儿童故事集：维尼小猫咪-Inky Pinky Pooh
时间：2018-12-18 作者：英语课 分类：Children’s Stories-儿童故事集
英语课
Inky-Pinky-Pooh was a very little kitten, and he lived in a very large house. It was a very grand house, too, but when a new cook arrived one day things began to be bad for poor Inky-Pink.
For the new Cook did not like animals at all. She rarely remembered to put out any food for Inky-Pink, and there were never nice tit-bits left over as there had been in the old cook’s time. And Inky-Pink-Pooh was never allowed to sit by the kitchen fire nowadays.
One day poor Inky-Pink was very hungry indeed. He had had nothing to eat for over two days.
At first he tried mewing gently, and rubbing himself against Cook’s legs. But when she smacked 1 him and pushed him away each time, he realised that that was no use!
So he sat beside his plate very quietly and hoped that that would remind Cook and soften 2 her hard heart! But it did not seem to have any effect, and she merely scowled 3 at him whenever she looked his way. Poor Inky-Pink, he felt very miserable 4. He not only felt more and more lonely and miserable, but more and more hungry, too.
So, when one day he suddenly noticed that Cook had left the larder 5 door ajar, he slipped in quietly when she was not looking.
It was the most wonderful place he’d ever been in, and quite took his breath away! For a while he was lost in admiration 6 just looking at the lovely plate of fresh liver, the pheasant hanging from a hook in the ceiling, the chicken and the ham… But, most beautiful of all was a plate of shiny, silvery fish lying there on a plate. It was just begging to be eaten, and it was on the lowest shelf of all!
He purred happily to himself, “Oh my whiskers and paddy-paws, what a be-au-ti-ful piece of fish…!!!!” But just as Inky-Pink was dragging the fish off the plate, Cook came back into the larder and caught Inky-Pink… To say that she was angry would be an understatement… She was furious!
Poor Inky-Pink was in disgrace!
He was smacked, and he was scolded, and then he was tied up to the leg of the table by a piece of string, so that he could not get into the larder again when Cook was not looking! It was all most humiliating!
And when a cheeky little mouse came by and grinned at him and said, “Good dog! Good dog! What a pretty lead you’ve got!” poor Inky-Pinky-Pooh felt that insult could go no further. He was very, very indignant indeed!
But the little mouse (whose name, by the way, was Twinkletoes) was really a kind-hearted little mouse, and when he saw how upset the little kitten was, and how thin and hungry-looking he seemed to be, he was sorry and asked what the trouble was. When Inky-Pink told him, Twinkletoes nodded his head and said, “I know! I know This new Cook never leaves even a crumb 7 about… and as for cheese, oh!, my whiskers and twinkletoes, I’ve almost forgotten what it smells like! I can understand how hungry you must be!”
Then he said, “I know a house, not very far from here, where they love animals, and always have plenty of food for them – crumbs 8 each day for the birds, and milk for the hedgehogs each night. I’m sure they would spare a little food for us. And I know the little girl has been wanting a kitten for a long, long time… I’ve never heard her ask for a mouse, but I have heard her asking for a kitten…”
So Inky-Piny-Pooh said, “I wonder if she would like me? I’m sure Cook doesn’t want me, and I would so much like to have someone to love me and cuddle me and care for me!”
Then Twinkletoes had an idea. “If you will meet me tonight,” he said, “when the moon is up, and you have been let off that – er – piece of string, I will show you the house and then you can think about it for a day or two and see if you feel you’d like to live there… it’s a much smaller house than this big, grand house of yours” he added, apologetically.
This seemed an excellent notion, so they agreed to meet at twelve o’clock midnight that very night. And, as Cook had never bothered to untie 9 Inky-Pinky-Pooh, even by midnight, Twinkletoes came back for him and gnawed 10 through the piece of string and set him free!
Just as the clock was striking twelve, Inky-Pinky-Pooh and Twinkletoes set off for their walk.
The moon was like a big silver penny shining up in the sky, and the ground was covered with snow. Inky-Pink and Twinkletoes walked carefully along the tops of the garden walls, and over the roofs, all through the town until they came to the house Twinkletoes had mentioned.
It was quite a little house, with only quite a little garden round it, not at all like the big house and garden where Inky-Pink lived. But it looked warm, and pretty, and very ‘homey’.
