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儿童英语读物 The Mystery of the Mummy's Curse CHAPTER 8 A Museum Spy

时间:2017-10-19 07:59来源:互联网 提供网友:qing   字体: [ ]
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As the children watched, Lori Paulson walked slowly down the cafeteria line. As usual, she had her bright orange bag slung1 over her shoulder. She selected a large cookie wrapped in plastic wrap and a cup of coffee. After she’d paid, she walked over to a table near the window. But as she went to sit down, her bag slipped off her shoulder and fell to the floor. A large pile of papers spilled out. Some slid beneath the table. “Oh, no!” she cried. “I’m so clumsy! I can’t believe I just dropped all my stuff.”

“I do that, too, sometimes,” Violet said kindly2, picking up some of the papers.

“I’ve had a really long day,” Lori said.

“Really? Doing what?” Violet asked.

“Oh, I’ve just been here ...” Lori said, and her voice trailed off.

“You’ve been here all day?” Violet asked. “You must really like going to museums.”

“I do,” Lori said. She smiled at Violet and then picked up the rest of her papers.

“What exhibits did you look at?” Violet asked.

“Oh, er ... the dinosaurs,” Lori said.

“Is there a dinosaur3 exhibit here, too?” asked Violet.

“Oh—no,” Lori said. “I must have been thinking of the Greenfield Museum.”

Violet said, “That dinosaur exhibit is great, isn’t it?”

Then Lori sighed. “You know, actually I didn’t see it. I only went to the Greenfield Museum because, well, there was something I was looking for. Something I had to get.”

Violet was confused. “Oh,” she said. She wondered what Lori was talking about. Why did her story keep changing?

Violet reached under the table to get the last piece of paper. As she pulled it up, she saw it was a letter addressed to Lori with the words CARSON CITY MUSEUM at the top.

Lori glanced down at the letter Violet was holding. “Thank you for your help.” She took the letter quickly, as if she was afraid Violet might try to read it. She stuffed it into her bag.

Just then a woman in a dark blue suit came into the cafeteria. “Ms. Paulson?” she said as she came over. “I’ll be upstairs in my office in a minute if you want to talk.”

“All right, Ms. Delaney. I’ll be there,” said Lori.

“Thanks for the help!” Lori said to Violet as she picked up her coffee and her cookie. “I’ve got to run.”

Violet walked back to where her sister and brothers were.

“What was she doing here?” Henry asked, and then ate some of his ice cream.

“I don’t know,” said Violet, picking up her spoon. “She seemed really nervous. She said she liked the dinosaur exhibit.”

“Do they have one here, too?” Benny asked hopefully.

“That’s what I asked,” said Violet. “And she said she must have been thinking of the Greenfield Museum. But when I asked her how she liked that exhibit, she admitted she was really just at the Greenfield Museum because she was looking for something. Something she had to get,” Violet said.

“I wonder what she meant by that,” said Henry.

“Do you think she meant she had to get a sculpture of a baboon4? Or a blue hippo? Or a flute5?” Benny asked.

“Why would she steal those pieces?” Jessie asked.

“Maybe for the same reason most thieves steal things—for the money,” said Henry. “Pete said they were very valuable. Or maybe she’s a collector and she likes Egyptian art.”

“Listen, you guys,” said Violet. “It gets weirder6. One of the things that fell out of her bag was a letter from the Carson City Museum.”

“Why would someone here be writing to her?” Henry asked.

“I don’t know,” Violet said. “All I saw was that it was addressed to her. I wasn’t going to read it. But before I could even give it back to her, she grabbed it, as if she didn’t want me to see it.”

“How odd,” said Jessie.

“And then that woman came in and said that Lori should come upstairs to her office to talk,” said Violet.

“Who was she?” asked Henry.

“I don’t know,” said Violet. “Her name was Ms. Delaney.”

“We know she works for the museum if she has an office upstairs,” Jessie pointed7 out.

