《神奇树屋》 第二十三册 Twister on Tuesday 06 Grasshopper Attack?

　　Inside the lamplit hut, it was dry and cozy¹.

Jack² sat back on his bench. He didn't dare look atJeb.

"It's time for our writing lesson now," Miss Neelysaid. "I'm going to give you each a slate³ and a pen."She handed out the slates⁴. They looked like smallblackboards set in wooden frames.

Next she gave everyone a slate pen. Each pen was athin piece of chalk.

Miss Neely opened the McGuffey Reader. "Whileyou were eating your noon meal, I copied a poemfrom the book," she said. "Now I want you to copy it."Miss Neely held her own slate board up for them allto see:

Tis a lesson you should heedTry, try again;If you first you don't succeedTry, try againJack quickly started copying the words.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jeb writingvery slowly. It took the older boy a long time just towrite the letter T.

Jack slowed down, too. He didn't want Jeb to thinkhe was showing off.

Suddenly, loud thumping⁵ sounds came fromoverhead It Sounded as if someone were throwingstones against the roof.

"Oh no! Grasshopper⁶ attack!" screamed Kate. Shecovered her head.

"Grasshopper attack!" cried Willlie covered hishead, too.

"Be calm, everyone!" said Miss Neely.

What's a grasshopper attack? What are they talkingabout? Jack Wondered.

Even Jeb seemed worried. As Miss Neely startedtoward the door, he said, "Don't open it! They'll comein!"Has everyone gone crazy? Jack thought. How cangrasshoppers hurt anyone?

Miss Neely opened the door and looked out. Amoment later, she stuck her head back in and closedthe door.

"It's all right," she said. "It's only hail-stones.""What's that?" said Annie.

"Hailstones are small pieces of frozen⁸ rain.

Sometimes they fall to earth during a thunderstorm,"said Miss Neely.

"Why did Will and Kate yell⁹, 'Grasshopperattack!'?" Jack asked.

"Because last spring, grasshoppers⁷ did attack us,"said Miss Neely.

"Yes! Millions and millions of them came out of thesky," said Will. "It looked like a huge, shiny cloud.""They covered every inch of ground!" said Kate.

"They ate everything!""They ate all our crops," said Will, "our turnips¹⁰ andfruit trees and watermelons.""They even ate our clothes and bed-sheets!" saidKate.

"Yuck," said Annie.

"Oh, man," said Jack. He'd never heard of agrasshopper attack before.

"It was very scary," said Kate.

"But remember how we replanted and everyonehelped everyone else?" said Miss Neely.

Kate and Will nodded.

"We must try to hold on to the good memories~"Miss Neely said gently, "and let go of the bad ones.""Yes, ma'am," said Kate.

Everyone was quiet for a moment. Then the soundof the hailstones died away.

"Let's go back to our lesson now," said Miss Neely.

They all returned to their writing..

Even working as slowly as he could, Jack finishedfirst. He showed his copy of the poem to Miss Neely.

"Good work, Jack," she said. "We can all learn fromthese words, can't we?""Yes, ma'am," said Jack.

"Hey, this is it, Jack!" Annie blurted¹¹ out. "Somethingto learn!"Miss Neely looked puzzled.

But Jack smiled. He knew what Annie was talkingabout: They had their special writing. They could gohome!

Jack stood up.

"Excuse me, ma'am, but I'm afraid we have toleave," he said.

"So soon?" said Miss Neely.

"Yes, we have to go back to our parents," saidAnnie.

"May I take my slate with us?" Jack asked.

"Please do," said Miss Neely. "Use it on your trip toCalifornia to practice your writing.""Thanks!" said Jack with a big smile. He put theslate in his leather bag. "We learned a lot, ma-am""I'm glad you had a chance to come to school," saidMiss Neely. "Good-bye and good luck.""Good luck to you, too," said Annie.

"Bye!" Will and Kate called out.

"Bye!" said Jack and Annie.

As they went out the door, Jack glanced at Jeb. He felt sorry for the older boy. He tried one last time tobe friends.

"Bye, Jeb," he said.

But the boy wouldn't even look at him. Jack gentlyclosed the door to the school-house.

He breathed a sigh of relief. He was glad to getaway from Jeb's anger.

"That's weird¹²," said Annie. "Look at the sky."As Jack turned away from the schoolhouse door, hecaught his breath.

The sky did look weird--really weird.

1 cozy   

adj.亲如手足的，密切的，暖和舒服的

参考例句：

• I like blankets because they are cozy.我喜欢毛毯，因为他们是舒适的。
• We spent a cozy evening chatting by the fire.我们在炉火旁聊天度过了一个舒适的晚上。

2 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。

3 slate   

n.板岩，石板，石片，石板色，候选人名单；adj.暗蓝灰色的，含板岩的；vt.用石板覆盖，痛打，提名，预订

参考例句：

• The nominating committee laid its slate before the board.提名委员会把候选人名单提交全体委员会讨论。
• What kind of job uses stained wood and slate? 什么工作会接触木头污浊和石板呢？

4 slates   

（旧时学生用以写字的）石板( slate的名词复数 )； 板岩； 石板瓦； 石板色

参考例句：

• The contract specifies red tiles, not slates, for the roof. 合同规定屋顶用红瓦，并非石板瓦。
• They roofed the house with slates. 他们用石板瓦做屋顶。

5 thumping   

adj.重大的，巨大的；重击的；尺码大的；极好的adv.极端地；非常地v.重击(thump的现在分词)；狠打；怦怦地跳；全力支持

参考例句：

• Her heart was thumping with emotion. 她激动得心怦怦直跳。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He was thumping the keys of the piano. 他用力弹钢琴。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

6 grasshopper   

n.蚱蜢，蝗虫，蚂蚱

参考例句：

• He thought he had made an end of the little grasshopper.他以为把那个小蚱蜢干掉了。
• The grasshopper could not find anything to eat.蚱蜢找不到任何吃的东西。

7 grasshoppers   

n.蚱蜢( grasshopper的名词复数 )；蝗虫；蚂蚱；（孩子）矮小的

参考例句：

• Grasshoppers die in fall. 蚱蜢在秋天死去。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There are usually a lot of grasshoppers in the rice fields. 稻田里通常有许多蚱蜢。 来自辞典例句

8 frozen   

adj.冻结的，冰冻的

参考例句：

• He was frozen to death on a snowing night.在一个风雪的晚上，他被冻死了。
• The weather is cold and the ground is frozen.天寒地冻。

9 yell   

vi./n.号叫，叫喊

参考例句：

• This gave them a chance to yell.这给了他们大声喊叫的机会。
• When his schoolmate made the last goal,the boy gave out with an untrammeled yell.那个男孩在他的同学踢进最后一球时不禁纵声欢呼。

10 turnips   

芜青( turnip的名词复数 )； 芜菁块根； 芜菁甘蓝块根； 怀表

参考例句：

• Well, I like turnips, tomatoes, eggplants, cauliflowers, onions and carrots. 噢，我喜欢大萝卜、西红柿、茄子、菜花、洋葱和胡萝卜。 来自魔法英语-口语突破（高中）
• This is turnip soup, made from real turnips. 这是大头菜汤，用真正的大头菜做的。

11 blurted   

v.突然说出，脱口而出( blurt的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She blurted it out before I could stop her. 我还没来得及制止，她已脱口而出。
• He blurted out the truth, that he committed the crime. 他不慎说出了真相，说是他犯了那个罪。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。