Inky-Pink liked the ‘smell’ of the house very much indeed, but he did wonder what it looked like inside. He could not go in and out of the little mouseholes like Twinkletoes could, and all the curtains were drawn 11 at the windows, so there was no way for him to be able to see inside.
He stood and thought for a minute. “I wonder,” he said to Twinkletoes, “If I could see anything if I look down the chimney?”
So he climbed up on to the top of the chimney-pot and balanced there carefully while he tried to see down it, and Twinkletoes stood at the foot of the chimney-pot and asked anxiously, “Can you see anything? Can you see anything?”
And then, suddenly, there was the most awful squealing 12 and screeching 13 as Inky-Pinky-Pooh lost his balance and fell right down into the chimney, and Twinkletoes could only see Inky-Pink’s tail waving frantically 14 about in the air for a second before it, too, vanished completely down the chimney-pot! Then Twinkletoes heard a dull, muffled 15 ‘thud’, and Inky-Pink’s “Miaow!” from far away down inside the chimney-stack.
“Oh my goodness!” exclaimed Twinkletoes in consternation 16, “Oh my Blue Cheese and Gorgonzola! Whatever has happened to poor Inky-Pink?”
You may well ask what had happened to poor Inky-Pink! He was asking himself!
“Oh my whiskers and paddy-paws!” he exclaimed, as soon as he was in a fit state to exclaim anything at all, “Wherever am I?”
He looked around and saw that he had fallen on to a lovely white hearth 17-rug in a pretty, comfy-looking room. In one corner there stood a little tree that glinted with silver and was crowned with a big golden star. Inky-Pink thought he had never seen anything so lovely in his life!
And as he looked he saw something else too… his beautiful white coat was quite, quite black, from all the soot 18 he had collected on it as he came down the chimney!
It was while he was staring at himself in dismay that he heard the door of the room open and the light was suddenly switched on!
Standing 19 in the doorway 20 was a little girl in a pretty blue night-gown, and behind her, hastily pulling on their warm dressing-gowns, were a lady and a gentleman! They all stared at the little black object sitting in the middle of the white hearth-rug. Then the little girl cried out, “Oh, Mummy! Daddy! Look! It’s a dear little kitten! Father Christmas has brought me a kitten just like the one I’ve always wanted, only he is black instead of white. What a lovely, lovely Christmas present!”
Inky-Pink was never quite certain just what the little girl meant by ‘Christmas present,’ but there wasn’t time to puzzle it out!
The lady, whose name was ‘Mummy’, said he was a poor little stray and he looked half-starved, poor mite 21, and he must have a bath and good warm meal; and the gentleman (whose name was ‘Daddy’) said he would make him a box to sleep in, and went off to see about it. And Mummy and the little girl, whose name was Marilyn, washed Inky-Pink in warm soapy water (which he did not like very much!) and then gave him some lovely warm milk to drink (which he did like, very much indeed!)
And the next day (which they all told him was a specially 22 important day called ‘Christmas Day’) he was given a lovely red bow to wear around his neck, and as much warm milk to drink as ever he wanted, and he was allowed to curl up on the white hearth-rug in front of the glowing fire, where he purred and purred and purred with sheer contentment, until he sounded like an aeroplane out of sight!
And it seemed to him that in that house all days were Christmas Day, for everyone was always kind to him, and there was always plenty to eat and drink, and warm fires to sit by…
And every night, when the humans had gone to bed, Twinkletoes would creep out of the little hole he had found and made into his own little home, and he and Inky-Pink would sit together by the hearth and tell each other what they had being doing all the day. And Twinkletoes would sigh with happiness and say, “What a lucky night it was when you fell down this chimney, Inky-Pink!”
And Inky-Pinky-Pooh would purr and say, “Yes… and wasn’t it a lucky day when Cook tied me to the table leg! For if she had not done that, then you would not have come by and spoken to me, and we would never have set out that night to look for this house, and then I would never have been able to climb up the chimney-pot to try to see down it…!”
And they would both sit there looking onto the glowing red heart of the fire and feel that they were the luckiest little animals in the whole, big, world!
