20-0-0-3 書車

 
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A Library on Wheels

Written by Shawn Bogstie

      On their way home from school, Guy and Jacque saw something very unusual.
      “What in the name of God is that?” Guy shouted with a thick French accent. He pointed toward something parked inside the local temple courtyard parking lot.
      “I am not sure,” Jacque replied with a puzzled look on his face. “I can’t see it very clearly from here.”
    “Oh yeah. I forgot that you are blind as a bat,” Guy, the older of the two, chuckled.
     “I’m not blind!” the portly teenager said in an attempt to defend himself. “Well…,” he stuttered, “not completely anyway.”
  “Whatever you say, Goggles. Let’s go take a closer look at that thing.”
     They casually strolled through the temple gates and into the courtyard. The strange thing was parked in front of the temple’s main building. But what was it?
    “It looks like some geek’s version of a Transformer,” Guy laughed.
     “Only instead of changing into a cool robot with special powers, it turns into a library on wheels with the power to put you to sleep in a flash,” Jacque added.
     They may not have admitted it, but it was a pretty neat cube van. The side flipped up and then doors/shelves swung outward revealing a veritable library on wheels. There was even a TV on it advertising some of their stuff.
     “Well as long as we are here, we might as well see what they’ve got.” Guy sheepishly walked toward the bookmobile. He didn’t want his friend to know that he liked reading. That would ruin his reputation.
     “Yeah,” Jacque followed, “as long as we’re here.” They spent the rest of the afternoon browsing through the books on the “un-cool” bookmobile. 

 【生字】
wheel  n. 車輪
unusual  adj. 不尋常的、特殊
thick  adj. 濃厚的
accent  n. 腔調
point  v. 指出
local  adj. 當地的
temple  n. 寺廟
courtyard  n. 庭院
puzzle  v. 困惑
chuckle  v. 咯咯笑
portly  adj. 肥胖的
in an attempt to  ph. 試著
defend  v. 辯護
stutter  v. 口吃
completely  adv. 完全地
goggle  n. 護目鏡
casually  adv. 若無其事地
stroll  v. 散步
version  n. 版本
instead of  ph. 不做…而做…
flash  v. 閃過
add  v. 補充說明
admit  v. 承認
neat  adj. 棒的
cube  n. 立方體
van  n. 箱型車
flip  v. 翻
swing  v. 轉向
reveal  v. 顯示出
veritable  adj. 真正的
advertise  v. 廣告
sheepishly  adv. 靦腆地
bookmobile  n. 流動圖書館，此指書車
ruin  v. 破壞
reputation  n. 名聲
the rest  ph. 其餘
browse  v. 瀏覽

【翻譯】
     Guy和Jacque在從學校回家的途中，看到了很不尋常的東西。
     Guy用一口濃厚的法國腔大聲說：「那到底是什麼東西阿？」他指著那個停靠在當地寺院停車場裡的東西。
     Jacque一臉疑惑的回答說：「我不確定，從這裡我無法看的很清楚」
     Guy(兩位年紀較大的那一位)咯咯地笑著說：「喔!對了，我忘記你就像是蝙蝠一樣眼盲。」
     那位胖胖的青少年嘗試為自己辯護：「我不是瞎了。」他口吃的說：「嗯……並不是完全看不到。」「算了吧!四眼田雞，不管你說什麼了，我們一起走近一點，去看看那個東西吧!
     他們若無其事地穿越寺廟大門進入了庭院，那個奇怪的東西停在寺廟的主要建築前，但是那到底是什麼?
     Guy笑著說：「他看起來就像是書呆子版本的變形金剛」
     Jacque補充說明：「只是差別在，他不是變成擁有特殊能力的酷炫機器人，而是變成了能夠在短暫時間裡，使你睡著的輪子圖書館。」
     他們也許不想承認，但這真的是一輛很酷的立方體箱型車。車子的旁邊可以往上翻而且門可以往旁邊打開，展現出名副其實的輪子圖書館。它甚至還配備了一台電視來為它的東西打廣告。
     Guy羞怯地走向書車：「既然我們都來到這裡了，我們不妨來看看他們到底有什麼東西。」他不希望他的朋友知道他喜歡讀書，因為那會破壞他的名聲。
     Jacque附和說：「對啊，對啊，我們既然都來到這裡了。」於是他們用剩下的午後時光在那個「不酷的」書車瀏覽書籍。

【造句練習】
Roger’s haircut was very unusual.
That is an unusual looking duck.
Mary is an unusual girl.

Tom is from Australia, but he only has a little bit of an accent. It isn’t very thick.

I am puzzled. I don’t understand how I could have lost my glasses.
How the pyramids were built has puzzled archaeologists for many years.
Roger laughed with a stupid look on his face.

I put up my arms to defend myself, so that I didn’t get hit in the face.
My friend always defends me from the schoolyard bully.

I asked to have a closer look at the watch behind the counter.

Carl dresses very casually.
Dennis casually walked up to the girl at the dance.

Do you have the second version of this book?
I liked the original version better.
Did you hear they made a new version of Superman?

Spiderman can shoot webs from his wrists. That is his special power.

Let me change into something more casual.
Luke changes into a vampire at night.

Just admit you took my pencil and I won’t hit you.
The criminal admitted to robbing 10 banks.