儿童故事集:Bertie’s Car
时间:2019-01-18 作者:英语课 分类:Children’s Stories-儿童故事集
英语课
When Bertie was a prince, he won a prize for being the kingdom’s most courteous 1 driver. The wicked queen thought that he looked ridiculous waiting at the lights in his ordinary car. She was more furious than ever that her daughter wanted to marry such a pathetic prince. She thought that the best way to unimpress Princess Beatrice with Bertie was to arrange a driving holiday.
Story by Bertie.
Read by Natasha. Duration 19.01.
Proofread 2 by Jana Elizabeth.
Bertie’s Car –
As you probably know, there is a tadpole 3 who lives in the palace pond with Bertie, and his name is Tim. All day long, he likes to swim around asking no end of questions; and if nobody answers his question, he asks it again, and again, and again. He’s always got some question on his mind. For example, this morning, when Bertie was sitting on a stone, Tim popped his pin-sized head out of the water and asked: “Bertie, can you drive a car?”
As sometimes happens, Colin the Carp was eavesdropping 4, and he could not resist butting 5 in with: “Oh yes, little Tim. It’s every frog that can drive a car. In fact, some frogs are taxi drivers. In fact, before tadpoles 6 can grow up to be frogs, they have to pass a driving test. In fact…”
Colin couldn’t think of another “In fact,” so Tim said: “Oh really? That’s jolly interesting.” Then he thought for a bit while he swam once around the pond.
Nobody was surprised when he swam back with another question: “Bertie, when you were a prince, what sort of car did you drive?”
And this time Bertie answered for himself saying: “I bet that you can’t guess.”
“Oh oh, I like the Guessing Game. Um um, a red Ferrari?”
“No.”
“Ah, I know a really good car. Ah ah, a Porsche.”
“No.”
“Oh, oh, don’t tell me. Ah ah…” But Tim had to give up, because he couldn’t remember the names of any more cars. And so Bertie told him that the car he used to drive when he was a prince was a… Ford 7.
Tim was awfully 8 impressed – but nobody else was, because although Fords are fine cars in many ways, they are cars that, well, ordinary people drive, not princes. Not usually anyway.
But Tim could hardly contain himself with excitement now that he had learned the name of a new car. The only way that Bertie could stop his flood of questions was to tell a story. And this is what he told…
As soon as Prince Bertie was old enough to drive, he asked his father, the king, for a car. The king did not really approve of cars, or any type of machine really, apart from steam trains, which he liked a lot. But Bertie kept on asking and asking, until eventually the king agreed that he could have one of the cars that were parked in the palace garage. He didn’t really mind which car Bertie took. But the wicked queen did, however, Because, you see, she loved cars, and the faster and the more expensive, the better. And so she told the garage man to give Bertie the slowest and the oldest.
Now Bertie and the garage man had known each other for a long, long time. He often used to come down to the garage to watch his friend mend the cars.
When Bertie came to collect his car, the garage man scratched his head and said: “It doesn’t really seem right that a royal prince should have an old car like this. I’ll tell you what. I’ll soup it up a bit.”
And over the next month, whenever he had a little spare time, he worked on Bertie’s car and added some special features – like an extra super fast engine, and a frame to make it stronger, in case it rolled over in a rally race, and bullet proof glass just in case anybody tried to assassinate 9 Prince Bertie.
“Wow,” thought Bertie as he drove without an instructor 10 for first time. He pushed his foot down on the accelerator pedal. “This car doesn’t look like much on the outside, but inside there’s a lean, mean racing 11 machine trying to get out.”
And VROOOOMM! He went speeding down the road, weaving in and out of traffic, and jumping through lights just as they turned red.
“This is terr-if-fic,” he said. But that was just before a dog ran across the road right in front of him. Bertie liked dogs, and certainly did not want to run it over, but there was no time to break and so he swerved 12 to the left. The tyre hit the curb 13 and he went bouncing back out into the road, and only just missed the dog. He had totally lost control now, and the car was just driving itself. A mother was pushing her pram 14 along the other side of the pavement towards him. The car was skidding 16 diagonally towards them. It mounted the pavement, and just went past the pram. It carried on ploughing through two or three front gardens and ended up in a hedge. As the car crashed to a halt, Bertie lurched forward but his seatbelt stopped him going too far. An airbag blew up in front of his nose.
The first thing he heard was the mother of the baby that he had almost killed, saying: “Are you alright? Shall I call an ambulance?”
