-
(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
“What are you sniffing1, Benny?” Jessie asked when the children stepped inside the mall.
Benny kept his nose in the air and didn’t answer Jessie right away.
“I know. Benny’s sniffing for caramel corn, right?” Henry asked.
Benny made a face. “How come I don’t smell any? Yesterday I did.”
Jessie pointed2 to the huge clock in the middle of the food court. “It’s morning. People eat breakfast, not caramel corn, in the morning.”
“Shucks,” Benny said. “Mrs. Frye said there would be caramel corn at Penny’s shop. Let’s go look there.”
The mall wasn’t too busy yet. The shopkeepers were setting up for the day. They rolled up their security gates. Some of them set out pushcarts4 of small items to sell in front of their stores. Cleaning people pushed mops and brooms to make the mall spick-and-span for the day.
“Look who’s coming down the hall,” Violet said to the others.
“Uh-oh,” Henry said. “Hap5 Merchant doesn’t look too glad to see us here.”
Hap looked puzzled, then annoyed when he noticed the Aldens. “I thought you kids would be sightseeing today. I left a message for you with Mrs. Frye. Did you come here to shop?”
“We’re going to see Penny Block,” Henry told Hap. “Mr. Bolt wants us to work for her, remember?”
Hap didn’t look at all pleased to hear this.
“Well, I’m the mall manager, and I’m sure Mrs. Block doesn’t need a bunch of children running around like little monkeys.”
“We wouldn’t do that.” Jessie hoped Benny wasn’t going to make one of his monkey faces while she was trying to be serious.
At that moment, an older woman with wild curly red hair and wearing a bright purple blouse and funny eyeglasses came up to the children. “You’re the Aldens, right? Mr. Bolt called me last night and told me to keep an eye out for two boys and two girls. Here you are, and just in time. One of my shipments is down on the dock. I need a strong young person to bring the boxes into my storeroom.”
Hap tried to say something, but Penny Block was like a runaway6 train. “Anyway, if you haven’t guessed already, I’m Penny Block. We can get acquainted while we work. I have a list a mile long if you children are ready to work. Let me show you my shop.”
Before Hap could squeeze in a word, Penny rounded up the Aldens. The group went off, leaving Hap behind.
Penny’s Emporium was designed to look like a seaside shop on a boardwalk. In one corner stood a tall tank of helium for blowing up balloons. In another area, a camera was set up to take pictures of people who stuck their heads through a funny pirate cutout. A caramel popcorn7 machine took up another corner.
“The rest of the shop is for souvenirs,” Penny continued. “If any of you is good with your hands, I could sure use you to wrap gifts for our customers.”
Violet was too shy to say anything, but Jessie spoke8 up for her. “Violet is the best one in our family for wrapping presents.”
“Then you can be my chief gift wrapper, Violet,” Penny said. “I had a feeling you were the one for that.”
“What am I the one for?” Benny asked.
Penny Block laughed. “Why, our caramel machine, of course. I need a careful boy to scoop9 the caramel corn into boxes. Folks come in here all day for Penny’s Caramel Corn. My husband, before he died, always told me the way to bring folks into a shop is to sell something that smells good. They’ll come in for that and go out with a Hope Harbor teapot or a dish towel. And he was right.”
“Mrs. Block, have you ever seen a coconut10 painted like a monkey? Mrs. Frye told me you might sell them,” said Benny.
“I know just what you mean, Benny. I’ll keep an eye out for them at the gift show I’m attending this afternoon.”
“Great! Thanks a lot,” said Benny.
“What can Jessie and I do?” Henry asked.
Penny pulled out a pad of paper. “A lot, if you aren’t afraid of work. I need somebody to be in charge of taking pirate photos. They’re very popular souvenirs with tourists. Jessie, you would be good to sell souvenirs from my pushcart3 in the mall area. That gets people to stop in front of my store. Henry, you’re my gofer. Go for this. Go for that. Is that okay with you?”
“I’ll go for it!” Henry joked.
Penny showed Henry where to find the hand truck from the storeroom. She needed him to pick up some boxes at the warehouse11.
Just as Henry headed out the back door of the shop, a young woman came in. “Where are you going with that hand truck?” she asked Henry. “That belongs to this shop.”
For a second, Henry was lost for words. “It’s ... uh ... well, Penny said I should ...”
“Who are you?” the young woman asked. “Penny didn’t tell me anyone else was working here. I’m the store manager.”
At that moment, Penny stepped into the storeroom. “Hello, Janet. I see you’ve met Henry Alden. You know how you said there was so much to do? Well, a miracle happened. Martin Bolt sent the Alden family to save the day. Henry, this is Janet Trainor.”
The young woman ignored Penny’s introduction. “Mr. Bolt sent children to work here? That’s not going to be much of a help at all. I can’t work with children underfoot.”
