • Larry takes a peek out of the window.赖瑞往窗外偷看了一下。
  • Cover your eyes and don't peek.捂上眼睛,别偷看。
11 pointed Il8zB4     
adj.尖的,直截了当的
参考例句:
  • He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
  • She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。
12 binoculars IybzWh     
n.双筒望远镜
参考例句:
  • He watched the play through his binoculars.他用双筒望远镜看戏。
  • If I had binoculars,I could see that comet clearly.如果我有望远镜,我就可以清楚地看见那颗彗星。
13 muskrat G6CzQ     
n.麝香鼠
参考例句:
  • Muskrat fur almost equals beaver fur in quality.麝鼠皮在质量上几乎和海獭皮不相上下。
  • I saw a muskrat come out of a hole in the ice.我看到一只麝鼠从冰里面钻出来。
14 scurried 5ca775f6c27dc6bd8e1b3af90f3dea00     
v.急匆匆地走( scurry的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • She said goodbye and scurried back to work. 她说声再见,然后扭头跑回去干活了。
  • It began to rain and we scurried for shelter. 下起雨来,我们急忙找地方躲避。 来自《简明英汉词典》
15 mound unCzhy     
n.土墩,堤,小山;v.筑堤,用土堆防卫
参考例句:
  • The explorers climbed a mound to survey the land around them.勘探者爬上土丘去勘测周围的土地。
  • The mound can be used as our screen.这个土丘可做我们的掩蔽物。
16 spoke XryyC     
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。
17 pouch Oi1y1     
n.小袋,小包,囊状袋;vt.装...入袋中,用袋运输;vi.用袋送信件
参考例句:
  • He was going to make a tobacco pouch out of them. 他要用它们缝制一个烟草袋。
  • The old man is always carrying a tobacco pouch with him.这老汉总是随身带着烟袋。
18 doorway 2s0xK     
n.门口,(喻)入门;门路,途径
参考例句:
  • They huddled in the shop doorway to shelter from the rain.他们挤在商店门口躲雨。
  • Mary suddenly appeared in the doorway.玛丽突然出现在门口。
19 ranger RTvxb     
n.国家公园管理员,护林员;骑兵巡逻队员
参考例句:
  • He was the head ranger of the national park.他曾是国家公园的首席看守员。
  • He loved working as a ranger.他喜欢做护林人。
20 bent QQ8yD     
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。
21 bonnet AtSzQ     
n.无边女帽;童帽
参考例句:
  • The baby's bonnet keeps the sun out of her eyes.婴孩的帽子遮住阳光,使之不刺眼。
  • She wore a faded black bonnet garnished with faded artificial flowers.她戴着一顶褪了色的黑色无边帽,帽上缀着褪了色的假花。
22 straps 1412cf4c15adaea5261be8ae3e7edf8e     
n.带子( strap的名词复数 );挎带;肩带;背带v.用皮带捆扎( strap的第三人称单数 );用皮带抽打;包扎;给…打绷带
参考例句:
  • the shoulder straps of her dress 她连衣裙上的肩带
  • The straps can be adjusted to suit the wearer. 这些背带可进行调整以适合使用者。
23 growls 6ffc5e073aa0722568674220be53a9ea     
v.(动物)发狺狺声, (雷)作隆隆声( growl的第三人称单数 );低声咆哮着说
参考例句:
  • The dog growls at me. 狗向我狂吠。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
  • The loudest growls have echoed around emerging markets and commodities. 熊嚎之声响彻新兴的市场与商品。 来自互联网
24 erasing 363d15bcbcde17f34d1f11e0acce66fc     
v.擦掉( erase的现在分词 );抹去;清除
参考例句:
  • He was like a sponge, erasing the past, soaking up the future. 他象一块海绵,挤出过去,吸进未来。 来自辞典例句
  • Suddenly, fear overtook longing, erasing memories. 突然,恐惧淹没了渴望,泯灭了回忆。 来自辞典例句
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