《神奇树屋》 第二十四册 Earthquake in the Early Morning 01 Tweet-tweet

　　Jack¹ sat up in bed. He stared out his window. Thesky was dark gray. The sun would be rising soon.

"It's almost time," he whispered to himself.

The day before, in the magic tree house, Morgan'snote had said, "Come back tomorrow, in the earlymorning."Jack jumped out of bed. He put on his jeans and T-shirt. Then he grabbed² his back-pack and crept outinto the hall.

Jack peeked³ into Annie's room. She wasn't there. Heslipped downstairs and out the front door.

Annie was sitting on the porch⁴ steps. Jack sat downbeside her.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I was waiting for the birds to start singing," saidAnnie. "Then I was going to wake you up."Jack and Annie watched the sky go from dark grayto light gray. Then the birds began their song.

"Tweet-tweet," said Annie.

Without another word, Jack and Annie left theirporch. They headed up their street to the Frog Creekwoods.

It was cool beneath the trees. Jack and Anniehurried through the woods to the rope ladder. It hungfrom the tallest oak⁵. At the top of the oak was themagic tree house.

They climbed up into the tree house. It was barelylight inside.

Annie picked up the note lying on the floor. Sheheld it up to the window and read aloud:

Dear Jack and Annie,Camelot is in trouble. To save the kingdom, pleasefind these four special kinds of writing for my library:

Something to followSomething to sendSomething to learnSomething to lendThank you,MorganJack took a deep breath.

"Okay," he said. "We have our first special writing:

a list from the Civil War.""We have the second," said Annie, "a letter from theRevolutionary War.""We have the third," said Jack, "a poem from apioneer schoolhouse.""Now we just need one more," said Annie. "Iwonder why we have to find these special writingsfor Morgan's library," said Jack. "How are they goingto save Camelot?""I don't know," said Annie. "But let's get going sowe can solve the mystery. Where's our researchbook?"They looked around the tree house.

Their Pennsylvania book, the book that alwaysbrought them home, was lying in the corner. Beside itwas another book. Annie picked it up.

"This is it," she said softly. She showed the book'scover to Jack. It said:

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, 1906"California?" said Jack. "I've always wanted to go toCalifornia.""Me too," said Annie. She laughed. "I guess I toldMiss Neely the truth after all.""Yeah," said Jack, smiling.

The magic tree house had taken them to a pioneerschool in their last adventure. There, Annie had toldthe teacher, Miss Neely, that they were on their wayto California.

Annie pointed⁶ at the cover of the California book.

"We really wish we could go there," she said.

The wind started to blow.

The tree house started to spin.

It spun⁷ faster and faster.

Then everything was still.

Absolutely still.

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 grabbed   

v.抢先，抢占( grab的过去式和过去分词 )；（尤指匆忙地）取；攫取；（尤指自私、贪婪地）捞取

参考例句：

• He was grabbed by two men and frogmarched out of the hall. 他被两个男人紧抓双臂押出大厅。
• She grabbed the child's hand and ran. 她抓住孩子的手就跑。

3 peeked   

v.很快地看( peek的过去式和过去分词 )；偷看；窥视；微露出

参考例句：

• She peeked over the top of her menu. 她从菜单上往外偷看。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• On two occasions she had peeked at him through a crack in the wall. 她曾两次透过墙缝窥视他。 来自辞典例句

4 porch   

n.门廊，入口处，走廊，游廊

参考例句：

• There are thousands of pages of advertising on our porch.有成千上万页广告堆在我们的门廊上。
• The porch is supported by six immense pillars.门廊由六根大柱子支撑着。

5 oak   

n.栎树，橡树，栎木，橡木

参考例句：

• The chair is of solid oak.这把椅子是纯橡木的。
• The carpenter will floor this room with oak.木匠将用橡木铺设这个房间的地板。

6 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

7 spun   

v.纺，杜撰，急转身

参考例句：

• His grandmother spun him a yarn at the fire.他奶奶在火炉边给他讲故事。
• Her skilful fingers spun the wool out to a fine thread.她那灵巧的手指把羊毛纺成了细毛线。