“That name sounds familiar,” said Benny.

“Let’s go ask at the front desk,” suggested Henry.

The children finished their ice cream and threw their garbage in the trash can. Then they headed out to the front desk.

“Excuse me?” Henry asked the man sitting there. “Is there a Ms. Delaney working here?”

“Ms. Delaney?” the man repeated. “Yes. She’s the director of the museum.”

“The director?” Henry said. “Oh, thank you.”

As the Aldens walked away, Benny turned to the others, an excited look on his face. “That’s why that name is familiar! She’s the one Dr. Snood said had called him because she was angry about the Egypt exhibit!”

“Why do you think Lori is talking to her?” Jessie wondered.

“Do you think Lori’s working for the Carson City Museum?” Henry asked.

“Doing what?” asked Violet.

“I’m not sure. Maybe trying to get information about the Egypt exhibit,” Henry suggested.

Benny’s eyes opened wide. “Like a spy?”

“Or maybe even more than that,” Jessie said. “Maybe Ms. Delaney is so angry at the Greenfield Museum that she’s hired Lori to ruin the exhibit.”

“So you think Lori stole those pieces for the Carson City Museum?” Violet asked.

“It could be,” said Jessie.

Sam was working in the prep room when the Aldens arrived the next morning. When they asked her about the missing pieces, she said only that she didn’t want to talk about them.

“She seems upset,” Violet whispered to Jessie. The children spent the morning helping8 Sam arrange the artifacts in the glass cases. Only Henry and Jessie were allowed to carry the pieces. Benny and Violet brought the description cards to place beside them. Sam carried the most delicate pieces herself.

The children also worked on their guide. They studied the books Pete had lent them. Sam let them use her computer and printer. Jessie wrote an introduction to the exhibit. Henry typed up a brief description of ancient Egypt. Violet, who was an excellent artist, traced a map. She also copied some hieroglyphs9 out of a book and made a chart showing what each word meant. And she drew a beautiful picture of a mummy’s death mask for the cover. Benny finished his maze10 and added a comic strip about mummy making.

When all the pieces of the guide were complete, they gave them to Sam. “Would you take a look at these, please?” Henry asked. “We want to make sure we didn’t make any mistakes.”

“I’d be happy to,” Sam said, sitting down at her desk to read the children’s work.

As Jessie stood next to Sam, she noticed a framed photograph on her desk. It showed four small cats lying on a bed. “Are those all your cats?” Jessie asked.

“Yes, those are my beauties,” Sam said. “I have a weakness for cats.”

A few minutes later, Sam had read through everything. “This looks great! You can make copies on the machine outside Pete’s office,” she suggested as she headed out to get some lunch. “Don’t forget to lock the door when you go.”

The children took all the pages and locked the door to the prep room behind them. As Sam had told them, they went downstairs to the copy machine by Pete’s office. They made a stack of copies and stapled11 the pages together into little booklets. On top of each stack they put a copy of Violet’s death mask cover.

The children were quite pleased with their work. They each picked up a pile of guides and headed toward the stairs.

But they stopped abruptly12 when they saw who was sitting a little way down the hall, outside Dr. Snood’s office.

It was Lori Paulson.

“Not again!” Henry said.

Lori didn’t notice them because she was studying a small, blue notebook she held in her lap.

“Hey!” Jessie cried. “That’s my notebook!”

Lori looked up then. She stood up and started walking toward the Aldens. “Is this yours?” she asked, holding the notebook out in front of her.

“Yes,” said Jessie. “It is.”

“I saw your name on the inside cover,” Lori said. “How convenient that you guys happened to be right here.”

“Yes, how convenient,” said Jessie suspiciously as Lori placed the notebook on top of the pile of guides she was holding. “Where did you find it?”

“It was right there on that bench,” Lori said.

Jessie nodded slowly. She didn’t remember carrying the notebook down here. How had it ended up there?

