时间:2018-12-06 作者:英语课 分类:52 The Mystery of the Lost Min


英语课

Jessie was riding right behind Benny. She, too, saw him lean over his pony’s neck, then tumble off.



“Benny!” she exclaimed.



But Luis had already dismounted. “Are you okay?” he asked. Violet and Henry rushed up.



Benny brushed dirt off his shorts. “I’m okay.” He grinned to show them he was fine.



“What happened?” Henry asked.



“I wanted to show Ginger 1 my lucky rock,” Benny explained. “Then she sort of twisted around, and I fell.”



Luis stroked the pony’s nose. “She probably thought you were feeding her a lump of sugar. Horses aren’t very interested in lucky rocks.”



Benny turned his pockets inside out. “My rock! Where is it?”



Violet picked up the shiny stone from the ground. “Here it is. You must have dropped it when you fell off.” She handed it to him. “Put it in your shirt pocket, Benny, and fasten the button. It’ll be safer there.”



Jessie shaded her eyes from the glare of the sun. “What’s that funny-shaped mountain up ahead?”



“That’s Weaver’s Needle,” Luis replied.



Violet gasped 2. “It looks like a heart! Just like in the stone maps!”



“It does,” agreed Henry. “Is that the ‘heart’ we’re supposed to follow?”



“A lot of people believe so,” Luis said, passing around his canteen.



Benny was excited. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go!”



Luis shaded his eyes. “I don’t know,” he said thoughtfully. “The rock isn’t as close as it seems.”



“It’s just over that hill,” said Jessie.



“Distances are deceiving in the desert,” Luis told her. “It’s actually much farther away than it seems. And we’ll have to hike the rest of the way, because the trail is too narrow for the horses.”



“Do we have enough time today?” Henry asked.



Luis shook his head regretfully. “Sorry. We should have started earlier.”



Violet was disappointed. “Will we ever start looking for the mine?”



“Tomorrow,” Luis promised. “We’ll get up early and be at the stables by six. We’ll pack our breakfast and lunch.”



Everyone agreed that they’d been out in the heat long enough. Remounting their horses, they headed back to the stables.



Halfway 3 down the trail, they spotted 4 a small dust cloud. Mr. and Mrs. Clark trotted 5 up on matching horses.



Mr. Clark looked hot. He didn’t even have on a hat. Mrs. Clark was wearing shorts and tennis shoes. Neither of them was dressed for riding.



“Nice day for a horseback ride, isn’t it?” Mrs. Clark said cheerfully. A diamond pin on her shirt flashed in the bright sun.



“Yes, but we’re heading back,” said Henry. “It’s getting too hot.”



“Is it?” said Mr. Clark. “I hadn’t noticed.” Sweat streamed down his red face. “Well, see you later.”



They bumped down the trail.



Violet stared after them. “Did you see that fancy pin Mrs. Clark had on?” she said to Jessie.



“Just to go riding! There’s something weird 6 about those two,” Jessie said.



When the Aldens and Luis returned to the stables, they asked Rex about the Clarks.



“Took my last saddle horses,” Rex replied, shaking his head. “I told ’em they weren’t properly geared for a midday ride, but they wouldn’t listen. Said they knew what they were doing and paid me with a brand-new credit card.”



“May we have these same horses tomorrow?” Luis asked Rex. “At six. Is that okay?”



“They’ll be ready,” Rex promised. “See you kids in the morning.”



As they walked to RV Haven 7, they talked about the Clarks.



“Maybe they’re looking for the mine, too,” said Benny.



“If they are, they won’t last long,” Henry put in. “Mr. Clark wasn’t even wearing a hat.”



“Maybe Jake will find them,” Violet said hopefully. “He could take them to his camp.”



Luis was concerned, too. “If they aren’t back by this evening, we ought to tell Tom and Janine. They might have to send out a search party.”



“A search party!” cried Benny. “That’s just like in the Wild West days.”



Back at the campground, after everyone dressed in fresh clothes, they trooped into the Chuck Wagon 8 for lunch.



“We ought to buy some supplies,” Jessie said, while waiting for their sandwiches and soft drinks to arrive. “Especially since we’re going to pack breakfast and lunch tomorrow.”



As they ate, they discussed what they should take. Jessie and Henry planned a breakfast of fruit and granola. For lunch they would eat rolls, cheese, and cookies.



They strolled into the camp store. Benny picked out his favorite brand of cookies. Violet found some nice oranges. Henry bought an extra canteen.



Jessie took the supplies to the counter.



Janine rang up the purchases. “Nice that somebody actually pays their bill,” she said when Jessie gave her the money.



Everyone knew she meant old Jake.



