Mermaid in a Teacup
美音、自然拼读、分级阅读与词汇复习
My name is Hattie MacGruder, and I found a mermaid!
我叫哈蒂·麦克·格鲁德 我找到美人鱼了
I found a real, live mermaid that is only three inches long.
我找到一个只有三英寸长的活人鱼
I am telling the truth.
我说的是实话
There are others who are not telling the truth.
还有其他人不说实话。
Sybil and Sarah are liars and fibbers and tellers of untruth.
西比尔和莎拉是骗子 骗子和不诚实的告密者
They said that the mermaid was nothing more than a silly toy that wasn’t ever alive.
他们表示美人鱼不过是个愚蠢的玩具,
They said that I made it all up.
他们说都是我编的
That’s why they are liars, fibbers and tellers of untruth.
因此,他们是说谎者、说谎者和不诚实者。
I have proof that I found a mermaid.
我有证据证明我找到美人鱼了
The proof is in my diary, and I’m going to let you read it exactly as I wrote it three weeks ago when I found the tiny mermaid.
证明在我日记中, 我将让你读它, 完全像我三个星期前写的, 当我找到小人鱼时。
Special Note: I am only going to show you the parts of my diary that are about the mermaid.
特别说明: 我只是要给你看我的日记中 有关美人鱼的部分
I won’t let you read that Sarah really didn’t go to see the movie Harry Potter with Danny Buckman—she went with her mom, who didn’t think she was old enough to sit by herself.
我不会让你看到莎拉真的没有去看电影《哈利·波特》,
And I definitely am not going to let you read about “super equestrian” Sybil when she fell off her little sister’s pony.
我绝对不会让你读到Sybil从她妹妹的小马上掉下来的"超级马术"。
So don’t think that I’m leaving out something about those fibbers, Sybil and Sarah, when I skip some stuff.
所以别以为我在漏掉一些东西时,
The Proof: Diary, Day 93 Sybil and Sarah are coming over today for our third annual back-to-school picnic.
证明:日记, 93天 西比尔和莎拉今天要来 我们的第三次回校野餐。
Hey, they’re here!
他们来了!
I’ll write longer later.
我稍后会再写。
Diary, Day 93 (continued later) You will never in a billion years guess what happened.
日记,第93天(后接) 10亿年后你永远不会猜到发生了什么
I found a mermaid!
我找到一条美人鱼了!
She is the coolest little thing you have ever seen.
她是你见过的最酷的小东西
She’s only about three inches long and is a real, real mermaid.
她只有三英寸长,
I dressed her in some Barbie clothes.
我给她穿了件芭比衣服
They fit her perfectly.
它们很适合她
She didn’t need any jeans or anything.
她不需要牛仔裤或任何东西。
Right now, she is sitting in a teacup filled with water on my bedside table, watching me write.
她现在坐在一个茶杯里 在我的床边桌子上放满了水 看着我写作
Wait a minute!
单
I’m getting too far ahead.
我走得太远了。
The whole thing started when Sybil and Sarah came to get me for the picnic.
当Sybil和Sarah来接我参加野餐时 事情就开始了
Ever since we were in the first grade, we have had a picnic on the first weekend after school starts.
从一年级开始,我们开始放学后的第一个周末就野餐。
Now we’re third graders, and this time we were going to actually go somewhere besides my backyard.
现在,我们是三年级的学生, 这次我们要去除了我的后院以外的地方。
This year, we were supposed to go to River Park.
今年我们该去河上公园
My dad was going to take us, but he got stuck in a meeting or whatever.
我爸爸本来要带我们去的 但他被困在会议里
None of us wanted to just eat our picnic in my backyard—that is so second grade.
我们谁都不想在我家后院吃野餐,
Now, the good thing about my yard is that it backs up to the Ledbetters’ dairy farm.
现在,我的院子的优点是 它会回到Ledbetters的乳品农场。
They have hundreds of acres for their cows to graze on.
他们有上百英亩的地来放牧牛
At the edge of their pasture is a monstrous boulder called Crying Rock.
草地边缘有一块叫"哭岩"的巨石
They call it Crying Rock because water seeps down from the mountain and drips over the rock.
他们称它为"哭岩",因为水从山上渗出并滴入了岩石上.
It makes the rock look like it is crying.
它让岩石看起来像在哭
So we decided to have our annual picnic in the middle of the pasture.
所以我们决定每年在牧场中间野餐。
Nobody said we couldn’t go, even though we’ve been told not to go through the fence when the cows were in the field.
没有人说我们不能去, 即使我们被告知不要穿过栅栏,
There weren’t any cows out today, and nobody said we couldn’t go under the fence.
今天没有奶牛出来,
So we ran all the way to Crying Rock because we didn’t want crotchety Mr.
所以我们一路跑去哭摇滚,
Ledbetter to see us.
见到我们更好
We got the giggles, which didn’t help at all.
我们得到了笑声,
Sarah was worried that we were going to get in trouble.
Sarah担心我们会惹上麻烦
She just wanted to eat and go home.
她只是想吃东西回家
Sybil always did what Sarah wanted, so we ate our sandwiches really fast.
Sybil总是做莎拉想做的事 所以我们吃三明治的速度很快
I probably wouldn’t have found the mermaid at all if Sarah hadn’t had to go to the bathroom.
如果Sarah不必上厕所, 我可能根本找不到美人鱼。
Sybil always goes wherever Sarah goes.
西比尔总是去莎拉去的地方。
The two of them climbed down from the rocks and ran over to a bunch of trees.
两人从岩石上爬下,跑到一串树上.
While they were gone, I decided to climb higher on the rock to see if I could see them.
他们走了的时候,我决定爬到岩石上,看看能不能看见他们。
I climbed and climbed.
我爬了起来
There was almost a path that led up around the crying part of the rock.
