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 Garden Thief CHAPTER 10 The Thief

时间:2017-12-26 06:04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)

Just as the children finished lunch and their discussion, Mr. Yee arrived back at his garden, still holding the rabbit.

Taylor came out of her garden and locked the gate. “I’m going to the Kirk barn,” she said, “to tell Alex he has to stop stealing our vegetables.”

“We’re going there, too,” said Jessie, “to tell the thief to stop stealing.”

Taylor looked at Jessie. “Hmmm,” said Taylor. “I notice that you didn’t say exactly what I said.”

Jessie smiled. “I’m glad that you noticed,” she said.

“Hmmm,” said Taylor as they walked. “Hmmmm.”

When the group arrived at the Kirk barn, they saw Alex and Lucasta inside. Alex was putting vegetable seeds into peat pots. Lucasta was feeding her rabbits.

Before anybody else could speak, Lucasta came running up to Mr. Yee.

“What are you doing with Braxton?” she demanded. “Braxton is my rabbit. Give him back!”

“He cannot be your rabbit,” answered Mr. Yee. “You said your rabbits never escaped their pens. This rabbit was in my garden, eating my vegetables.”

Lucasta frowned. “Which vegetables?” she asked.

Lettuce1,” said Mr. Yee. “Braxton likes lettuce.”

“And carrots,” said Violet. “He ate a carrot.”

“A purple carrot?” asked Lucasta. “Braxton ate a purple carrot?”

“Yes,” said Mr. Yee. “Purple carrots are very nutritious2.”

“Purple is my least favorite color,” said Lucasta. She looked at her rabbit. “If Braxton ate a purple carrot, I don’t want to enter him in a contest.” She looked at Mr. Yee. “You seem to like Braxton.”

“Yes, I do,” admitted Mr. Yee.

“Well, then, you can have Braxton if you want to,” said Lucasta. “I don’t want a rabbit who eats purple carrots.”

Lucasta turned away and went back to the other rabbits.

Mr. Yee and Taylor and Henry, Jessie, Violet and Benny just stood there. They couldn’t believe what they had just heard.

“That is not nice,” muttered Taylor, “giving away her rabbit like that.”

Benny looked at Mr. Yee and Braxton. “I think that Braxton will be very happy with Mr. Yee,” said Benny.

Taylor looked down at Benny. “You’re very wise for one so young,” she said.

“Thank you,” said Benny.

Alex had stopped planting seeds into peat pots. He had listened to the conversation, and he had frowned when Lucasta gave away her rabbit. Now he spoke3. “If you came about the rabbit, you can go now.”

“No,” said Henry, “we came to name the garden thief and put an end to the stealing.”

“Look at this,” said Lucasta loudly, taking a Rex rabbit out of its cage and bringing it to the group. “Isn’t she lovely? Look at her gleaming fur and her bright eyes. She’s going to win grand prize.” Lucasta stroked her rabbit. “And my other rabbits will win blue ribbons and red ribbons and yellow ribbons. I’m going to win a lot of ribbons this year.”

“Be quiet, Lucasta,” said Alex.

“No,” said Lucasta. “I deserve to win the prizes because I raise the best-looking rabbits.”

“You are a thief,” said Jessie. “You’ve been stealing everyone’s best vegetables to feed your rabbits.”

“She’s the thief?” asked Taylor, quite surprised.

“I should have known,” said Mr. Yee.

“It’s Mr. Yee’s fault,” said Lucasta, pointing at him. “He made me break my leg and so I couldn’t garden this year. But I need the very best vegetables for my rabbits to win.” She glared at the group. “You should be happy that your vegetables will help my rabbits win.”

“Our vegetables belong to us,” said Taylor angrily. “They aren’t for you to take.”

“Taylor is right,” said Mr. Yee. “It is wrong to take what belongs to somebody else, something they have worked hard to grow.”

Taylor turned to the Aldens. “I thought it was Alex,” she said. “How did you figure it out?”

“We noticed that sometimes Lucasta wore a cast on her leg, and sometimes she didn’t,” explained Jessie. “And sometimes she walked fast and sometimes she walked very slow—especially when she had the green trash bag wrapped around her cast.”

“Green trash bag?” asked Taylor.

“Yes,” said Jessie. “See that apron4 on the wall?” She pointed5 toward the rabbit hutches. “It has a lot of pockets in it.”

“I see,” said Taylor, “but I still don’t get it.”

“Lucasta tied the bag around her cast. She stuffed the stolen vegetables into the pockets, then covered everything up with the green trash bag.”

Violet looked at Taylor. “You helped us figure this out.”

“I did?” said Taylor, confused.

“Yes. The day you showed us how lead weights slipped into the small pockets of your leg weights,” said Violet. “Later that day we saw the apron with the many pockets. And later still we figured out what Lucasta was doing.”

