《神奇树屋》 第二十四册 Earthquake in the Early Morning 06 Something to Lend

　　A woman in a blue bathrobe was sitting on acrumbling stone wall. She was sobbing¹ into herhandkerchief.

Two boys with dark hair sat next to the woman.

The boys wore dusty, torn pajamas². They were bothbarefoot. The younger one was watching the olderboy write on a rectangular³ piece of wood with achunk of coal.

Annie pulled Jack⁴ over to the family.

"Hi, I'm Annie," she said.

The two boys looked up.

"I'm Peter," said the youngest. "He's my brother,Andrew. And she's our aunt Mary." He pointed⁵ to hisbrother, then to the woman, as he spoke⁶.

Aunt Mary tried to smile through her tears.

"Forgive me," she said. "I'm a bit shaken up""We are, too," said Annie sympathetically.

"The house caught fire," Peter said. "We escaped,"said Andrew. "But we lost most of our things."'We've lost our shoes," said Peter. Jack and Annielooked at the boys' bare feet. They were cut andbleeding.

"Hey, my boots are just like boys' boots," Anniesaid. "One of you can wear them.""Take mine, too," said Jack. He and Annie startedunlacing their boots.

"We can't just take your boots," said Andrew.

"Then we'll lend them to you," said Jack.

He and Annie handed their boots to the two boys.

"Thank you, thank you," said Aunt Mary. Shestarted crying again.

The two boys put their new boots on. Then Peterwhispered something to Andrew.

Andrew held out the piece of wood to Jack andAnnie.

"Here's something we can lend you," he said.

Jack and Annie read a poem the brothers hadwritten on the piece of wood:

There is not waterAnd still less soapWe have no cityButs lots of hope"Thanks," said Annie.

"It's a great gift," said Jack. "We needed some hope.""It's the only thing we can lend you," said Andrew.

"Lend?" said Annie. She looked at Jack. "Oh, wow.

They just gave us the special writing--something tolend!"Jack smiled. They could go home now.

"You should go to Golden Gate Park-- that's what areporter told us," he said to the boys and their aunt.

"Is that where you're going?" asked Aunt Mary. Shehad stopped crying at last and looked stronger.

"We have to go home to our parents," said Annie.

"Will you be safe?" asked the aunt.

"Yes. Once we're home, we'll be safe," said Jack.

"Thanks for lending us your boots!" said Peter.

"You're good friends!""You're good friends!" said Annie.

"You've helped us more than you know," said Jack.

"Be careful," said Aunt Mary.

"We will!" said Jack and Annie.

They waved as their new friends headed off to thepark.

Jack sighed.

"Ready?" he said.

"Yeah," said Annie. "I guess we just go back theway we came."Jack looked down the street. Smoke billowed upfrom the bottom of the hill.

"That might not be as easy as it sounds," he said.

1 sobbing   

<主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的

参考例句：

• I heard a child sobbing loudly. 我听见有个孩子在呜呜地哭。
• Her eyes were red with recent sobbing. 她的眼睛因刚哭过而发红。

2 pajamas   

n.睡衣裤

参考例句：

• At bedtime,I take off my clothes and put on my pajamas.睡觉时，我脱去衣服，换上睡衣。
• He was wearing striped pajamas.他穿着带条纹的睡衣裤。

3 rectangular   

adj.矩形的，成直角的

参考例句：

• He put a rectangular box on the table.他把一个长方形的箱子放在桌子上。
• The equations are written in rectangular coordinates.这些方程是在直角座标系中写出的。

4 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

5 pointed   

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 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：

• 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。