几乎有一条路 环绕着岩石上哭泣的部分
When I got nearly to the top, I stopped and looked down.
当我接近顶端时,我停下来往下看.
Way off to the side, I could see Sarah and her shadow, Sybil, walking into the trees.
远到一边,我可以看到莎拉和她的影子,Sybil,走入了树上.
I was just starting down when I heard a sound coming from high above me.
我刚刚从头开始,当我听到一个声音 从我上面发出。
I listened carefully.
我仔细听了
I couldn’t understand the words, but it sounded like someone was singing.
但听起来像是有人在唱歌。
It was really pretty.
痷簘獹
There were little notches in the face of the rock, and I started climbing.
石头上有小孔子 我开始攀登
It wasn’t easy, but going up is always easier than coming down.
这并非易事,
The singing was louder now, and I could tell that it was coming from the ledge just above my head.
歌声现在响得更响了 我可以看到它来自我头上的窗台
I pulled myself up and over the top.
我把自己拉起 翻到顶上。
The ledge was covered in a mossy carpet.
窗台被一块苔藓地毯盖住.
In the middle of the ledge was a small pool of sparkling, clear water.
地脊正中是一池花花出花花,清水出花.
The climb up the rock and the salty chips I had eaten earlier made me thirsty.
爬上岩石和盐味的薯片 我之前吃过,让我渴了。
I crawled over to the pool on my hands and knees, bent over, and took a big sip.
我爬到游泳池 手脚膝上 弯了腰 喝了一大口
I had just leaned down to take another drink when I saw an odd reflection in the water.
当我在水里看到一个奇怪的倒影时,我倒地再喝一杯。
At first I thought it was a frog, and I almost screamed.
起初我以为是只青蛙,我几乎大叫.
My heart in my throat, I looked and then looked again.
我的心在我的喉咙里,我看着,然后又看。
It wasn’t a frog.
这不是青蛙。
It was a tiny mermaid sitting half in the water, leaning over a rock with her back toward me.
一只小美人鱼坐在半个水里 仰着一块岩石 背向着我
She held her head in her hands, and she was singing softly.
她把头握在手上,还轻轻地唱歌.
I didn’t say a word.
我没有说一句话。
I just lay there, hanging out over the water.
我只是躺在那里, 挂出水面。
My nose couldn’t have been more than 12 inches from her back.
我的鼻子离她背部只有12英寸。
I don’t know why I did it, but I just reached over and carefully grabbed her with my hand.
我不知道我为什么要这么做,
She twisted and squirmed like a fish, which was to be expected since she was half fish and half human.
她扭曲并被打得像条鱼,这是人们所期望的,因为她一半是鱼,一半是人。
I pulled back from the water, sat back on my heels, and looked at what I held in my hands.
我从水中拉回了,坐在我的后跟上,看着我手中拿着的东西.
She looked at me, and I looked at her.
她看着我,我看着她。
Then her eyes kind of went blank.
然后她的眼睛就变得一片空白
She closed her eyes, and her body went stiff in my hand.
她闭上了眼睛,她的身体僵硬地伸进我的手里。
I thought I had killed her or something.
我以为我杀了她什么的
I laid her down on the ledge and ran my finger down her fish tail.
我把她放倒在地上 手指放倒了鱼尾
Right then she looked more like a toy doll than a real mermaid.
她看起来比真正的美人鱼还像玩具娃娃
I felt really bad, thinking maybe I had killed her, but then she opened her eyes.
我觉得很糟糕,想着也许我杀了她,但后来她睁开了眼睛.
She looked up at me and blinked a couple of times.
她看着我,眨了几眼
She looked over toward the water and then back at me.
她朝水边看了一眼 然后又看着我
Then she closed her eyes and went stiff again.
然后她闭上了眼睛又僵了
I wondered what was going on.
我在想到底发生了什么
In the distance, I could hear Sarah and Sybil calling my name.
在远处,我能听到莎拉和西比尔叫我的名字。
“I’m up here!”
我在这里!
I shouted excitedly.
我激动地大喊大叫。
“I’m coming down.
" 我下来了。
Wait until you see what I found.”
等你看到我发现了什么 “
With the mermaid gripped tightly in my hand, I climbed down from the rock.
美人鱼紧紧握住我的手 我从岩石上爬下来
I was so excited.
我很兴奋。
It’s not every day you find a three-inch mermaid.
并非每天都能找到三寸长的美人鱼。
This is where the trouble started with Sybil and Sarah.
这是Sybil和Sarah的麻烦开始的地方.
I showed them what I had found, but the mermaid wouldn’t wake up.
但美人鱼不会醒过来。
The two tellers of untruth laughed at me.
两名不真实的告密者嘲笑我。
They said the mermaid was nothing more than a silly doll.
他们说美人鱼不过是个傻娃娃
Then they grabbed their backpacks and ran laughing back to my house.
然后他们抓住了背包 跑回我家里笑了
Since then, they have told everyone that I carried one of my “dollies” on the picnic.
从那时起,他们告诉大家,我在野餐上背着我的“娃娃”。
They said that when they caught me playing with it, I made up the story about the mermaid.
他们说,当他们发现我玩它时,我编造了关于人鱼的故事。
And there it is—my proof.
这是... 我的证明
Now you’ve read it, too!
现在你们也读过了!
But now what do I do?
但现在我该怎么办?
I’ve got a mermaid in a teacup, but every time I show her to someone, she gets stiff like a doll.
但每次我带她给别人看, 她就会像个娃娃一样僵硬。
I think I’ll get my dad’s video camera and make a movie.
我会拿我爸的相机拍电影。
Everybody believes the movies, almost as much as they believe what they read in diaries.
每个人都相信电影, 几乎像相信他们在日记上读到的一样。