儿童故事集:Colin’s Grumpy Christmas
时间:2019-01-18 作者:英语课 分类:Children’s Stories-儿童故事集
Perhaps you know that Colin the Carp is an extremely grumpy fish. He is so grumpy that he doesn’t even like Christmas. In fact, he says it’s a total misery 1.
And so when Tim the Tadpole 2 asked Colin what he would like for Christmas he said, “I want to be alone.” It just so happened that the Christmas fairy overheard Colin make his wish, and when Santa came down to the pond, he scooped 3 up Colin and took him over to another pond where he could be all alone.
At first Colin is happy with his present, but then he starts to have second thoughts…
Read by Natasha. Proofread 4 by Claire Deakin. Story by Bertie.
Original Pictures for Storynory by Sophie Green.
Colin the Carp is netted
It was getting around to that time of year, and all the little tadpoles 5 who live in the pond were very, very, very excited. “Yippeee!” They were saying. “We’re going to have lots and lots and lots of green slime for lunch; and presents, and games, and wrapping paper.”
“Oh hark the little tadpoles,” said Colin, from beneath a stone. “No, they’re going to have wrapping paper in a pond! That’s really intelligent. It’s not as if paper is going to get at all soggy in the water.”
Prince Bertie the Frog was sitting on a stone watching all the tadpoles swimming in somersaults and circles, and he was starting to feel quite Christmassy. At this time of year, he always remembers the lovely princess Beatrice; how, when he was still a prince, they used to walk hand in hand over the frosty lawns and around the palace ponds, and she would ask him,
“Bertie darling, dearest, do you think that fish get cold in winter? I’m quite sure that I saw that big ugly carp shiver. Poor thing. No wonder his face looks so grumpy. Can’t we get the water heated for the pondlife?”
And Bertie would say, “My precious petal 6. You are truly the sweetest princess in the whole wide world. But don’t worry yourself on account of the frogs and fishes. They aren’t like humans. They don’t mind the cold at all.”
But now that poor Prince Bertie has been turned into a frog, he knows differently. “Brrr,” he said. “If only I could have a nice hot bath.”
Colin overheard Bertie saying this and said, “Ah! At long last, a voice of reason! Bertie, you and I are the only sensible creatures in this pond. Doesn’t all this merry Christmas stuff drive you crazy? It’s the coldest, darkest, most boring time of the year, and everyone keeps telling you to be happy! UUUUGH!”
“Well actually, I’m afraid I can’t agree with you there,” said Bertie. “Christmas is cold in this part of the world, but it is merry!”
“No it’s not,” said Colin. “It’s a pain.”
“Yes it is merry,” said Bertie. “It’s a time of a goodwill 7 to all creatures on earth.”
“Rubbish!” Said Colin.
Just then, Tim, who is a tiny tadpole, swam up to Colin’s left nostril 8 and said, “Oh Mr. Carp. What do you want for Christmas?”
“That’s easy,” said Colin glumly 9. “I want to be alone.”
Now, as Bertie always says, you should never wish for something unless you truly want it in your heart – for you never know, your wish might come true, and then you will be sorry. It just so happened that the Christmas Fairy was swimming past when Colin asked to be alone, and she heard this wish, and reported it back to Santa.
On Christmas night, when santa came down to the pond with a sackfull of fresh green slime for all the pondlife, he scooped up the sleeping Colin into a bucket of water, and took him over to another pond at the other end of the garden. A pond where nobody lived, except a gold statue of a cherub 10, and the cherub didn’t really live at all – he just spouted 11 water out of his mouth.
“Ho Ho Ho,” said Santa. “There you are, carp. Santa always delivers. This Christmas you shall be all alone!”
In the morning, Colin opened his sleepy eyes and said to himself, “Oh no. It’s the worst day of the year. Those tadpoles will soon be singing christmas carols. I think I’ll just hide under a stone until it’s all over.”
But after a while, he couldn’t help noticing that the pond was strangely quiet. He swam around a bit, and found that it was wonderfully free of stilly tadpoles, quacking 12 ducks, stuck up swans, and deluded 13 frogs who think that they are princes.
“This is fabulous 14!” Said Colin. “Just listen to that peace and quiet. Santa must have heard my wish and given me my own pond for christmas! That’s because I’ve been such a good carp all year round. Thank you Santa! I’m truly grateful. The only problem is… it’s just perfect! What am going to grump about? Oh never mind that. I’m…. I’m…. I’m happy!”