“And that’s not all,” said Violet. “The color purple helped us. It’s my favorite color,” she added softly.

“Ahh,” said Mr. Yee. “I am beginning to see what happened. The garden thief took all my orange carrots. But the thief didn’t take the purple carrots.”

“That’s right,” said Violet. “The thief hates purple.”

“Stupid purple carrots,” said Lucasta. “I would never feed them to my rabbits.”

“I will feed them to my rabbit,” said Mr. Yee, petting Braxton.

Henry spoke up. “There was one more clue,” he said, “something that puzzled us at first. Somebody was giving vegetables back to the people whose vegetables had been stolen.”

He turned to Alex. “That was you,” he said. “You were giving people vegetables from your own garden. You gave Taylor kale. You gave Roger cucumbers. You gave Mr. Yee carrots. You were trying to replace everything that had been stolen.”

Alex nodded. “You’re right,” he said. “I figured out what Lucasta was doing.” He frowned at his sister. “I told her she had to stop, that it’s wrong to steal. But she wouldn’t listen.” He looked at everybody in the group. “I’m sorry you didn’t like my vegetables,” he said.

Everybody shook their heads. “Oh, we did like your vegetables,” said Taylor. “The kale was delicious! I gave some to many different people, and they all loved it.”

“The cucumbers you gave Roger are delicious,” said Benny. “We had them for dinner and we had them for lunch.”

Alex looked happier than he had. “That’s good,” he said. “I’m glad you liked the food I gave you. That’s what food is for: to eat.”

“It is time for us to leave,” said Mr. Yee. He looked at Lucasta. “Do not steal any more vegetables from our gardens,” he told her. “If vegetables are missing, we will know it was you.”

“If vegetables are missing, we’ll go straight to your mother and father and tell them what you’re doing,” said Taylor.

Lucasta pouted6. “Okay, okay. I won’t take any more of your vegetables. I was getting tired of dragging them around anyway,” she said. “But if my rabbits don’t win grand prize, it’s all your fault!” She turned and marched away, back to her rabbit hutches.

*  *  *

“Some people will never admit they have done wrong,” said Mr. Yee as he and the Aldens and Taylor walked back to their garden plots.

“That’s true,” said Taylor, “and that’s sad. But now,” she said, rubbing her hands together, “let’s get back to gardening! The county fair is just two weeks away.”

Taylor unlocked the gate to her garden and went inside, waving a goodbye to the children and Mr. Yee.

The children walked into Mr. Yee’s garden with him.

“Thank you so much for how you have helped me,” he told them. “I could not have continued my garden without your help.”

“We like helping7 you,” said Henry.

“And we’re learning a lot,” added Jessie.

“And the vegetables are delicious!” said Benny.

Mr. Yee laughed. “Well,” he said, “my cast comes off tomorrow. Would you like to keep helping me even though my arm will no longer be in a cast?”

All four Aldens eagerly agreed to help.

“Can we come with you to the county fair?” asked Henry. “We’d like to see all the vegetables we’re helping you grow.”

“Of course,” replied Mr. Yee. “We can all go together.” He looked around his garden. “I might win a prize for my purple carrots,” he said.

He looked at Violet and Jessie. “If my purple carrots win a blue ribbon, I’ll give it to you. You’re the ones who thinned and weeded and watered the carrots.”

“I want a blue ribbon, too,” Benny announced. “I want to win it for your delicious strawberries—if I don’t eat them all up in two weeks!”


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 lettuce C9GzQ     
n.莴苣;生菜
参考例句:
  • Get some lettuce and tomatoes so I can make a salad.买些莴苣和西红柿,我好做色拉。
  • The lettuce is crisp and cold.莴苣松脆爽口。
2 nutritious xHzxO     
adj.有营养的,营养价值高的
参考例句:
  • Fresh vegetables are very nutritious.新鲜蔬菜富于营养。
  • Hummingbirds have discovered that nectar and pollen are very nutritious.蜂鸟发现花蜜和花粉是很有营养的。
3 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。
4 apron Lvzzo     
n.围裙;工作裙
参考例句:
  • We were waited on by a pretty girl in a pink apron.招待我们的是一位穿粉红色围裙的漂亮姑娘。
  • She stitched a pocket on the new apron.她在新围裙上缝上一只口袋。
5 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。
6 pouted 25946cdee5db0ed0b7659cea8201f849     
v.撅(嘴)( pout的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • Her lips pouted invitingly. 她挑逗地撮起双唇。
  • I pouted my lips at him, hinting that he should speak first. 我向他努了努嘴,让他先说。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
7 helping 2rGzDc     
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
参考例句:
  • The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
  • By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
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