英语读物《神奇树屋》 第十三册 Vacation Under the Volcano 7 The Sky is Falling

　　The next thing Jack¹ knew, he was lying on thestone patio². The patio stones were trembling. Arumbling sound came from the ground.

12Jack raised his head. Annie was on the ground, too.

"You okay?" said Annie.

Jack nodded.

Everything was shaking and crashing down aroundthem--pots, plants, the mermaid³ fountain. Water fromthe goldfish pond sloshed onto the patio and Jack andAnnie.

They both jumped up just as roof tiles began fallinginto the garden.

"We better get inside!" said Jack.

He grabbed his leather bag. Then he and Anniestumbled into the scroll⁴ library.

Giant cracks split the stone floor as Jack and Annieran to a window and looked out.

Glowing rocks were bursting through the sky aboveMount Vesuvius. The whole top of the mountain hadblown off.

"What's happening?" said Annie.

"I'll check--" said Jack. He pulled out the Romanbook. He read aloud from the section about thevolcano:

When a volcano erupts, hot melted rock called"magma" is pushed to the surface of the earth. Once itgets outside the volcano, it's called "lava⁵.""Lava! That's like burning mud!" said Jack.

"It covers everything!" cried Anme.

Jack kept reading on:

There was no running lava from Mount Vesuvius.

The magma from the volcano cooled so fast that itfroze into small grayish white rocks called pumice(PTJM-iss). A pumice rock is very light and has holeslike a sponge.

"That doesn't sound too bad," said Annie.

"Wait, there's more," said Jack. He readA great cloud of pumice, ash, and burning rock shotmiles into the air. When it rained down on Pompeii, itcompletely buried the town.

"Oh, man," said Jack. "This is a major disaster!""It's getting dark," said Annie.

Jack looked out again. A thick black cloud wasspreading over the earth like an umbrella. The sunvanished as the sky turned smoky gray.

"That must be the cloud of pumice and ash!" saidJack.

Just then the ground trembled again. Chunks⁷ ofplaster from the ceiling fell on the scrolls⁸.

"We have to get out of here!" said Annie.

They ran from the scroll library into the garden.

Ash and pumice began to fall.

"We have to cover our heads!" said Jack.

They hurried from the garden into the dining room.

13"Look! Pillows!" said Annie. "Let's put them on ourheads!"They hurried to the couches beside the table andeach grabbed a pillow.

"Tie it around your head with your belt!" said Jack.

They both pulled off the belts from around theirtunics. Then they tied on the pillows, like giant hats.

A chunk⁶ of ceiling crashed down near them.

"Let's get out of here!" said Jack.

They stepped over pieces of fallen roof tiles and raninto the main hall. They pushed open the front door.

A blast of heat and dust nearly knocked them over.

And when they stepped outside, pumice rained downonto their pillow hats.

"Run!" cried Annie.

They ran from the vacation villa⁹ into the dark,burning streets.

1 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

2 patio   

n.庭院，平台

参考例句：

• Suddenly, the thought of my beautiful patio came to mind. I can be quiet out there,I thought.我又忽然想到家里漂亮的院子，我能够在这里宁静地呆会。
• They had a barbecue on their patio on Sunday.星期天他们在院子里进行烧烤。

3 mermaid   

n.美人鱼

参考例句：

• How popular would that girl be with the only mermaid mom!和人鱼妈妈在一起，那个女孩会有多受欢迎！
• The little mermaid wasn't happy because she didn't want to wait.小美人鱼不太高兴，因为她等不及了。

4 scroll   

n.卷轴，纸卷；(石刻上的)漩涡

参考例句：

• As I opened the scroll,a panorama of the Yellow River unfolded.我打开卷轴时，黄河的景象展现在眼前。
• He was presented with a scroll commemorating his achievements.他被授予一幅卷轴，以表彰其所做出的成就。

5 lava   

n.熔岩，火山岩

参考例句：

• The lava flowed down the sides of the volcano.熔岩沿火山坡面涌流而下。
• His anger spilled out like lava.他的愤怒像火山爆发似的迸发出来。

6 chunk   

n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量）

参考例句：

• They had to be careful of floating chunks of ice.他们必须当心大块浮冰。
• The company owns a chunk of farmland near Gatwick Airport.该公司拥有盖特威克机场周边的大片农田。

7 chunks   

厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 )； （某物）相当大的数量或部分

参考例句：

• a tin of pineapple chunks 一罐菠萝块
• Those chunks of meat are rather large—could you chop them up a bIt'smaller? 这些肉块相当大，还能再切小一点吗？

8 scrolls   

n.（常用于录写正式文件的）纸卷( scroll的名词复数 )；卷轴；涡卷形（装饰）；卷形花纹v.（电脑屏幕上）从上到下移动（资料等），卷页( scroll的第三人称单数 )；（似卷轴般）卷起；（像展开卷轴般地）将文字显示于屏幕

参考例句：

• Either turn it off or only pick up selected stuff like wands, rings and scrolls. 把他关掉然后只捡你需要的物品，像是魔杖(wand)，戒指(rings)和滚动条(scrolls)。 来自互联网
• Ancient scrolls were found in caves by the Dead Sea. 死海旁边的山洞里发现了古代的卷轴。 来自辞典例句

9 villa   

n.别墅，城郊小屋

参考例句：

• We rented a villa in France for the summer holidays.我们在法国租了一幢别墅消夏。
• We are quartered in a beautiful villa.我们住在一栋漂亮的别墅里。