Benny groaned13. His arms were getting tired from holding the stack of guides. “Can we get going before I drop these?”

“Sure,” Jessie said. “See you later, Lori.”

The Aldens walked back up to the exhibit hall and put the guides down on one of the glass cases. Sam was still gone.

“How did your notebook end up down on that bench?” Violet asked.

“That’s just what I was wondering,” said Jessie. “I don’t remember bringing it down there.”

“Maybe Lori didn’t really find it there,” Henry said.

“What do you mean?” Benny asked.

“Maybe she took the notebook,” said Henry.

“I don’t understand,” said Benny. “Why would she take it?”

“She wanted to know all about the exhibit, right?” said Henry. “What better way to find out than by looking in Jessie’s notebook, which listed everything?”

While he was talking, Jessie was slowly turning the pages of her notebook. The look on her face was growing more and more concerned.

“What is it, Jessie?” Violet asked.

“I think somebody’s changed what I wrote!” said Jessie. She laid the book down on the display case where they could all see. She pointed to one of the items on the list. It had been crossed off so heavily it was hard to see what was written beneath. “See here? I don’t remember crossing anything off.” She flipped14 to another page. “And here, where it says ‘gold cat statue’? I had written ‘two gold cat statues.’ Someone crossed out the two and the s at the end.”

“But why?” Henry wondered.

“I have a feeling I know,” Jessie said. But before she explained, she started walking around the room, looking at the display cases. At last, she stopped in front of one of the cases. “There’s one of the gold cat statues,” she said. “But where’s the other one?”

The children looked all around, but the other cat wasn’t there.

“So you think Lori changed what was in here so you wouldn’t remember there had been two cats?” Violet asked.

“Yes,” said Jessie.

“Or maybe it wasn’t Lori,” said Henry. “Remember, Dr. Snood was holding that gold cat and he had that strange smile on his face? Maybe Lori wasn’t lying about finding the notebook. Maybe it really was outside Dr. Snood’s office. Maybe he’s the one who stole the pieces and changed what was written in here.”

“Why would he steal things from his own museum?” Benny asked.

“I don’t know,” said Henry. “But he’s always acting15 so strange—holding the pieces as if they belonged to him, and yelling at us to make sure we don’t touch them.”

“He does collect Egyptian artifacts. Remember, they’re all over his office,” Jessie said. “Maybe he has even more at home—ones he’s stolen.”

“Or maybe he’s the one trying to ruin the exhibit!” Henry said all of a sudden. “He’s been against this exhibit from the start. Maybe he wants to prove he’s right by making sure the exhibit fails.”

“You know there’s one person we haven’t talked about,” said Violet.

“Who’s that?” Jessie asked.

“Sam,” Violet said. “It would be really easy for her to steal these things.”

“But why would she want to ruin her own exhibit?” asked Henry. “That would only make her look bad.”

“That’s true,” said Violet.

A few minutes later, Pete came upstairs. “The exhibit looks great,” he said, strolling from one display case to the next. “I can’t believe we got it ready in time for tomorrow’s opening!” He grinned at the Aldens. “Thanks to you guys.”

“We enjoyed helping,” Jessie said.

“Yes. We’re having a little party tomorrow night,” Pete explained. “We’ve invited the museum members and also the press. And of course you all must come.”

“We’ll be there!” Henry said.

“I have one more job for you to do,” Pete said. “Would you call the local newspapers and remind them to come to the opening?”

“Why do you invite them?” Benny asked.

“They’ll write articles about the exhibit in their newspapers,” Pete explained. “When people read them, they’ll want to come see for themselves. That’s how we’ll make sure we get lots of visitors for the exhibit.”

“We’d be happy to call,” said Henry.

“Great,” Pete said. “The list of names and numbers is in my office. You can sit there and use my phone while I get some lunch.”

“Okay,” said Benny. “As long as you bring some back for us!”


