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典范英语8-16Doohickey and the robot原文+翻译

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2021-02-09 06:56
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2021年2月9日发(作者:望洋兴叹翻译)


8-16 Doohickey and the robot


Written


by


Jonathan


and


illustrated


by



Stephen


Lewis


Chapter one


Doohickey had just moved to a new town when he spotted a notice. It was stuck outside a big house at the end of his street.




‘That’s the job for me,’ said Doohickey. ‘I need some more pocket


-


money.’





He pushed the doorbell. Then he jumped.




Weeeeyow-weeeeyow-weeeeyow! Kaaabooooom!




A loud alarm sounded inside the house, followed by a terrific explosion.




A window flew open at the top of the house. A cloud of thick smoke billowed out.




‘What do you want?’ coughed a voice from inside the cloud. ‘Can’t you see that I’m busy?’





The smoke cleared. The professor’s face peered down at Doohickey.





‘Excuse me,’ said Doohickey. ‘My name’s Doohickey. I’ve come about the job.’





‘What job?’ snapped the professor.





‘As assistant,’ said Doohickey. ‘The notice says you need one.’





‘Oh, absolutely!’ said the professor, beginning to grin.





The notice had been up for over a year, but Doohickey was the first person to ask about it.




‘Come on up!’ said the professor. His head disappeared.





A moment later, the front door sprang half-open.


Doohickey peered inside. A huge mountain of post had stopped the door from opening properly. But there was no one there.




Doohickey felt sure that the door had opened for him, so he squeezed through into the hallway.




A buzzer sounded in Doohickey’s ear. He was surprised to see a little air


-ship bobbing in the hallway beside him.



Tiny propellers spun the ship around. Doohickey saw the word


s, ‘FOLLOW ME’ written in big red letters on its side.



Chapter two




He followed the ship up a tall, winding staircase. He passed room after room stuffed full of strange-looking machines.


Were they the professor’s inventions?





Doohickey knew that he was s


upposed to go straight up the stairs, but he couldn’t help himself. He popped into one of


the rooms to take a closer look.




The


first


thing


Doohickey


came


across


was


a


computer


screen


fixed


to


a


huge


metal


cage.


The


cage


seemed


to


be


stuffed full of straw.




Doohickey pushed his hand into it.




‘Ouch!’ he squealed, pulling it out again. A tiny needle was sticking out of his thumb.





There was a label fixed to the computer screen.





‘Well, it didn’t find this one,’ said Doohickey crossly, as he stuck the n


eedle back into the straw.




The next machine had lots of electric fans fixed beneath a large metal funnel. There was sand all over the floor. The


label said:




1




‘This looks like fun,’ thought Doohickey. He switched it on.





Sand began trickling out of the funnel and the fans started spinning. Then the strangest thing happened.




The sand didn’t fall on to the floor. It hung in the air. And slowly, it shaped itself into a floating castle.





Doohickey walked slowly around the machine. He couldn’t believe wha


t he was seeing.




Then all of a sudden, he bumped into someone else. When he saw who it was, he nearly jumped out of his skin.




The other person was him!




It was like looking in a mirror, except that there was no glass.




Doohickey reached out his hand and the other Doohickey did the same. Their fingers met in mid-air and he felt the


warmth of his own hand pressing back. It was too creepy.




‘Ughhh!’ shivered Doohickey. He stepped backwards straight into the floating sand


-castle.




The castle exploded and Doohickey found himself in the middle of a sandstorm. Sand blew everywhere, into his eyes


and up his nose.




Coughing and sneezing, he groped his way back to the switch and turned it off.




The sandstorm disappeared. And so had the other Doohickey!




Then Doohickey noticed a large metal plate on the floor. There was another label on it.




‘Of course!’ sighed Doohickey.





The


metal


plate


was


another


of


the


professor’s


inventions.


It


had


made


the


other


Doohickey


appear


when


he


had


stepped on to it.




I won't try that again,


he thought.


It’


s a bit too spooky.





A buzzer sounded. Doohickey saw the air-ship bobbing up and down in the doorway. It had come back to find him.




‘I got lost,’ said Doohickey. He couldn’t think of a better excuse.





The ship buzzed again crossly and glided back towards the stairs.




‘Coming,’ said Doohickey.



Chapter Three




They reached the top of the house.




The air-ship led Doohickey into a smoky attic. It was stuffed full of books, test tubes and lumps of tangled wiring.




A small shaggy dog peered out at him from beneath a workbench. A cat lay sunning itself on the window sill.




‘What kept you?’ asked the professor. He was hunched over a heap of metal in one corner.





‘I was admiring some of your inventions,’ said Doohickey.





‘Oh,


those


old


things,’


said


the


professor.


‘This,’


he


said,


pointing


to


the


twisted


heap


of


metal,


‘is


my


latest


and


greatest invention.’





‘What is it?’ asked Doohickey. It didn’t look very exciting. He expected that it was a machine for getting blood from


a


stone. Or for making omelettes without breaking eggs.




‘ It’s the RoBoffin 2000 Multi


-


Purpose Robot,’ said the professor, proudly.





‘What does it do?’ asked Doohickey.





‘Absolutely anything!’ said the professor. ‘Let me show you.’





The professor scri


bbled some words on to a scrap of paper. He fed the paper through the slot in the robot’s chest.





Then he pressed a big button and stepped back.



2




The robot hummed and whirred for a bit. Then it climbed slowly to its feet. It was enormous. Its head almost scraped


the attic ceiling.