Bertie managed to get out of the car and stand up, but his legs were so wobbly he had to sit on the grass for a few minutes. Then he said to the mother: “Madam, I promise you that from now on I am always going to be a good driver.”
And Prince Bertie kept his promise. He even won an award for being the kingdom’s most courteous driver.
But the wicked queen was anything but a courteous driver. If anyone dared to cut in front of her, or worse, give her a speeding ticket or a parking fine, she turned them into a beetle 17. As she sped through the red traffic lights, she thought that Prince Bertie looked quite silly as he waited at the white line. She hated the fact that her daughter, the lovely Princess Beatrice, wanted to marry such a namby-pamby, handbreak on, gear in neutral, nincompoop.
And so she decided 18 that the best way to unimpress Beatrice with Bertie was to go on a driving holiday. At the start of the summer, the wicked queen sat at the wheel of her low slung 19, pointy-nosed, sleek 20 black speed machine. Bertie opened the door of his Ford and helped Princess Beatrice with her seat belt.
They took the road to the next door kingdom, and once they were across the border, they headed for the mountains. The queen had arranged for them to stop for the night with her cousin, who lived in a castle on a high mountain pass. She would have arrived hours before Bertie and Beatrice, only the police pulled her over for speeding.
“Do you want me to turn you into a cockroach 21?” She asked the police officer. But she was in a foreign land now, and the officials were not afraid of her. She thought she had better not do anything too wicked, in case she started a war between the two countries.
They arrived at the castle towards nightfall. Its white towers and pointy red roofs guarded the valley from the top of a wall of rock. Prince Dracula would not have been ashamed to live there.
But its current owner, Prince Vlad, did not look at all like a vampire 22. He was a small man with a little blonde moustache. It was hard to see any family resemblance to his cousin, the wicked queen. And Bertie thought: “He’s obviously sweet like Beatrice, and not at all wicked like her mother.”
As it was late, they sat down to dinner in the great hall of the castle. The first course was wild boar pâté. Unfortunately, Princess Beatrice could not eat it because she was a vegetarian 23.
“Oh dear, I’m so hungry,” she whispered to Bertie.
The second course was a fondue. A fondue is a mountain dish which you cook yourself at the table. Beatrice was pleased when she saw the servant set up the fondue and light the flame below it. She loved fondues. At home, they would prong bits of bread with a skewer 24, and dip them in a cheese sauce which was melted over the heat. If you lost your bread, you had to do a forfeit 25, like sing a song or say something silly about yourself.
“This will be fun,” she said to Bertie. The servant lifted the lid of the silver serving dish. But oh no. This wasn’t a cheese fondue. It was raw meat. The queen quickly pronged a piece with her skewer and popped it into her mouth without cooking it.
Beatrice was so disappointed. “Excuse me,” she said to Prince Vlad. “Could you ask them to bring me some cheese and perhaps some celery? You see, I’m vegetarian.”
Prince Vlad looked quite astonished. He clearly did not expect to entertain a vegetarian in his castle.
“I know,” said the queen to her cousin. “Pathetic isn’t it?”
And Prince Vlad said: “Well she looks like a horse, so it’s hardly surprising that she eats grass.”
“Hey,” said Bertie. “How dare you say that about Beatrice?”
“How dare I?” Said Prince Vlad. “This is my castle, and I can say what I want to.”
“Well I jolly well think you should say you’re sorry,” said Bertie.
At the word, “sorry,” Prince Vlad’s little moustache twitched 26, and his ears went red. His eyes swivelled this way and that. It was clearly a word that he didn’t like much.
“Sorry?” He said under his breath. Then he said louder: “I shall give you my apologies with a bullet at dawn. I challenge you to a duel 27!”
“Alright,” said Bertie.
“Oh no! Stop it. Stop it!” Exclaimed Beatrice.
“Oh goodie!” Said the queen, because she loved duels 28, and she thought her cousin Vlad was bound to win and shoot Bertie, and that would be the end of her problem.
Beatrice could hold back her tears no longer. She ran out of the room sobbing 29. Bertie caught up with her down the corridor.
“This is too silly,” said Beatrice. I absolutely forbid you to take part in this duel. You know he’ll cheat. Your pistol probably won’t even be loaded. In fact.. in fact I won’t marry you if you fight this duel, even if he doesn’t kill you.”
And even though Bertie thought his honour was at stake, Beatrice made him promise that they would get up before dawn and leave.