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 slung slung     
抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 ); 吊挂; 遣送; 押往
参考例句:
  • He slung the bag over his shoulder. 他把包一甩,挎在肩上。
  • He stood up and slung his gun over his shoulder. 他站起来把枪往肩上一背。
2 kindly tpUzhQ     
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地
参考例句:
  • Her neighbours spoke of her as kindly and hospitable.她的邻居都说她和蔼可亲、热情好客。
  • A shadow passed over the kindly face of the old woman.一道阴影掠过老太太慈祥的面孔。
3 dinosaur xuSxp     
n.恐龙
参考例句:
  • Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击?
  • He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。
4 baboon NuNzc     
n.狒狒
参考例句:
  • A baboon is a large monkey that lives in Africa.狒狒是一种生活在非洲的大猴子。
  • As long as the baboon holds on to what it wants,it's trapped.只要狒狒紧抓住想要的东西不放手,它就会被牢牢困住。
5 flute hj9xH     
n.长笛;v.吹笛
参考例句:
  • He took out his flute, and blew at it.他拿出笛子吹了起来。
  • There is an extensive repertoire of music written for the flute.有很多供长笛演奏的曲目。
6 weirder cd9463d25463f72eab49f2343155512f     
怪诞的( weird的比较级 ); 神秘而可怕的; 超然的; 古怪的
参考例句:
  • Actually, things got a little weirder when the tow truck driver showed up. 事实上,在拖吊车司机出现后,事情的发展更加怪异。
7 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。
8 helping 2rGzDc     
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
参考例句:
  • The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
  • By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
9 hieroglyphs d786aaeff706af6b7c986fbf102e0c8a     
n.象形字(如古埃及等所用的)( hieroglyph的名词复数 );秘密的或另有含意的书写符号
参考例句:
  • Hieroglyphs are carved into the walls of the temple. 寺庙的墙壁上刻着象形文字。 来自辞典例句
  • This paper discusses the fundamental distinctions between the hieroglyphs andforerunner of writing. 英汉象形文字的比较是建立在象形文字具体内涵的基础上。 来自互联网
10 maze F76ze     
n.迷宫,八阵图,混乱,迷惑
参考例句:
  • He found his way through the complex maze of corridors.他穿过了迷宮一样的走廊。
  • She was lost in the maze for several hours.一连几小时,她的头脑处于一片糊涂状态。
11 stapled 214b16946d835ee84f23c29ab8689fa8     
v.用钉书钉钉住( staple的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • The letter was stapled to the other documents in the file. 这封信与案卷里的其他文件钉在一起。 来自辞典例句
  • He said with smooth bluntness and shoved a stack of stapled sheets across his desk. 他以一种圆滑、率直的口气说着,并把一叠订好了的稿纸从他办公桌那边递过来。 来自辞典例句
12 abruptly iINyJ     
adv.突然地,出其不意地
参考例句:
  • He gestured abruptly for Virginia to get in the car.他粗鲁地示意弗吉尼亚上车。
  • I was abruptly notified that a half-hour speech was expected of me.我突然被通知要讲半个小时的话。
13 groaned 1a076da0ddbd778a674301b2b29dff71     
v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 );发牢骚;抱怨;受苦
参考例句:
  • He groaned in anguish. 他痛苦地呻吟。
  • The cart groaned under the weight of the piano. 大车在钢琴的重压下嘎吱作响。 来自《简明英汉词典》
14 flipped 5bef9da31993fe26a832c7d4b9630147     
轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 ); 按(开关); 快速翻转; 急挥
参考例句:
  • The plane flipped and crashed. 飞机猛地翻转,撞毁了。
  • The carter flipped at the horse with his whip. 赶大车的人扬鞭朝着马轻轻地抽打。
15 acting czRzoc     
n.演戏,行为,假装;adj.代理的,临时的,演出用的
参考例句:
  • Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她,她只是假装的。
  • During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代,她的表演生涯黯然失色。
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