The lights on the robot’s face flickered on and off. It looked as if it was thinking about something.





And then… it painted a picture of the professor’s dog.





It played a piece of music on the test tubes.




And it discovered three new ways of splitting the atom.




‘Pretty good, eh?’ said the professor, when the robot had finished.





‘Cool!’


said


Doohickey.


He


was


really


amazed.


The


huge,


heavy


robot


had


whizzed


around


the


attic,


and


it


hadn’t


disturbed so much as a paper clip.




‘It can do anything I asked it to,’ said the professor.





‘Anything?’ asked the Doohickey.





‘Absolutely!’ said the professor.





‘Can


I


have


a


go?’


asked


Doohickey.


He


wanted


to


ask


the


robot


to


build


a


space


rocket


or


tell


him


next


week’s


winning lottery numbers.




‘Absolutely not,’ said the professor, ‘it’s far too complicated. Besides, I’ve got better things for you to do.’





‘Such as?’ said Doohickey. He was disappointed.





‘Such as there,’ said the professor, writing out a list. ‘What month is it, by the way?’





‘August,’ said Doohickey.





‘Summer! Already?’ said the professor. He looked surprised. ‘I must go out and pay my bills.’





He handed Doohickey the list of jobs.




‘I’ll be gone for the rest of the day,’ he said, rushing out of the door. ‘So


these jobs should be finished by the time I get


back. If you can’t find anything, ask Newton.’





‘Who's Newton?’ shouted Doohickey, as the professor swept down the stairs.





‘I am!’ said the dog.





‘You can talk!’ said Doohickey, staring at the dog.





‘How clever of you to notice,’ said Newton.





‘And the cat?’ asked Doohickey, looking at the other animal. ‘Can the cat talk too?’





‘Of course not,’ scoffed Newton, ‘it’s only a cat!’





Doohickey didn't know what to say to this. So he looked at the list of jobs the professor had given him.




‘These jobs are all boring,’ said Doohickey. ‘The notice said I’d be helping with “exciting experiments and interesting


inventions.”’





‘Of course it did,’ said Newton, ‘otherwise, you wouldn't have wanted the job.’





‘Well, I don’t want the job,’ said Doohickey. ‘I don’t want to cook and clean all day.’





He tore up the list and threw it into a bin.




‘I’m off!’ he said.





‘Suit yourself,’ said Newton.



Chapter Four




Doohickey went back down the winding staircase, past the rooms full of inventions.




Look at all these silly machines, he thought. Why doesn’t the professor invent something useful; something that could


do the housework?



3




Then he had a brain-


wave. ‘Of course!’ he said. He set off upstairs again.





‘Back so soon?’ said Newton. ‘I though you didn’t want the job.’





‘I didn’t,’ said Doohickey, ‘but I’ve had a brain


-


wave.’





‘Oh, we get lots of them around here,’ said the dog, yawning.





Doohickey picked the list out of the bin. He stuck it back together with some sticky tape.




‘How does that look?’ he asked, showing it to Newton.





Newton studied the list. ‘It looks OK to me,’ he said.





‘Now for the clever bit,’ said Doohickey.





He climbed on top of a stool and fed the stuck-together list through the slot in th


e robot’s chest.





‘Oh dear,’ said Newton, shaking his head, ‘the professor isn’t going to like this.





‘The professor isn't going to find out!’ said Doohickey. He hit the big button.





The robot hummed, whirred and then straightened itself up.




‘It’ll all end in tears,’ sighed Newton.





The lights on the robot’s face flickered on and off for a few minutes and then it stomped out of the attic.





‘Piece of cake!’ said Doohickey, grinning. ‘Now, where can I take a nap?’





The robot stomped down the stairs an


d into the professor’s bathroom.





It grabbed a great armful of dirty clothes. Then it carried them down to the kitchen. But instead of putting them into the


washing machine it stuffed them into the oven.




Next, it took some meat and vegetables out of the fridge. It chopped and sliced them to make a delicious stew. Then it


emptied the whole lot into the washing machine!




After that, it brought the lawnmower into the house and ran it over the hall carpet.




And it took the Hoover outside and sucked the leaves off the lawn.


Chapter Five




The professor’s neighbours were used to strange things going on at his house. But they had never seen anything quite


like the robot.




‘What do you think it's up to?’ asked one of them. The robot had just fetched a hammer a


nd nails. It was now nailing


up the front door.




‘Perhaps the professor’s gone away,’ suggested another, ‘and he’s afraid that someone will try and break in.’






The robot didn't seem to mind that everyone was looking at it. It propped a ladder up against the side of the house.




Then it climbed to the top and began to brush bright green paint all over the roof.




Newton was half asleep when the robot stomped into the attic carrying a watering can.




‘The pot plants are in the living room,’ said the dog, h


elpfully.




The huge machine lumbered towards him.




‘I should have known something would go wrong!’ he sighed, as the robot emptied the watering can over his head.





Doohickey was still fast asleep on the professor’s bed.





‘Wake up! Wake up!’ braked Newton, shaking his wet fur in the boy’s face.





‘What’s wrong?’ yawned Doohickey, rubbing his eyes.





‘Oh, just about everything!” said Newton.





‘What’s happened?’ asked Doohickey.




‘The robot’s gone mad,’ said Newton. ‘Last time I saw it, it was pulling up


the pot plants. I told you it would all end in



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