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儿童英语读物 The Cupcake Caper CHAPTER 3 A Ghost in Greenfield?

时间:2017-12-19 05:50来源:互联网 提供网友:qing   字体: [ ]
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    (单词翻译:双击或拖选)

After dinner that night Jessie took Watch for a walk. They were walking towards the park when Watch began to bark. “What’s going on, boy?” she asked the dog, trying to calm him down.

A woman was coming through the park carrying a pink cake box. She walked quickly. She looked odd because her skin, clothes, and hair were completely white.

That woman looks like a ghost! Jessie thought, even though she did not believe in ghosts. She believed that there was an explanation for everything.

Watch barked again, then pulled his leash1 free from Jessie’s hand.

“Oh no!” Jessie called, rushing after the dog. “Stop! Watch! Stop!”

But it was too late. Watch ran over to the woman, and in his excitement he knocked her to the ground.

“Oh dear,” the woman said, scrambling2 to get up and gather her pink box, which had fallen.

The “ghost” woman turned out to be Mrs. Waldman from Sweets. She was covered head to toe in baking flour!

“I’m so sorry about Watch,” Jessie told her. “Here, let me help you up.”

“My cupcakes?” Mrs. Waldman asked, anxiously pointing at the box. “Are they all right?”

Jessie snatched3 the box up before Watch could get to it. She peeked4 inside. There were four cupcakes, each one uniquely decorated. They looked just like Mama Tova’s cupcakes!

“They’re fine,” Jessie said, handing the box back to Mrs. Waldman. “The frosting smeared5 a little bit, but they are still very pretty.”

“Oh, thank goodness!” Mrs. Waldman said, brushing some of the flour off her dress. It puffed6 around her in a white cloud.

Jessie coughed. “Wow! That’s a lot of flour!” she exclaimed.

Mrs. Waldman looked down at herself. “Yes, it was a very long, messy day at work. I’m headed home now to clean up.” She shook off a bit more of the flour. And then, very quickly, she hurried away.

The next morning the Aldens’ home telephone rang and Grandfather answered it. Who could be calling so early? Jessie wondered. She heard Grandfather say, “Oh, no!”

“Who was that?” Jessie asked when Grandfather had hung up the phone.

“That was Mama Tova. Something terrible happened at the shop last night,” he said.

Jessie gasped7. Violet hurried over to hear more.

“Someone broke into Sweets and made a mess last night,” Grandfather said. “Mama Tova said the shop is a mess! There’s baking flour everywhere.”

“That is strange,” Henry said.

“We should go to Sweets,” Violet suggested. “Maybe we can help clean up.”

“Good idea,” Grandfather said. “We can bring some brooms and dustpans. And a mop and a bucket.”

The Aldens loaded the cleaning supplies into Grandfather’s car. Watch jumped in the back seat with them.

At Sweets, Jessie tied Watch outside near Mama Tova’s brightly colored flower boxes. Then the children went inside to see the damage.

Henry shook his head. “This is awful,” he said to Jessie.

It looked like someone had turned the entire shop upside down. The tables were knocked on their sides, and the flower vases had spilled. Some of the paintings were on the floor. A light dusting of white flour covered everything.

“Thank you so much for coming,” Mama Tova said to the Alden children and Grandfather. “I don’t know who possibly could have done this, but the police are investigating.”

She pointed8 to a police officer standing9 in the corner, talking to Mrs. Waldman. “That’s Officer Montag,” Mama Tova explained. “She’s interviewing everyone who might have seen something suspicious10.”

“I wonder if Mrs. Waldman told her about the flour,” Jessie said, glancing over at the police officer.

“Mrs. Waldman?” Mama Tova said. “Flour? What do you mean?”

“I saw Mrs. Waldman last night,” Jessie said. “She was covered with flour.”

“Does Mrs. Waldman ever do any of the baking?” Henry asked Mama Tova.

“No,” Mama Tova said. “Because of the secret ingredient, I do it all.”

“Hmm,” Jessie said as she pulled a black spiral11 notebook out of her patchwork12 purse. Jessie liked to write things down so she could think about them later. “Do you have any idea who might want to mess up Sweets?” she asked Mama Tova.

“I really don’t know.” Mama Tova shook her head and sighed. “Officer Montag thinks that the person who did this must have been looking for something in particular. That’s why everything is torn apart.”

“Were they looking for money?” Benny asked.

“I don’t think so, because none of it is gone,” Mama Tova said. “I’ve checked all around the shop and as far as I can tell, nothing is missing.”

“Are you sure?” Henry asked.

“All that happened here was that someone made a mess,” Mama Tova said. “I wish I knew who would do this and why.”

“Maybe we can help,” Henry suggested. “We are good at solving mysteries.”

“I’d be grateful,” Mama Tova said. Then she went to speak to the police officer.

The Aldens walked over to a quiet corner of the shop. Jessie opened a clean page in her notebook and wrote SUSPECTS at the top. Tapping her pencil, Jessie asked the others, “Any ideas?”

