英语博客(A cup of English):049 Do not enter!

　　Beginners.
The other day I was walking by my children's bedrooms, when I saw a sign on one of the doors. It said, "Domini and Robert, DO NOT ENTER!" One of my two oldest boys had become impatient with sibling¹ intrusions. Sometimes they walk into their bedrooms and find a terrible mess. Colouring* pens often will have their tops missing, so they will be dry. Lego creations are in pieces on the floor, and, some things are just missing. Hudson and Cass, the oldest boys, get furious. They storm into their siblings² rooms and create another kind of trouble. I, of course, being their mother, have to get involved to sort out the fights and the conflict. Oh, for peace and quiet!. Well, now my six year old is learning how to write, so he also puts signs on his door. We have three doors with 'Do not enter' signs. My little girl doesn't know how to write, so, I suppose, she still feels free to be the intruder and mess maker³. One day, there was a big commotion⁴ upstairs, with lots of screaming and running. I ran up to see what was going on. It turns out that Domini had stolen one of my son's favourite*toys that he had had since a baby. He was chasing her to get it back. It was like an episode on Tom and Jerry, the cat and the mouse. I think it is about time that I left some notes myself.
Grammar notes.
*Colour/ colouring and favourite are English spellings. U.S spellings miss out the 'u'.
Related vocabulary: the other day, sign, door handle, lock, key, mess, peace and quiet, intruder/ intrusion, impatient, conflict.
Advanced.
"This place feels like a prison," complained my husband one day. He had caught his foot on a metal gate that I had put up between the kitchen and the dining room. The gate is for the dog, to keep her in or out. It is a necessary evil that is supposed to make life easier for everybody. The trouble is, the gate is small, and my husband is large. We have a similar situation upstairs. My two older boys have, according to them, precious possessions, intricate legos that took a long time to build, and other breakable objects. So, because there had been so many incidents of little siblings sneaking⁶ in their rooms and wrecking⁸ the place, we put locks on the doors. Everything worked for a while. Unfortunately, it didn't last long. Both boys left the keys to unlock their doors locked inside the rooms, along with the duplicate keys. Oh dear. It was time to get the tools out and huff and puff⁹, and bash and bang, until we managed to take off the door handles completely. Well, they haven't had locks for a while now, and wreckages are taking place in the bedrooms. Today a little friend of my daughter came to play. He sneaked¹⁰ into Hudson's room and poured his lizzard's food all over the carpet. A few people were not happy about that. Needless to say, I have locks on my list of things to buy.
Grammar notes.
Verbs: to complain, to catch (catch, caught, caught), to leave (leave, left, left), to manage, to sneak⁵.
Exs: They complained about the poor service.
He caught my eye, and then asked me to dance.
I caught my sweater on a rusty¹¹ nail.
I left my keys in the car.
He managed to lift the heaviest weight.
The burgler sneaked into the empty house to steal the silver.
Useful expressions: the trouble is, to have a situation, according to..., to wreck⁷ the place, needless to say.

1 sibling   

n.同胞手足(指兄、弟、姐或妹)

参考例句：

• Many of us hate living in the shadows of a more successful sibling.我们很多人都讨厌活在更为成功的手足的阴影下。
• Sibling ravalry has been common in this family.这个家里，兄弟姊妹之间的矛盾很平常。

2 siblings   

n.兄弟，姐妹( sibling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A triplet sleeps amongst its two siblings. 一个三胞胎睡在其两个同胞之间。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She has no way of tracking the donor or her half-siblings down. 她没办法找到那个捐精者或她的兄弟姐妹。 来自时文部分

3 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

4 commotion   

n.骚动，动乱

参考例句：

• They made a commotion by yelling at each other in the theatre.他们在剧院里相互争吵，引起了一阵骚乱。
• Suddenly the whole street was in commotion.突然间，整条街道变得一片混乱。

5 sneak   

vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行

参考例句：

• He raised his spear and sneak forward.他提起长矛悄悄地前进。
• I saw him sneak away from us.我看见他悄悄地从我们身边走开。

6 sneaking   

a.秘密的，不公开的

参考例句：

• She had always had a sneaking affection for him. 以前她一直暗暗倾心于他。
• She ducked the interviewers by sneaking out the back door. 她从后门偷偷溜走，躲开采访者。

7 wreck   

n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难

参考例句：

• Weather may have been a factor in the wreck.天气可能是造成这次失事的原因之一。
• No one can wreck the friendship between us.没有人能够破坏我们之间的友谊。

8 wrecking   

破坏

参考例句：

• He teed off on his son for wrecking the car. 他严厉训斥他儿子毁坏了汽车。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Instead of wrecking the valley, the waters are put to use making electricity. 现在河水不但不在流域内肆疟，反而被人们用来生产电力。 来自辞典例句

9 puff   

n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气

参考例句：

• He took a puff at his cigarette.他吸了一口香烟。
• They tried their best to puff the book they published.他们尽力吹捧他们出版的书。

10 sneaked   

v.潜行( sneak的过去式和过去分词 )；偷偷溜走；（儿童向成人）打小报告；告状

参考例句：

• I sneaked up the stairs. 我蹑手蹑脚地上了楼。
• She sneaked a surreptitious glance at her watch. 她偷偷看了一眼手表。

11 rusty   

adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的

参考例句：

• The lock on the door is rusty and won't open.门上的锁锈住了。
• I haven't practiced my French for months and it's getting rusty.几个月不用，我的法语又荒疏了。