“Where is Jake?” Violet asked. “Has he been in yet today?”



“Haven’t seen him,” Janine replied.



Henry remembered what Luis had told him. “But Jake comes in every morning. Could something have happened to him?”



“Maybe he was tired today,” Benny suggested.



“I’m worried,” said Violet. “Jake looked frightened yesterday when he showed us that note.”



“Now we have three people to worry about,” said Jessie. “First the Clarks, now Jake.”



“We should wait until the end of the afternoon and then decide what to do,” Luis said. “Let’s go for a swim.”



They spent an enjoyable afternoon at the recreation center. Between refreshing 9 dips in the pool, they worked on a puzzle.



At around four o’clock, the Clarks straggled in. Mr. Clark’s face was tomato red. Mrs. Clark looked wilted 10. Her ever present smile was gone.



“I told you to use sunscreen,” she said to her husband. “Now you have a terrible sunburn.”



“It’s nothing,” Mr. Clark snapped.



“Don’t yell at me. We had to tell—” Mrs. Clark stopped suddenly, as if aware they weren’t alone.



They passed the children with weak smiles.



“They’re certainly acting 11 strange,” Henry said. “I wonder why they went riding, since they obviously didn’t enjoy it.”



“At least we don’t have to worry about the Clarks anymore,” said Jessie.



Violet put her chin in her hands. “Now it’s just Jake.”



Just then Tom Parker came inside.



“Whoo-ee!” he exclaimed, wiping his face with an oversize red bandanna 12. “It’s a scorcher out there today.”



“Tom,” Henry said. “Have you seen Jake today?”



Tom wrinkled his forehead. “Nope, don’t believe I have.”



“But he comes into the store every day,” said Violet. “Do you suppose something has happened to him?”



Tom just laughed. “That old man is as tough as a gopher snake.”



“Maybe so,” Luis admitted. “But even gopher snakes get in trouble.”



Tom narrowed his eyes in the afternoon light. He didn’t look quite so friendly now, Violet thought.



“You kids shouldn’t be fretting 13 about an old man. You’re on vacation! Have fun!”



The Clarks made loud splashing sounds in the pool.



“Now, they’ve got the right idea,” Tom said, jerking his thumb toward the pool room. “By the way, tomorrow evening is our desert hike. Don’t forget!”



“Sounds great,” said Henry. “Let’s hope Jake is back by then so he can go with us.”



“Don’t concern yourselves with an old prospector 14.” Tom’s tone was light enough, but his eyes were still like slits 15.



When he left, Jessie spoke 16. “Something’s fishy 17. Tom knows more about Jake than he’s telling.”



Henry nodded. “We have something more important to look for than the mine.”



“Jake,” said Benny.



That evening, Grandfather met them for dinner.



“The cabin is coming along nicely,” he said, settling into their booth. “A few more days, and we’ll be finished.”



“In just a few days?” Violet said. That didn’t give them much time to find the mine—or Jake.



Grandfather asked the children what they had been doing.



“We rode horses into the hills,” Benny said. “And I fell off Ginger, but I wasn’t hurt.”



Henry added, “We’re taking a longer ride tomorrow. Don’t worry, Benny will be careful. Won’t you, Benny?”



“I’m always careful,” Benny asserted. “It was Ginger who slipped, not me.”



Grandfather listened to their plans, then nodded. “That sounds like fun.”



It was late by the time they performed their evening chores. Soon everyone was ready for bed.



Benny shifted uneasily in his bunk 18. He hadn’t been asleep very long. Something had awakened 19 him. A sound?



He listened and heard nothing. That was it. The air-conditioning unit that ran constantly was silent.



Someone had shut off their air.