Word checker
tit-bits (noun): little bits and pieces
mew (verb): the sound a cat makes
scowl (verb): to make an angry face at a person or thing
ajar (adjective): slightly open
disgrace (noun): the feeling of being ashamed
apologetically (adverb): feeling sorry for the other person as you do or say something
notion (noun): idea
frantically (adverb): filled with panic; hoping to get someone’s attention
consternation (noun): a feeling of anxiety
hearth (noun): the floor in front of a fireplace
contentment (noun): happiness
purr (verb): happy sound a cat makes
For the new Cook did not like animals at all. She rarely remembered to put out any food for Inky-Pink, and there were never nice tit-bits left over as there had been in the old cook’s time. And Inky-Pink-Pooh was never allowed to sit by the kitchen fire nowadays.
One day poor Inky-Pink was very hungry indeed. He had had nothing to eat for over two days.
At first he tried mewing gently, and rubbing himself against Cook’s legs. But when she smacked 1 him and pushed him away each time, he realised that that was no use!
So he sat beside his plate very quietly and hoped that that would remind Cook and soften 2 her hard heart! But it did not seem to have any effect, and she merely scowled 3 at him whenever she looked his way. Poor Inky-Pink, he felt very miserable 4. He not only felt more and more lonely and miserable, but more and more hungry, too.
So, when one day he suddenly noticed that Cook had left the larder 5 door ajar, he slipped in quietly when she was not looking.
It was the most wonderful place he’d ever been in, and quite took his breath away! For a while he was lost in admiration 6 just looking at the lovely plate of fresh liver, the pheasant hanging from a hook in the ceiling, the chicken and the ham… But, most beautiful of all was a plate of shiny, silvery fish lying there on a plate. It was just begging to be eaten, and it was on the lowest shelf of all!
He purred happily to himself, “Oh my whiskers and paddy-paws, what a be-au-ti-ful piece of fish…!!!!” But just as Inky-Pink was dragging the fish off the plate, Cook came back into the larder and caught Inky-Pink… To say that she was angry would be an understatement… She was furious!
Poor Inky-Pink was in disgrace!
He was smacked, and he was scolded, and then he was tied up to the leg of the table by a piece of string, so that he could not get into the larder again when Cook was not looking! It was all most humiliating!
And when a cheeky little mouse came by and grinned at him and said, “Good dog! Good dog! What a pretty lead you’ve got!” poor Inky-Pinky-Pooh felt that insult could go no further. He was very, very indignant indeed!
But the little mouse (whose name, by the way, was Twinkletoes) was really a kind-hearted little mouse, and when he saw how upset the little kitten was, and how thin and hungry-looking he seemed to be, he was sorry and asked what the trouble was. When Inky-Pink told him, Twinkletoes nodded his head and said, “I know! I know This new Cook never leaves even a crumb 7 about… and as for cheese, oh!, my whiskers and twinkletoes, I’ve almost forgotten what it smells like! I can understand how hungry you must be!”
Then he said, “I know a house, not very far from here, where they love animals, and always have plenty of food for them – crumbs 8 each day for the birds, and milk for the hedgehogs each night. I’m sure they would spare a little food for us. And I know the little girl has been wanting a kitten for a long, long time… I’ve never heard her ask for a mouse, but I have heard her asking for a kitten…”
So Inky-Piny-Pooh said, “I wonder if she would like me? I’m sure Cook doesn’t want me, and I would so much like to have someone to love me and cuddle me and care for me!”
Then Twinkletoes had an idea. “If you will meet me tonight,” he said, “when the moon is up, and you have been let off that – er – piece of string, I will show you the house and then you can think about it for a day or two and see if you feel you’d like to live there… it’s a much smaller house than this big, grand house of yours” he added, apologetically.
This seemed an excellent notion, so they agreed to meet at twelve o’clock midnight that very night. And, as Cook had never bothered to untie 9 Inky-Pinky-Pooh, even by midnight, Twinkletoes came back for him and gnawed 10 through the piece of string and set him free!
Just as the clock was striking twelve, Inky-Pinky-Pooh and Twinkletoes set off for their walk.
The moon was like a big silver penny shining up in the sky, and the ground was covered with snow. Inky-Pink and Twinkletoes walked carefully along the tops of the garden walls, and over the roofs, all through the town until they came to the house Twinkletoes had mentioned.
