英语 英语 日语 日语 韩语 韩语 法语 法语 德语 德语 西班牙语 西班牙语 意大利语 意大利语 阿拉伯语 阿拉伯语 葡萄牙语 葡萄牙语 越南语 越南语 俄语 俄语 芬兰语 芬兰语 泰语 泰语 泰语 丹麦语 泰语 对外汉语

儿童英语读物 The Clue in the Recycling Bin CHAPTER 8 The Bottom of the Boots

时间:2017-12-20 05:12来源:互联网 提供网友:qing   字体: [ ]
特别声明:本栏目内容均从网络收集或者网友提供,供仅参考试用,我们无法保证内容完整和正确。如果资料损害了您的权益,请与站长联系,我们将及时删除并致以歉意。
    (单词翻译:双击或拖选)

The children stood just outside the gate to the recycling center. Ethan had gone back to work on the bags, and Kayla was in her studio.

“We know that Ethan didn’t climb the fence and tip over the Other Stuff Dumpster,” said Violet.

“Because his footprints don’t match the smaller set of footprints,” said Jessie.

“And because Ethan could jump over the fence,” said Benny. “But the person who tipped the Dumpster had to climb over.”

“We need to find out whose footprints match the second set,” said Henry. “Then we need to find out why that person tipped over the Dumpster.”

The children stood there and thought.

“We need to see the tread1 marks on Mrs. Wickett’s shoes, on Chad’s shoes, and even on Kayla’s shoes,” said Jessie at last.

Her brothers and sister agreed.

“Look!” said Benny, pointing across the street. “I just saw something bright red. I think it’s Mrs. Wickett’s boots!”

The Aldens crossed the street and walked into Mrs. Wickett’s yard. They walked around the back, where Benny had seen something red. There was Mrs. Wickett, kneeling in her garden. She wore an old jacket and pants and her bright red boots.

“Oh, hello,” she said when she saw them. “What a nice surprise.”

The children said hello.

Benny noticed that the bottom of Mrs. Wickett’s boots were facing out, so he bent2 down to look at them.

As soon as she saw what Benny was doing, Mrs. Wickett scooted around so that Benny couldn’t see her boots. Then she stood up.

“Why don’t we all go and sit on my front porch3?” she said. “I’m done gardening for the day.”

Once everybody was settled on the front porch, Mrs. Wickett offered them lemonade. All four children accepted.

“This is delicious,” said Violet as she sipped4 her glass of lemonade.

Mrs. Wickett smiled. “Thank you,” she said. “I made it myself.”

Then Mrs. Wickett sat in a wicker chair. “Well,” she said, “what has Kayla decided5 to do about all the recycling that people leave alongside6 the sidewalk?”

“We don’t know,” said Jessie. “She hasn’t said.”

“We think Kayla should leave the center open until midnight,” said Henry. “But she won’t. She says she’s worried about people breaking into her studio.”

“Kayla makes lovely jewelry7 out of junk,”said Mrs. Wickett, sipping8 her lemonade. “She brought some of it to Jonah’s Jewelry Store and asked Mr. Jonah if he would sell it.”

“Kayla told us about that,” said Violet. “But Mr. Jonah said no.”

“That’s right,” Mrs. Wicket said. “Mr. Jonah doesn’t like jewelry made out of recycled metals and glass. I’m afraid he said some very insulting things to Kayla.”

“When was this?” asked Henry.

“Oh, a few weeks ago. A day or two before the robbery,” Mrs. Wickett answered.

The children looked at one another.

“Mrs. Wickett,” said Jessie, “do you want the recycling center to fail?”

Instead of answering, Mrs. Wickett sipped her lemonade and stared across the street at the recycling center. Finally she spoke9. “Recycling is a good thing,” she said. “But bags of recycling outside the recycling center are not a good thing. I just don’t know.”

“Somebody climbed over the fence and tipped over the Other Stuff Dumpster,” saidHenry. “Did you do that?”

“My word!” exclaimed Mrs. Wickett. “You children do ask direct questions, don’t you?”

Henry waited for an answer.

“No, I did not,” Mrs. Wickett replied.

“We found footprints outside the fence, where somebody climbed over,” said Jessie. She took out her notebook. “I made a drawing of the footprints.”

Mrs. Wickett didn’t say anything.

“May we see the bottom of your red boots?” Henry asked.

Mrs. Wickett stood up. “No, you may not!” she said.

“Why won’t you let us see them?” asked Benny.

“I am innocent!” Mrs. Wickett shouted. “I don’t have to prove I’m innocent—you have to prove I’m guilty!” She marched into her house and slammed the door.

Once again, the children returned to the front gate of the recycling center.

“We are down to two suspects for the second break-in,” said Violet. “The break-in where somebody tipped over the Other Stuff Dumpster. It was either Chad or Mrs. Wickett.”

“But we have three suspects for the diamond robbery,” said Jessie. “It’s either Chad, Mrs. Wickett, or Kayla.”

“We might have two separate crimes to solve,” said Henry. “Or the two crimes might be connected.”

“I think the crimes are connected,” said Violet.

Everybody else agreed with Violet.

“That means the diamonds are hidden somewhere in the recycling center,” said Henry. “Or they were hidden there, and now they’re somewhere else.”

Benny had been thinking hard, and now he spoke up. “I think the diamonds were hidden in the Other Stuff bin10,” he said.

Henry smiled at his younger brother. “Notin the bin itself,” said Henry, “but inside something that was in the bin.”