He even did a little dance in the water, because nobody was looking, and he really was happy to be alone for once.
In the royal palace, all the children who live there were very excited about all the presents waiting to be opened under the Christmas tree. But the wicked queen was in a furious mood, because she simply hates Christmas, even more than Colin does.
She went into the kitchen where the cook and her helpers were all working hard making lunch. The queen screeched 15, “Not turkey! I hate turkey! It’s the stupidest bird that was ever eaten!”
“Oh madam,” said the cook. “I ordered the turkey weeks ago. There’s nothing else for lunch.”
“Well let everyone else stuff themselves silly with turkey and roast potatoes. A queen has to mind her figure. I want something healthy. I want, I want… er fish! In fact, I want poached carp with a little sprig of parsley.”
And with those words, the wicked queen sweeped out of the kitchen and went up stairs to shout at the children.
Princess Beatrice loved Christmas day more than any other day in the whole year. She was just coming back from church when she decided 16 to take a little walk around the ponds and remember her long lost Prince Bertie. Her happiness was tinged 17 with a sadness as she thought about her handsome prince, whom she hadn’t seen for quite a while, but she was sure that he would return one day from a brave quest and they would be married and live happily ever after.
At the edge of the garden, she stopped at the pond where Colin was enjoying his solitude 18. Even though he was happy, his face still looked grumpy; It was just made that way.
“Poor fish,” said Beatrice. “He’s all on his own on Christmas Day. I’m sure he’s the same one I’ve seen many times before on the other side of the garden, in that slimy pond where they funny looking frog lives. I know, I’ll go and get a net and a bucket, and I’ll take him back to the other pond so he can have some company. That will be a lovely Christmas present for him.”
Colin heard this and he said, “Oh no, Your Royal Highness. That’s not what I want at all.” But Beatrice couldn’t understand what Colin was saying, because he’s just a fish, and besides, he was speaking under water.
Instead, she turned around and hurried back to the palace to look for a bucket and a net.
At the same time, the cook was wondering where she was going to find a carp to poach for the wicked queen’s lunch. As it was Christmas day, all the shops were shut – even the special shops that work by royal appointment. Then she remembered that she had seen a fat carp swimming around one of the ponds in the garden, and she went out to look for him.
In his pond, Colin was feeling his usual grumpy self again. “Oh well,” he said to himself. “Soon that air-headed princess will be fishing me out of here and taking me back to Bertie’s pond. That’s what I hate about Christmas. If people laid off doing good deeds and minded their own business, we would all be a lot happier.”
Then he heard a voice, but it wasn’t princess Beatrice’s. It was the cook, and she was saying, “There he is. He’s an ugly brute 19, but he’ll look a lot better when he’s on a plate with a spring of parsley in his mouth. I’ll tell the kitchen boy to come down here with a net and fish him out.”
“What’s this?” Said Colin. “On a plate with a spring of parsley in my mouth? Oh no! Christmas truly is the worst day of the year – and it looks like it’s going to be my last day ever!”
He started to swim around in a panic, looking for somewhere to hide, but the pond was not like the one where Bertie lived. There was no slime, no muddy bottom, no big rocks. It was just full of pure, clean water. In fact, it was the worst place in the entire world for a fish to hide in.
Soon Colin felt himself being lifted up through the air. He was wriggling 20 and fighting and gasping 21 for breath, but he just got his fins 22 tangled 23 in the net. Then plop! He was dropped, not even into a bucket, but a plastic shopping bag full of water.
“The indignity 24 of it,” said Colin. “Carried to my own funeral in a shopping bag. Merry Christmas!”
It was very dark inside the bag, and he couldn’t see where he was going. Then the motion stopped. They had arrived. He got ready to whack 25 the cook around the face with his tail.
“At least they will say that Colin the Carp went down fighting,” he said himself.
The bag turned upside down, and all the water and Colin with it went slopping out
“That’s it!” Thought Colin. “Straight into the cooking pot!”
Splash!
All his scales tingled 26 with lovely cold water.
“Oh look,” said a squeaky little voice. “There’s Colin. He’s come out of hiding.”
All the little tadpoles were swimming around him singing, “We wish you a merry Christmas, We wish you a merry Christmas.”