“Nonsense,” Penny said. “The younger ones have already started. Henry is on his way down to the warehouse to pick up a shipment that came in. You can go ahead, Henry. Now, come meet the other Aldens, Janet.”
Benny was at the popcorn machine, carefully scooping12 caramel corn into boxes.
“He’s going to make a mess!” Janet told Penny. “And why is that girl wrapping packages?”
Penny was very patient. “Violet Alden is wonderful with her hands. I have her wrapping some of the gift plates. You know how much time that takes. Now you’ll have more time to wait on customers.”
The young woman sighed deeply. “I guess I’ll go out and load up the souvenir cart, then. Wait! Where is it? I pushed it just inside the door last night before we closed.”
Penny smiled. “Take a look out there. Jessie Alden already stocked it. I posted her out there to wait on customers who are passing by. You can cover the shop. I’m heading to the gift show at the convention center. I feel much better about leaving now that the Aldens are here to do all the little jobs.”
After Penny left, Janet shadowed the children around the shop. She expected them to do things one way: her way. She rewrapped a package Violet had already wrapped perfectly13. She stood over Benny to make sure he didn’t drop one kernel14 of corn. She checked up on Jessie, who had already sold several souvenirs without anyone’s help at all.
Soon Henry returned from the warehouse with a stack of boxes. “I’ll get a box cutter and open these if you want,” he told Janet.
When the young woman saw the boxes, she grabbed the hand truck from Henry. “I’ll take those, thank you. I’m going to lock them up until I have time to match everything against the order slips.”
Henry smiled. “I could do that if you—”
Janet shook her head. “No, it isn’t as easy as it looks.” With that, she rolled the hand truck over to a storage closet and locked the boxes inside.
The day passed quickly. At five o’clock, Benny tapped Henry’s elbow. “Is it time to go, Henry?” he asked. “Penny said we could leave around dinnertime. I like it here, but now I’m hungry.”
“Sure thing, Benny,” Henry answered. “I’ll go find Janet. She’s in the storeroom again.”
Henry found the young woman scrambling15 through the boxes he had delivered that morning. Janet wasn’t alone. Standing16 next to her was the dark-haired crewman the Aldens had met on the dock that morning.
“Hey, aren’t you—” Henry began. Janet and the young man turned around suddenly, startled to see Henry standing there.
“What are you doing here?” Janet asked, quickly shoving the boxes inside the closet again. “I was ... uh ... telling this man where the blue jeans store is. He wandered in here by mistake.”
“Sorry.” Henry wondered why the crewman had come into the storeroom to get directions. “I just wanted to let you know my brother, sisters, and I are leaving as soon as Penny gets back.”
Janet’s eyes were dark with annoyance17. “You don’t have to wait until Penny gets back. I’ve covered the shop by myself before.”
Henry backed away. Why was this young woman so grouchy18 all the time? “Okay,” Henry said. “Oh, well, there’s Penny now. I guess we’ll go.” He looked at the crewman again. “I just figured out where I saw you—on the freighter this morning, right?”
The man turned away from Henry without answering. He opened the back door of the storeroom and left.
Penny suddenly appeared in the doorway19. “I’m back, and you won’t believe what I found out at the gift show, Henry. My supplier says there’s a whole shipment of novelty items on one of the ships in the harbor right now, including—guess what—coconut monkeys, coconut pirates, and coconut clowns! Once they’re unloaded in a few days, I’ll set aside one for Benny just as soon as I open the boxes.”
Everyone was smiling at this good news, except for Janet.
“What’s the matter?” Penny asked the young woman. “Don’t you think we could sell a lot of those? You look as if I told you we’d be selling dead bugs20.”
“Oh, it’s ... uh ... nothing,” Janet said. “I’ll unpack21 the boxes as soon as they get here.”
收听单词发音 |
1
sniffing
|
|
| n.探查法v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的现在分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
pointed
|
|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
pushcart
|
|
| n.手推车 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
pushcarts
|
|
| n.手推车( pushcart的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
5
hap
|
|
| n.运气；v.偶然发生 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
runaway
|
|
| n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
popcorn
|
|
| n.爆米花 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
spoke
|
|
| 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： |
|
|
|
|
9
scoop
|
|
| n.铲子，舀取，独家新闻；v.汲取，舀取，抢先登出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
coconut
|
|
| n.椰子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
warehouse
|
|
| n.仓库；vt.存入仓库 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
scooping
|
|
| n.捞球v.抢先报道( scoop的现在分词 )；（敏捷地）抱起；抢先获得；用铲[勺]等挖（洞等） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
kernel
|
|
| n.(果实的)核，仁；(问题)的中心，核心 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
scrambling
|
|
| v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
annoyance
|
|
| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
grouchy
|
|
| adj.好抱怨的；愠怒的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
doorway
|
|
| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
bugs
|
|
| adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
unpack
|
|
| vt.打开包裹（或行李），卸货 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
购买
在百度中搜索