In the middle of the night, Bertie and Beatrice quietly drove down the star-lit road away from Prince Vlad’s castle. They were heading for the border with the next kingdom, and then the sea. At first, it was quite scary driving along the windy road in the dark. But then the sun began to rise above the mountains, and Bertie felt glad to be alive and by the side of his lovely, sensible princess.
But not too long after dawn, two policemen on motorcycles drove along side the car and waved at Bertie to pull over. Bertie stopped the car and wound down the window.
“What have I done?” He asked.
“You were driving too slowly,” said the policeman.
Bertie laughed. Beatrice leaned over and told the policeman: “No he wasn’t. He was driving normally.”
Then the policeman said: “You are under arrest for running away from a duel. You must return to the castle of Prince Vladimir.”
“You were right,” said Bertie to Beatrice. “It’s all a trick. Prince Vlad just wants to kill me. The wicked queen put him up to this to stop me marrying you.”
“What shall we do?” Asked Beatrice.
“This,” said Bertie, and he pulled the car out and accelerated down the mountain road.
The policemen jumped onto their motorcycles and started to give chase. Beatrice covered her face with terror because she was certain that Bertie would shoot off the road at the first bend and they would go hurtling thousands of feet to their deaths – but he took it perfectly 30, and he rounded the second corner like a rally driver.
You see, what Bertie hadn’t told anyone, was that every weekend he took his car to the racing track and practiced driving it fast.
But by the time they were on a straight piece of road, the motorcycles were catching 31 up with them. Bertie pressed a button on the dashboard and the car shot forward even faster than before. Still the motorcycles were keeping up. By the next bend, one of them was trying to overtake.
But it was still early morning, and the road was slippery with dew. Bertie’s car went into a spin. He steered 32 into the skid 15 as he had been taught and managed to take it around in a perfect circle and carry on driving. The policemen had to drive off the road to avoid him. Fortunately for them, it wasn’t too steep here and they both went speeding over the green pastures, unable to stop until they were nearly at the bottom of the valley.
It wasn’t far to the border now. When they reached the barrier, Bertie just went crashing straight through it. The border guards opened fire, and it was a good thing that the windows of Bertie’s car were bullet proof. He sped through no-man’s land and slowed down just before the crossing into the next country. Beatrice and Bertie waved their royal passports at the two guards and they reached safety.
Bertie and Beatrice drove calmly on to their destination: the summer palace of Princess Leone, which overlooked the sparkling blue sea. The wicked queen arrived three days later. You see, first she lost the way, and then her car had broken down. But what annoyed her more than anything was that she soon saw that Bertie and Beatrice were more in love than ever.
adj.彬彬有礼的,客气的
- Although she often disagreed with me,she was always courteous.尽管她常常和我意见不一,但她总是很谦恭有礼。
- He was a kind and courteous man.他为人友善,而且彬彬有礼。
vt.校正,校对
- I didn't even have the chance to proofread my own report.我甚至没有机会校对自己的报告。
- Before handing in his application to his teacher,he proofread it again.交给老师之前,他又将申请书补正了一遍。
n.[动]蝌蚪
- As a tadpole changes into a frog,its tail is gradually absorbed.蝌蚪变成蛙,它的尾巴就逐渐被吸收掉。
- It was a tadpole.Now it is a frog.它过去是蝌蚪,现在是一只青蛙。
n. 偷听
- We caught him eavesdropping outside the window. 我们撞见他正在窗外偷听。
- Suddenly the kids,who had been eavesdropping,flew into the room. 突然间,一直在偷听的孩子们飞进屋来。
用头撞人(犯规动作)
- When they were talking Mary kept butting in. 当他们在谈话时,玛丽老是插嘴。
- A couple of goats are butting each other. 两只山羊在用角互相顶撞。
n.蝌蚪( tadpole的名词复数 )
- The pond teemed with tadpoles. 池子里有很多蝌蚪。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Both fish and tadpoles have gills. 鱼和蝌蚪都有鳃。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