It was quite a little house, with only quite a little garden round it, not at all like the big house and garden where Inky-Pink lived. But it looked warm, and pretty, and very ‘homey’.
Inky-Pink liked the ‘smell’ of the house very much indeed, but he did wonder what it looked like inside. He could not go in and out of the little mouseholes like Twinkletoes could, and all the curtains were drawn 11 at the windows, so there was no way for him to be able to see inside.
He stood and thought for a minute. “I wonder,” he said to Twinkletoes, “If I could see anything if I look down the chimney?”
So he climbed up on to the top of the chimney-pot and balanced there carefully while he tried to see down it, and Twinkletoes stood at the foot of the chimney-pot and asked anxiously, “Can you see anything? Can you see anything?”
And then, suddenly, there was the most awful squealing 12 and screeching 13 as Inky-Pinky-Pooh lost his balance and fell right down into the chimney, and Twinkletoes could only see Inky-Pink’s tail waving frantically 14 about in the air for a second before it, too, vanished completely down the chimney-pot! Then Twinkletoes heard a dull, muffled 15 ‘thud’, and Inky-Pink’s “Miaow!” from far away down inside the chimney-stack.
“Oh my goodness!” exclaimed Twinkletoes in consternation 16, “Oh my Blue Cheese and Gorgonzola! Whatever has happened to poor Inky-Pink?”
You may well ask what had happened to poor Inky-Pink! He was asking himself!
“Oh my whiskers and paddy-paws!” he exclaimed, as soon as he was in a fit state to exclaim anything at all, “Wherever am I?”
He looked around and saw that he had fallen on to a lovely white hearth 17-rug in a pretty, comfy-looking room. In one corner there stood a little tree that glinted with silver and was crowned with a big golden star. Inky-Pink thought he had never seen anything so lovely in his life!
And as he looked he saw something else too… his beautiful white coat was quite, quite black, from all the soot 18 he had collected on it as he came down the chimney!
It was while he was staring at himself in dismay that he heard the door of the room open and the light was suddenly switched on!
Standing 19 in the doorway 20 was a little girl in a pretty blue night-gown, and behind her, hastily pulling on their warm dressing-gowns, were a lady and a gentleman! They all stared at the little black object sitting in the middle of the white hearth-rug. Then the little girl cried out, “Oh, Mummy! Daddy! Look! It’s a dear little kitten! Father Christmas has brought me a kitten just like the one I’ve always wanted, only he is black instead of white. What a lovely, lovely Christmas present!”
Inky-Pink was never quite certain just what the little girl meant by ‘Christmas present,’ but there wasn’t time to puzzle it out!
The lady, whose name was ‘Mummy’, said he was a poor little stray and he looked half-starved, poor mite 21, and he must have a bath and good warm meal; and the gentleman (whose name was ‘Daddy’) said he would make him a box to sleep in, and went off to see about it. And Mummy and the little girl, whose name was Marilyn, washed Inky-Pink in warm soapy water (which he did not like very much!) and then gave him some lovely warm milk to drink (which he did like, very much indeed!)
And the next day (which they all told him was a specially 22 important day called ‘Christmas Day’) he was given a lovely red bow to wear around his neck, and as much warm milk to drink as ever he wanted, and he was allowed to curl up on the white hearth-rug in front of the glowing fire, where he purred and purred and purred with sheer contentment, until he sounded like an aeroplane out of sight!
And it seemed to him that in that house all days were Christmas Day, for everyone was always kind to him, and there was always plenty to eat and drink, and warm fires to sit by…
And every night, when the humans had gone to bed, Twinkletoes would creep out of the little hole he had found and made into his own little home, and he and Inky-Pink would sit together by the hearth and tell each other what they had being doing all the day. And Twinkletoes would sigh with happiness and say, “What a lucky night it was when you fell down this chimney, Inky-Pink!”
And Inky-Pinky-Pooh would purr and say, “Yes… and wasn’t it a lucky day when Cook tied me to the table leg! For if she had not done that, then you would not have come by and spoken to me, and we would never have set out that night to look for this house, and then I would never have been able to climb up the chimney-pot to try to see down it…!”
And they would both sit there looking onto the glowing red heart of the fire and feel that they were the luckiest little animals in the whole, big, world!