Violet spoke13 up. “I don’t know who would mess up the shop but I think I know why.”

“Go on,” Henry said. “Explain.”

Violet pointed all around the shop. “Remember when Mama Tova told us yesterday that she hid the secret ingredient for her cupcakes under the flower?”

“Someone must have overheard,” Henry said. “And they messed up all the shop’s flowers looking for the recipe.”

“I bet you’re both right!” Jessie said. “Maybe Mr. Kandinsky should be our first suspect.” She wrote down the BakeMart owner’s name in her notebook.

“Is it because Mr. Kandinsky wants the cupcake recipe and Mama Tova won’t sell it to him? So maybe he tried to steal it?” Benny asked.

“That’s right, Benny,” Henry said.

“And then there is Mrs. Waldman and the mysterious flour,” Violet said. She remembered Jessie’s story. “I think she should be the next suspect.”

“Mrs. Waldman also had four of Mama Tova’s cupcakes in a box, but nobody is ever allowed to buy more than one cupcake at a time at Sweets. Or take them home. That makes Mrs. Waldman even more suspicious!” Jessie said. She wrote down Mrs. Waldman’s name.

“Should we tell Officer Montag what we know?” Benny asked.

“Not yet,” Henry said. “So far we aren’t really sure about anything.”

“We could talk to Mrs. Waldman right now,” Benny said. “We just saw her talking to the police.”

But when the children looked around, Mrs. Waldman was gone. She had left the shop.

“We’ll have to talk to her tomorrow, I guess,” Violet said.

Jessie agreed, shutting her notebook. “We shouldn’t tell the police anything until we have more clues about who is trying to steal the recipe.”

“We need to solve this mystery before the thief steals the recipe for real,” Benny declared.


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 leash M9rz1     
n.牵狗的皮带,束缚;v.用皮带系住
参考例句:
  • I reached for the leash,but the dog got in between.我伸手去拿系狗绳,但被狗挡住了路。
  • The dog strains at the leash,eager to be off.狗拼命地扯拉皮带,想挣脱开去。
2 scrambling cfea7454c3a8813b07de2178a1025138     
v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 );攀登;争夺;(军事飞机)紧急起飞
参考例句:
  • Scrambling up her hair, she darted out of the house. 她匆忙扎起头发,冲出房去。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
  • She is scrambling eggs. 她正在炒蛋。 来自《简明英汉词典》
3 snatched 8f6583a530f8b71d49187c1b54230c0e     
突然伸手拿取,攫取,抓住( snatch的过去式和过去分词 ); 抓紧时间做; 乘机获得; 夺去
参考例句:
  • The boy snatched a piece of cake and ate it hungrily. 男孩抢过一块饼便贪婪地吃起来。
  • The thief snatched her handbag and ran. 盗贼抢了她的手提包就跑。
4 peeked c7b2fdc08abef3a4f4992d9023ed9bb8     
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
5 smeared c767e97773b70cc726f08526efd20e83     
弄脏; 玷污; 涂抹; 擦上
参考例句:
  • The children had smeared mud on the walls. 那几个孩子往墙上抹了泥巴。
  • A few words were smeared. 有写字被涂模糊了。
6 puffed 72b91de7f5a5b3f6bdcac0d30e24f8ca     
adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 );喷着汽(或烟)移动;吹嘘;吹捧
参考例句:
  • He lit a cigarette and puffed at it furiously. 他点燃了一支香烟,狂吸了几口。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He felt grown-up, puffed up with self-importance. 他觉得长大了,便自以为了不起。 来自《简明英汉词典》
7 gasped e6af294d8a7477229d6749fa9e8f5b80     
v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 );喘息;倒抽气;很想要
参考例句:
  • She gasped at the wonderful view. 如此美景使她惊讶得屏住了呼吸。
  • People gasped with admiration at the superb skill of the gymnasts. 体操运动员的高超技艺令人赞叹。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
8 pointed Il8zB4     
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。
9 standing 2hCzgo     
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的
参考例句:
  • After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
  • They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。
10 suspicious DrLw1     
adj.可疑的,容易引起怀疑的,猜疑的,疑心的
参考例句:
  • A man was hanging about the house in a suspicious manner.一个男人在房子周围可疑地荡来荡去。
  • He's so suspicious he would distrust his own mother.他这个人疑心太重,连自己的母亲也不相信。
11 spiral 5rEy2     
adj.螺旋的;n.螺旋(线);vi.盘旋上升(或下降)
参考例句:
  • The production in this factory is spiral.这个厂的产量呈盘旋上升。
  • Their profits began to spiral down disastrously.他们的利润开始螺旋形地急剧下降。
12 patchwork yLsx6     
n.混杂物;拼缝物
参考例句:
  • That proposal is nothing else other than a patchwork.那个建议只是一个大杂烩而已。
  • She patched new cloth to the old coat,so It'seemed mere patchwork. 她把新布初到那件旧上衣上,所以那件衣服看上去就象拼凑起来的东西。
13 spoke XryyC     
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说
参考例句:
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
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