评论
打印
The Red Book
红皮书
One day, a girl called Gemma was walking home from school with her friends.
一天，一个叫杰玛的女孩和她的朋友放学回家。
It was a very windy day in autumn. Gemma and her friends walked through piles of leaves. The leaves made a lovely sound.
这是一个风很大的秋日。杰玛和她的朋友们穿过成堆的树叶。树叶发出悦耳的声音。
But then the wind got stronger. The wind pushed Gemma and her friends, and they could only walk slowly and they felt cold.
但后来风变得更大了。风吹着杰玛和她的朋友们，他们走得很慢，感觉很冷。
Gemma’s friends decided to run home where it was warm, but Gemma liked the wind, so she did not run.
杰玛的朋友们决定快速跑回到温暖的家里，但杰玛喜欢风，所以她没有跑。
Gemma liked the wind because it played with her hair. And everything looked different in the wind. The trees danced.
杰玛喜欢风，因为风拨弄着她的头发。在风中，一切看起来都不同了。树在跳舞。
The leaves flew through the sky like birds. Sometimes, the wind was very strong and Gemma thought she might fly as well!
树叶像鸟儿一样在天空中飞翔。有时，风很大，杰玛想她或许可以飞起来！
Gemma was almost home, but then she saw something in a pile of leaves. At first, she thought it was a very red leaf.
杰玛快到家了，但她突然看到一堆树叶里有什么东西。起初，她以为那是一片非常红的叶子。
But then she saw that it was square, and she had never seen a square leaf before.
但后来她发现它是正方形的，她以前从来没有见过正方形的叶子。
She pushed away the leaves and saw the square thing was a red book.
她推开树叶，看到这个正方形的东西原来是一本红色的书。
Strange, thought Gemma. Why would someone leave a book in a pile of leaves? It hadn’t been there long, because it wasn’t wet.
真奇怪，杰玛想。为什么有人会把一本书放在一堆树叶里呢？它在那里待的时间还不长，因为它还没有发潮。
Someone had wrapped the book in leaves. Maybe they wanted to keep it dry. But it would get wet soon if someone didn’t take it.
有人把书包在了树叶里。也许他们想让它保持干燥。但是如果没有人把它拿起来，它很快就会变潮。
So Gemma picked up the book and put it in her bag. Maybe it belonged to someone at school and she could give it back.
于是杰玛拿起那本书，把它放进了自己的包里。也许它是学校里某个人的，她可以把它物归原主。
That night, there was a big storm. The storm pushed down trees and pulled roofs off houses.
那天晚上，来了一场大风暴。暴风雨推倒了树木，掀翻了房屋的屋顶。
Some of the trees fell on the roads and the railways. It was too hard for people to travel the next day, so there was no school.
一些树倒在了公路和铁路上。对人们来说，第二天出门太难了，所以就不用上学了。
Gemma sat at home bored. Her parents had to work, so they couldn’t talk to her, and her brother’s school was close to their house, so he had walked to school. Gemma was alone and had nothing to do.
杰玛无聊地坐在家里。她的父母要工作，没法陪她聊天，而她哥哥的学校离家很近，他可以走着去上学。杰玛独自一人，无事可做。
So she opened the red book. She thought it might be an interesting book with lots of pictures, but she saw it was a long book with lots of words.
于是她打开了那本红色的书。她以为那是一本有很多插图的有趣的书，但她发现这是一本有很多单词的长书。
Still, she had nothing better to do, so she started reading.
尽管如此，也没有别的事情可以做，于是她读了起来。
The story went like this:
故事是这样的：
Once, there was a little boy called Nai who lived on a boat. He travelled with his father, who sold treasure from the boat.
从前，有一个叫奈的小男孩，他住在一艘船上。他和他的父亲一起旅行，父亲在船上卖财宝。
That was nice, Gemma thought. She liked stories with treasure.
那太好了，杰玛想。她喜欢有关宝藏的故事。
She kept reading.
她对这本书爱不释手。
Nai’s father found his treasure in the sea. He dived into the deep blue water and found all kinds of treasures: jewellery, old furniture, money…
奈的父亲在海里找到了他的宝藏。他潜入深蓝色的海水中，发现了各种各样的珍宝：珠宝、旧家具、钱…
He cleaned them and sold them in the cities they visited, and he told people that the treasures were magic.
他把它们清洗干净，并在他们到访的城市里出售，他告诉人们，这些珍宝很神奇。
Gemma closed her eyes and sighed. She wanted to live on a boat, too.
杰玛闭上眼睛，叹了口气。她也想住在船上。
She was sure she would find strange, exciting treasures. Not just red books.
她确信她会找到奇怪的、令人兴奋的宝藏。不仅仅是红皮书。
She kept reading.
她继续读着。
One day, Nai’s father dived into the sea and brought back a red book. It was wrapped in plastic, so it didn’t get wet.
有一天，奈的父亲潜入海中，带回了一本红色的书。它是用塑料包着的，所以没有被水打湿。
Hey, that’s strange, thought Gemma. What was it her teacher had said?
嘿，这太奇怪了，杰玛想。她的老师说过什么来着？
‘Fact is stranger than fiction’ – it meant that real things – facts – were stranger than stories – fiction.
‘事实比小说更奇怪’--意思是真实的事物--事实--比故事--小说更奇怪。
And it was true. She had found a red book wrapped in leaves, and there was a story in the book about a man who had found a red book wrapped in plastic. That was very strange.
果真如此。她发现了一本用树叶包裹的红皮书，书中有一个故事，讲的是一个男人发现了一本用塑料包装的红皮书。这太奇怪了。
She kept reading.
她继续读着。