Word checker
tit-bits (noun): little bits and pieces
mew (verb): the sound a cat makes
scowl (verb): to make an angry face at a person or thing
ajar (adjective): slightly open
disgrace (noun): the feeling of being ashamed
apologetically (adverb): feeling sorry for the other person as you do or say something
notion (noun): idea
frantically (adverb): filled with panic; hoping to get someone’s attention
consternation (noun): a feeling of anxiety
hearth (noun): the floor in front of a fireplace
contentment (noun): happiness
purr (verb): happy sound a cat makes
1 smacked
拍，打，掴( smack的过去式和过去分词 )
- He smacked his lips but did not utter a word. 他吧嗒两下嘴，一声也不言语。
- She smacked a child's bottom. 她打孩子的屁股。
2 soften
v.(使)变柔软；(使)变柔和
- Plastics will soften when exposed to heat.塑料适当加热就可以软化。
- This special cream will help to soften up our skin.这种特殊的护肤霜有助于使皮肤变得柔软。
3 scowled
怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的过去式和过去分词 )
- He scowled his displeasure. 他满脸嗔色。
- The teacher scowled at his noisy class. 老师对他那喧闹的课堂板着脸。
4 miserable
adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的
- It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
- Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。
5 larder
n.食物贮藏室，食品橱
- Please put the food into the larder.请将您地食物放进食物柜内。
- They promised never to raid the larder again.他们答应不再随便开食橱拿东西吃了。
6 admiration
n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕
- He was lost in admiration of the beauty of the scene.他对风景之美赞不绝口。
- We have a great admiration for the gold medalists.我们对金牌获得者极为敬佩。
7 crumb
n.饼屑，面包屑，小量
- It was the only crumb of comfort he could salvage from the ordeal.这是他从这场磨难里能找到的唯一的少许安慰。
- Ruth nearly choked on the last crumb of her pastry.鲁斯几乎被糕点的最后一块碎屑所噎住。
8 crumbs
vt.解开，松开；解放
- It's just impossible to untie the knot.It's too tight.这个结根本解不开。太紧了。
- Will you please untie the knot for me?请你替我解开这个结头，好吗？
9 gnawed
咬( gnaw的过去式和过去分词 )； （长时间） 折磨某人； （使）苦恼； （长时间）危害某事物
- His attitude towards her gnawed away at her confidence. 他对她的态度一直在削弱她的自尊心。
- The root of this dead tree has been gnawed away by ants. 这棵死树根被蚂蚁唼了。
10 drawn
v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的
- All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
- Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。
11 squealing
v.长声尖叫，用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的现在分词 )
- Pigs were grunting and squealing in the yard. 猪在院子里哼哼地叫个不停。
- The pigs were squealing. 猪尖叫着。
12 screeching
v.发出尖叫声( screech的现在分词 )；发出粗而刺耳的声音；高叫
- Monkeys were screeching in the trees. 猴子在树上吱吱地叫着。
- the unedifying sight of the two party leaders screeching at each other 两党党魁狺狺对吠的讨厌情景
13 frantically
ad.发狂地, 发疯地
- He dashed frantically across the road. 他疯狂地跑过马路。
- She bid frantically for the old chair. 她发狂地喊出高价要买那把古老的椅子。
14 muffled
adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己）
- muffled voices from the next room 从隔壁房间里传来的沉闷声音
- There was a muffled explosion somewhere on their right. 在他们的右面什么地方有一声沉闷的爆炸声。 来自《简明英汉词典》
15 consternation
n.大为吃惊，惊骇
- He was filled with consternation to hear that his friend was so ill.他听说朋友病得那么厉害，感到非常震惊。
- Sam stared at him in consternation.萨姆惊恐不安地注视着他。
16 hearth
n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面
- She came and sat in a chair before the hearth.她走过来，在炉子前面的椅子上坐下。
- She comes to the hearth,and switches on the electric light there.她走到壁炉那里，打开电灯。
17 soot
n.煤烟，烟尘；vt.熏以煤烟
- Soot is the product of the imperfect combustion of fuel.煤烟是燃料不完全燃烧的产物。
- The chimney was choked with soot.烟囱被煤灰堵塞了。
18 standing
n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的
- After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
- They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。