1 ginger
n.姜,精力,淡赤黄色;adj.淡赤黄色的;vt.使活泼,使有生气
  • There is no ginger in the young man.这个年轻人没有精神。
  • Ginger shall be hot in the mouth.生姜吃到嘴里总是辣的。
2 gasped
v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 );喘息;倒抽气;很想要
  • She gasped at the wonderful view. 如此美景使她惊讶得屏住了呼吸。
  • People gasped with admiration at the superb skill of the gymnasts. 体操运动员的高超技艺令人赞叹。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
3 halfway
adj.中途的,不彻底的,部分的;adv.半路地,在中途,在半途
  • We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路,天就黑了。
  • In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上,最忌讳的是有始无终。
4 spotted
adj.有斑点的,斑纹的,弄污了的
  • The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
  • Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。
5 trotted
小跑,急走( trot的过去分词 ); 匆匆忙忙地走
  • She trotted her pony around the field. 她骑着小马绕场慢跑。
  • Anne trotted obediently beside her mother. 安妮听话地跟在妈妈身边走。
6 weird
adj.古怪的,离奇的;怪诞的,神秘而可怕的
  • From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来,他好像有点怪。
  • His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。
7 haven
n.安全的地方,避难所,庇护所
  • It's a real haven at the end of a busy working day.忙碌了一整天后,这真是一个安乐窝。
  • The school library is a little haven of peace and quiet.学校的图书馆是一个和平且安静的小避风港。
8 wagon
n.四轮马车,手推车,面包车;无盖运货列车
  • We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
  • The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。
9 refreshing
adj.使精神振作的,使人清爽的,使人喜欢的
  • I find it'so refreshing to work with young people in this department.我发现和这一部门的青年一起工作令人精神振奋。
  • The water was cold and wonderfully refreshing.水很涼,特别解乏提神。
10 wilted
(使)凋谢,枯萎( wilt的过去式和过去分词 )
  • The flowers wilted in the hot sun. 花在烈日下枯萎了。
  • The romance blossomed for six or seven months, and then wilted. 那罗曼史持续六七个月之后就告吹了。
11 acting
n.演戏,行为,假装;adj.代理的,临时的,演出用的
  • Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她,她只是假装的。
  • During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代,她的表演生涯黯然失色。
12 bandanna
n.大手帕
  • He knotted the bandanna around his neck.他在脖子上系了一条印花大围巾。
  • He wiped his forehead with a blue bandanna and smiled again.他用一条蓝色的大手帕擦擦前额,又笑了笑。
13 fretting
n.探矿者
  • Although he failed as a prospector, he succeeded as a journalist.他作为采矿者遭遇失败,但作为记者大获成功。
  • The prospector staked his claim to the mine he discovered.那个勘探者立桩标出他所发现的矿区地以示归己所有。
14 slits
n.狭长的口子,裂缝( slit的名词复数 )v.切开,撕开( slit的第三人称单数 );在…上开狭长口子
  • He appears to have two slits for eyes. 他眯着两眼。
  • "You go to--Halifax,'she said tensely, her green eyes slits of rage. "你给我滚----滚到远远的地方去!" 她恶狠狠地说,那双绿眼睛冒出了怒火。
15 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
  • 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。
16 fishy
adj. 值得怀疑的
  • It all sounds very fishy to me.所有这些在我听起来都很可疑。
  • There was definitely something fishy going on.肯定当时有可疑的事情在进行中。
17 bunk
n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位;废话
  • He left his bunk and went up on deck again.他离开自己的铺位再次走到甲板上。
  • Most economists think his theories are sheer bunk.大多数经济学家认为他的理论纯属胡说。
18 awakened
v.(使)醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 );(使)觉醒;弄醒;(使)意识到
  • She awakened to the sound of birds singing. 她醒来听到鸟的叫声。
  • The public has been awakened to the full horror of the situation. 公众完全意识到了这一状况的可怕程度。 来自《简明英汉词典》
学英语单词
a function of
alsakharovite-zn
amphidetic ligament
Arnafjord
aveto r.
B.E.E.
ballad stanza
bat caves
behavior language
binary cycly
braking mechanism
breather-pipe
business establishment
calcium psilomelane
capitals of ethiopia
car hauler
carl erich correns
chthonian
concurrent input-output
courier-post
crawl pipe cutter
dairy breed
dame rebecca wests
data base engineering
debit schedule
decoloured
Deutzia aspera
dichotomists
diphthongoid
electric soldering appliance
enclose in
first stage
generic noun
genus Syngnathus
George Eliot
gunkhole
hears from
himalayensis
intuitings
iron strapping
island chains
Kambangan
Kolmer's test
kurten
lakeside
lost causes
marine meteorograph
mast timber
master source program
McLean-Maxwell disease
microdrone
Mlicrococcus pyogenes var.albus
mono-block cylinder
muscarinergic
navicula pantocsekiana
near beers
needle loop transfer
non-plastic soil
NUC-1
nut tap
p-skeleton of complex
Parknasilla
pavarottis
peroxidations
personal property tax
petroleum acids
philobiblon
plaintiff in error
program status
remediators
riccis
screw jacks
semigroup of quotients
slide-caliper
slitter edge
soluble neutron poison
spastic cerebral paralyses
sulcus of inferior petrosal sinus
suturae implanta
symmetric balance
talk back telephone
tartrate
terms of shopment
Tetradox
the basket maker
Theme-song
thermal friction
Thermomonospora
thiefly
thiocarbazide
Toyota Way
trioxide
tsaritzas
two-dimensional spectrum
under-swain
unreliable item
varand
viudas
waterdrainage
wn
you and me