“Not inside of Mrs. McGregor’s green frog,” said Violet. “That’s made of metal and has no place to hide anything.”

“Not inside my notebooks,” said Jessie.

“Ohhhhhh,”said Benny as he figured it out. “The diamonds are hidden inside my pi?ata!” Benny thought about this for a moment. “But how did they get there?” he asked.

“I think that whoever robbed Jonah’s Jewelry Store went to Tío’s Tacos late at night,” said Henry. “And when there weren’t any other customers, the thief put the diamonds into the pi?ata.”

“But why?” asked Jessie. “Why didn’t the thief just take the jewels home?”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” said Henry. “Whoever stole the diamonds must have been afraid of being searched. Or of having their house searched.”

This made sense to Jessie. Tío’s pi?atas were all hanging from the ceiling. Nobody ever touched them. “Tío’s pi?atas are a pretty safe place to store diamonds,” she said. “They just hang from the ceiling and get old and dusty.”

“The thief didn’t know that Tío was going to replace the old pi?atas with new ones,” said Henry.

The children decided it was time to go home and make a plan. They rode their bikes home, put them away, and sat in the sunporch.

“Let’s open the pi?ata and take out the diamonds,” said Benny.

“Not yet,” said Henry. “We can look inside the pi?ata later. Let’s think first.”

Everybody looked at Henry.

“Maybe we can leave the pi?ata where it is and use it to trap the thief,” Henry said.

“How?” asked Jessie.

“I don’t know,” said Henry.

Benny looked at his red pi?ata, which was still hanging from the ceiling of the sunporch. “My bull11 pi?ata looks lonesome,” he said.

Violet sat right up. “Benny!” she said. “That’s it! What a brilliant idea!”

“Huh?” said Benny. “What idea?”

“Your pi?ata is lonesome, so we’ll have a party for it!” said Violet. She reached up and took the pi?ata down from the ceiling. Henry liked the way Violet was thinking. “We’ll invite Kayla and Mrs. Wickett and Chad,” he said. “One of them will really, really want the pi?ata.”

“Let’s invite Ethan, too,” said Jessie, “even though we know he didn’t steal the diamonds.”

“And let’s invite Tío,” said Violet. “That way, we can make sure that Benny’s pi?ata really is from Tío’s Tacos.”

The children went to talk to Mrs. McGregor and Grandfather, both of whom agreed a party was a good idea.

“Let’s have it tomorrow afternoon,” said Henry.

“I’ll set up the badminton,” said Jessie.

Benny liked to push croquet wickets into the ground, so he volunteered to set up the croquet game. And Violet loved putting out paper plates, cups, and napkins. And I have a perfect use for all that purple cloth, she thought.

After the children planned everything with Mrs. McGregor and Grandfather, they called Kayla to invite her to the party. Then they called Mrs. Wickett and invited her. They asked her if she would invite Chad, and she said Chad was visiting with her, so she would ask him. Finally, they called Ethan and Tío and invited them, too.

“Everything is set,” said Jessie, “Now it’s notebook time.”
 


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 tread tmSwm     
vi.踩;行走;vt.踩烂(出);n.胎面,脚步声
参考例句:
  • A policeman walked by with a slow,measured tread.一名警察迈着小心的步子慢慢走过。
  • We heard father's tread on the steps.我们听到台阶上父亲的脚步声。
2 bent QQ8yD     
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的
参考例句:
  • He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
  • We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。
3 porch ju9yM     
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。
4 sipped 22d1585d494ccee63c7bff47191289f6     
v.小口喝,呷,抿( sip的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • He sipped his coffee pleasurably. 他怡然地品味着咖啡。
  • I sipped the hot chocolate she had made. 我小口喝着她调制的巧克力热饮。 来自辞典例句
5 decided lvqzZd     
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
参考例句:
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
6 alongside XLWym     
adv.在旁边;prep.和...在一起,在...旁边
参考例句:
  • There was a butcher's shop alongside the theatre.剧院旁边有一家肉店。
  • Alongside of him stood his uncle.他的身旁站着他叔叔。
7 jewelry 0auz1     
n.(jewllery)(总称)珠宝
参考例句:
  • The burglars walked off with all my jewelry.夜盗偷走了我的全部珠宝。
  • Jewelry and lace are mostly feminine belongings.珠宝和花边多数是女性用品。
8 sipping e7d80fb5edc3b51045def1311858d0ae     
v.小口喝,呷,抿( sip的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • She sat in the sun, idly sipping a cool drink. 她坐在阳光下懒洋洋地抿着冷饮。
  • She sat there, sipping at her tea. 她坐在那儿抿着茶。
9 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。
10 bin yR2yz     
n.箱柜;vt.放入箱内;[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件
参考例句:
  • He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
  • He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。
11 bull jshzd     
n.公牛,买进证券投机图利者,看涨的人
参考例句:
  • It's only a hair off a bull's back to them.这对他们来说,不过九牛一毛。
  • Many dogs closed around the bull.很多狗渐渐地把那只牛围了起来。
本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎点击提交分享给大家。
------分隔线----------------------------
顶一下
(0)
0%
踩一下
(0)
0%
最新评论 查看所有评论
发表评论 查看所有评论
请自觉遵守互联网相关的政策法规,严禁发布色情、暴力、反动的言论。
评价:
表情:
验证码:
听力搜索
推荐频道
论坛新贴