365个英语简短小故事-138. Body in a Barrel (1)

George Gobel thinks that he might have helped dump his own sister’s body. George told police that recently his brother-in-law Russell had asked him to help move a big metal barrel out of his house. “I’ll buy you a case of Bud,” Russell promised. The barrel was in the master bedroom. George remembers that when he was looking at the barrel, he happened to ask Russell, “Where’s Staci?” Russell told him that she was out shopping.

Oddly, the barrel was warm to the touch. “What’s in here?” George asked. Russell said it was just some old rags and engine parts. He wanted to get rid of them because he had heard that spontaneous combustion¹ could occur. George said that he thought it might be occurring at that very moment.

The barrel was very heavy. He asked Russell if the whole engine was inside the barrel. Russell just grunted². Once they got it outside, they rolled it to the back of Russell’s pickup³ truck. George helped Russell position a metal motorcycle ramp⁴ behind the truck, and they pushed the barrel slowly up into the bed of the pickup. When they finished, George told Russell that this was a “two case” move, meaning two cases of Budweiser. Russell told him no problem.

 

1 combustion   

n.燃烧；氧化；骚动

参考例句：

• We might be tempted to think of combustion.我们也许会联想到氧化。
• The smoke formed by their combustion is negligible.由它燃烧所生成的烟是可忽略的。

2 grunted   

（猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说

参考例句：

• She just grunted, not deigning to look up from the page. 她只咕哝了一声，继续看书，不屑抬起头来看一眼。
• She grunted some incomprehensible reply. 她咕噜着回答了些令人费解的话。

3 pickup   

n.拾起，获得

参考例句：

• I would love to trade this car for a pickup truck.我愿意用这辆汽车换一辆小型轻便卡车。||The luck guy is a choice pickup for the girls.那位幸运的男孩是女孩子们想勾搭上的人。

4 ramp   

n.暴怒，斜坡，坡道；vi.作恐吓姿势，暴怒，加速；vt.加速

参考例句：

• That driver drove the car up the ramp.那司机将车开上了斜坡。
• The factory don't have that capacity to ramp up.这家工厂没有能力加速生产。