《神奇树屋》 第二十三册 Twister on Tuesday 03 One Room Schoolhouse

（单词翻译）

　　"Let's check it out," said Annie.

She and Jack¹ walked up the little hill. At the top,they saw that the rusty² pipe was rising out of awooden roof.

They walked around to the other side of the hill.

Beneath the wooden roof was a door. The doorseemed to open into the hill itself.

"What is this?" said Annie.

"Let's find out," said Jack.

He studied their research book until he found ablack-and-white photograph. The photograph showedthe same hill with the door.

Jack read aloud:

Since the prairie did not have many trees, woodwas hard to find. So pioneers often made their housesout of sod bricks³, which were blocks of earth cut outof the prairie. Sometimes a sod house was dug out ofthe side of a hill. It was called a "dugout."Jack pulled out his notebook. He wrote:

Sod bricks = blocks of earthDugout= sod house carved out of hillsideThen Jack read more to Annie:

Tornados⁴, or twisters, are common on the prairie, somany dugouts had storm cellars⁶. A storm cellar⁵ waslike a rough basement below the ground.

During a twister, a storm cellar is the safest place tobe.

"Wow, maybe we'll see a twister," said Annie.

"I hope not," said Jack. Then he read on:

A pioneer family built this dugout for a home.

When they moved, the dugout became a schoolhouse.

The schoolhouse had only one room. It also had astorm cellar beneath it.

Jack quickly wrote:

Some dugouts have storm cellars"Hey! This is the place!" said Annie. Jack looked upfrom his writing.

"What place?" he asked.

"Where's the best place to find our special writing-somethingto learn?" asked Annie. Jack smiled.

"A school," he said.

Annie ran to the wooden door and knocked loudly.

A moment later, the door creaked open. A girlpeeked out. Her hair was in a tight bun, as if she werea grownup. But she didn't look more than sixteen orseventeen years old.

"Hi, I'm Annie," said Annie. "This is my brother,Jack."The girl opened the door wider.

"Hello, Jack and Annie," she said. "I'm your teacher,Miss Neely.""You're the teacher?" said Jack. Miss Neely seemedway too young to be a teacher.

"Yes!" she said, smiling. "Come in. You're late.