And Princess Beatrice said, “Merry Christmas pondlife!”
The cook didn’t make poached carp for the wicked queen’s lunch, because when she went back to the pond, Colin had mysteriously disappeared. But it didn’t matter, because the queen decided to skip Christmas altogether, and she went up to her room to read up on wicked spells.
As for Colin, for the first time in his long, grumpy life, he has a very, very, very, merry Christmas because he was so glad to be alive and with his friends.
- Business depression usually causes misery among the working class.商业不景气常使工薪阶层受苦。
- He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。
- 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。
- They scooped the other newspapers by revealing the matter. 他们抢先报道了这件事。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- The wheels scooped up stones which hammered ominously under the car. 车轮搅起的石块,在车身下发出不吉祥的锤击声。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- 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。
- 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》
- Each white petal had a stripe of red.每一片白色的花瓣上都有一条红色的条纹。
- A petal fluttered to the ground.一片花瓣飘落到地上。
- His heart is full of goodwill to all men.他心里对所有人都充满着爱心。
- We paid £10,000 for the shop,and £2000 for its goodwill.我们用一万英镑买下了这家商店,两千英镑买下了它的信誉。
- The Indian princess wore a diamond in her right nostril.印弟安公主在右鼻孔中戴了一颗钻石。
- All South American monkeys have flat noses with widely spaced nostril.所有南美洲的猴子都有平鼻子和宽大的鼻孔。
- He stared at it glumly, and soon became lost in thought. 他惘然沉入了瞑想。 来自子夜部分
- The President sat glumly rubbing his upper molar, saying nothing. 总统愁眉苦脸地坐在那里,磨着他的上牙,一句话也没有说。 来自辞典例句
- It was easy to see why the cartoonists regularly portrayed him as a malign cherub.难怪漫画家总是把他画成一个邪恶的小天使。
- The cherub in the painting is very lovely.这幅画中的小天使非常可爱。
- The broken pipe spouted water all over the room. 破裂的水管喷了一屋子的水。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- The lecturer spouted for hours. 讲师滔滔不绝地讲了几个小时。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- For the rest it was just a noise, a quack-quack-quacking. 除此之外,便是一片噪声,一片嘎嘎嘎的叫嚣。 来自英汉文学
- The eyeless creature with the quacking voice would never be vaporized. 那没眼睛的鸭子嗓也不会给蒸发。 来自英汉文学
- Don't be deluded into thinking that we are out of danger yet. 不要误以为我们已脱离危险。
- She deluded everyone into following her. 她骗得每个人都听信她的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- We had a fabulous time at the party.我们在晚会上玩得很痛快。
- This is a fabulous sum of money.这是一笔巨款。
- She screeched her disapproval. 她尖叫着不同意。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- The car screeched to a stop. 汽车嚓的一声停住了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
- 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。
- memories tinged with sadness 略带悲伤的往事
- white petals tinged with blue 略带蓝色的白花瓣
- People need a chance to reflect on spiritual matters in solitude. 人们需要独处的机会来反思精神上的事情。
- They searched for a place where they could live in solitude. 他们寻找一个可以过隐居生活的地方。
- The aggressor troops are not many degrees removed from the brute.侵略军简直象一群野兽。
- That dog is a dangerous brute.It bites people.那条狗是危险的畜牲,它咬人。
- The baby was wriggling around on my lap. 婴儿在我大腿上扭来扭去。
- Something that looks like a gray snake is wriggling out. 有一种看来象是灰蛇的东西蠕动着出来了。 来自辞典例句
- The level of TNF-α positively correlated with BMI,FPG,HbA1C,TG,FINS and IRI,but not with SBP and DBP. TNF-α水平与BMI、FPG、HbA1C、TG、FINS和IRI呈显著正相关,与SBP、DBP无相关。 来自互联网
- Fins are a feature specific to fish. 鱼鳍是鱼类特有的特征。 来自辞典例句
- For more than a year we have suffered the indignity.在一年多的时间里,我们丢尽了丑。
- She was subjected to indignity and humiliation.她受到侮辱和羞辱。
- After years of dieting,Carol's metabolism was completely out of whack.经过数年的节食,卡罗尔的新陈代谢完全紊乱了。
- He gave me a whack on the back to wake me up.他为把我弄醒,在我背上猛拍一下。