n.浅滩,水浅可涉处;v.涉水,涉过
- They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上,所以我们只能涉水过河。
- If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪,必须极度小心。
adv.可怕地,非常地,极端地
- Agriculture was awfully neglected in the past.过去农业遭到严重忽视。
- I've been feeling awfully bad about it.对这我一直感到很难受。
vt.暗杀,行刺,中伤
- The police exposed a criminal plot to assassinate the president.警方侦破了一个行刺总统的阴谋。
- A plot to assassinate the banker has been uncovered by the police.暗杀银行家的密谋被警方侦破了。
n.指导者,教员,教练
- The college jumped him from instructor to full professor.大学突然把他从讲师提升为正教授。
- The skiing instructor was a tall,sunburnt man.滑雪教练是一个高高个子晒得黑黑的男子。
n.竞赛,赛马;adj.竞赛用的,赛马用的
- I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
- The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。
v.(使)改变方向,改变目的( swerve的过去式和过去分词 )
- She swerved sharply to avoid a cyclist. 她猛地急转弯,以躲开一个骑自行车的人。
- The driver has swerved on a sudden to avoid a file of geese. 为了躲避一队鹅,司机突然来个急转弯。 来自《简明英汉词典》
n.场外证券市场,场外交易;vt.制止,抑制
- I could not curb my anger.我按捺不住我的愤怒。
- You must curb your daughter when you are in church.你在教堂时必须管住你的女儿。
n.婴儿车,童车
- She sat the baby up in the pram. 她把孩子放在婴儿车里坐着。
- She ran in chase of the pram. 她跑着追那婴儿车。
v.打滑 n.滑向一侧;滑道 ,滑轨
- He braked suddenly,causing the front wheels to skid.他突然剎车,使得前轮打了滑。
- The police examined the skid marks to see how fast the car had been travelling.警察检查了车轮滑行痕迹,以判断汽车当时开得有多快。
n.曳出,集材v.(通常指车辆) 侧滑( skid的现在分词 );打滑;滑行;(住在)贫民区
- All the wheels of the truck were tied up with iron chains to avoid skidding on the ice road. 大卡车的所有轮子上都捆上了铁链,以防止在结冰的路面上打滑。 来自《用法词典》
- I saw the motorcycle skidding and its rider spilling in dust. 我看到摩托车打滑,骑车人跌落在地。 来自互联网
n.甲虫,近视眼的人
- A firefly is a type of beetle.萤火虫是一种甲虫。
- He saw a shiny green beetle on a leaf.我看见树叶上有一只闪闪发光的绿色甲虫。
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
- This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
- There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 ); 吊挂; 遣送; 押往
- He slung the bag over his shoulder. 他把包一甩,挎在肩上。
- He stood up and slung his gun over his shoulder. 他站起来把枪往肩上一背。
adj.光滑的,井然有序的;v.使光滑,梳拢
- Women preferred sleek,shiny hair with little decoration.女士们更喜欢略加修饰的光滑闪亮型秀发。
- The horse's coat was sleek and glossy.这匹马全身润泽有光。
n.蟑螂
- A cockroach can live several weeks with its head off.蟑螂在头被切掉后仍能活好几个星期。
- She screamed when she found a cockroach in her bed.她在床上找到一只蟑螂时大声尖叫。
n.吸血鬼
- It wasn't a wife waiting there for him but a blood sucking vampire!家里的不是个老婆,而是个吸人血的妖精!
- Children were afraid to go to sleep at night because of the many legends of vampire.由于听过许多有关吸血鬼的传说,孩子们晚上不敢去睡觉。
n.素食者;adj.素食的
- She got used gradually to the vegetarian diet.她逐渐习惯吃素食。
- I didn't realize you were a vegetarian.我不知道你是个素食者。
n.(烤肉用的)串肉杆;v.用杆串好
- I used a skewer to make an extra hole in my belt.我用扦子在腰带上又打了一个眼儿。
- He skewered his victim through the neck.他用扦子刺穿了受害人的脖子。
vt.丧失;n.罚金,罚款,没收物
- If you continue to tell lies,you will forfeit the good opinion of everyone.你如果继续撒谎,就会失掉大家对你的好感。
- Please pay for the forfeit before you borrow book.在你借书之前请先付清罚款。
vt.& vi.(使)抽动,(使)颤动(twitch的过去式与过去分词形式)
- Her lips twitched with amusement. 她忍俊不禁地颤动着嘴唇。
- The child's mouth twitched as if she were about to cry. 这小孩的嘴抽动着,像是要哭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
n./v.决斗;(双方的)斗争
- The two teams are locked in a duel for first place.两个队为争夺第一名打得难解难分。
- Duroy was forced to challenge his disparager to duel.杜洛瓦不得不向诋毁他的人提出决斗。
n.两男子的决斗( duel的名词复数 );竞争,斗争
- That's where I usually fight my duels. 我经常在那儿进行决斗。” 来自英语晨读30分(初三)
- Hyde Park also became a favourite place for duels. 海德公园也成了决斗的好地方。 来自辞典例句
<主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的
- 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。
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地
- The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
- Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。
adj.易传染的,有魅力的,迷人的,接住
- There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
- Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。