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英语故事:树林里的维吉叔叔(14)
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  • STORY XIV

    UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE PINE TREE

    Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old gentleman rabbit, put on his tall silk hat, polished his glasses with the tip of his tail, to make them shiny so he could see better through them, and then, taking his red, white and blue striped rheumatism1 crutch2 down off the mantel, he started out of his hollow stump3 bungalow4 one day.

    "Better take an umbrella, hadn't you?" asked Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, the muskrat5 lady housekeeper6. "It looks as though we might have an April shower."

    "An umbrella? Yes, I think I will take one," spoke7 the bunny uncle, as he saw some dark clouds in the sky. "They look as though they might have rain in them."

    "Are you going anywhere in particular?" asked the muskrat lady, as she tied her tail in a soft knot.

    "No, not special," Uncle Wiggily answered. "May I have the pleasure of doing something for you?" he asked with a polite bow, like a little girl speaking a piece in school on Friday afternoon.

    "Well," said Nurse Jane, "I have baked some apple dumplings with oranges inside, and I thought perhaps you might like to take one to Grandfather Goosey Gander to cheer him up."

    "The very thing!" cried Uncle Wiggily, jolly-like. "I'll do it, Nurse Jane."

    So with an apple dumpling carefully wrapped up in a napkin and put in a basket, Uncle Wiggily started off through the woods and over the fields to Grandpa Goosey's house.

    "I wonder if I shall have an adventure today?" thought the rabbit gentleman as he waved his ears to and fro like the pendulum8 of a clock. "I think I would like one to give me an appetite for supper. I must watch for something to happen."

    He looked all around the woods, but all he could see were some trees.

    "I can't have any adventures with them," said the bunny uncle, "though the horse chestnut9 tree did help me the other day by tossing the bad bear over into the briar bush. But these trees are not like that."

    Still Uncle Wiggily was to have an adventure with one of the trees very soon. Just you wait, now, and you shall hear about it.

    Uncle Wiggily walked on a little farther and he heard a funny tapping noise in the woods.

    "Tap! Tap! Tap! Tappity-tap-tap!" it sounded.

    "My! Some one is knocking on a door trying to get in," thought the bunny. "I wonder who it can be?"

    Just then he saw a big bird perched on the side of a pine tree, tapping with his bill.

    "Tap! Tap! Tap!" went the bird.

    "Excuse me," said the bunny uncle, "but you are making a mistake. No one lives in that tree."

    "Oh, thank you, Uncle Wiggily. I know that no one lives here," said the bird. "But you see I am a woodpecker, and I am pecking holes in the tree to get some of the sweet juice, or sap. The sap is running in the trees now, for it is Spring. Later on I will tap holes in the bark to get at bugs10 and worms, when there is no more sap for me to eat."

    And the woodpecker went on tapping, tapping, tapping.

    "My! That is a funny way to get something to eat," said the bunny gentleman to himself. He watched the bird until it flew away, and then Uncle Wiggily was about to hop11 on to Grandpa Goosey's house when, all of a sudden, before he could run away, out popped the bad old bear once more.

    "Ah, ha! We meet again, I see," growled13 the bear. "I was not looking for you, Mr. Longears, but all the same I am glad to meet you, for I want to eat you."

    "Well," said Uncle Wiggily, sort of scratching his pink, twinkling nose with his ear, surprised like. "I can't exactly say I'm glad to see you, good Mr. Bear."

    "No, I s'pose not," agreed the fuzzy creature. "But you are mistaken. I am the Bad Mr. Bear, not the Good."

    "Oh, excuse me," said Uncle Wiggily. All the while he knew the bear was bad, but he hoped by calling him good, to make him so.

    "I'm very bad!" growled the bear, "and I'm going to take you off to my den12 with me. Come along!"

    "Oh, I don't want to," said the bunny uncle, shivering his tail.

    "But you must!" growled the bear. "Come on, now!"

    "Oh, dear!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Will you let me go if I give you what's in my basket?" he asked, and he held up the basket with the nice orange apple turnover14 in it. "Let me go if I give you this," begged the bunny uncle.

    "Maybe I will, and maybe I won't," said the bear, cunning like. "Let me see what it is."

    He took the basket from Uncle Wiggily, and looking in, said:

    "Ah, ha! An apple turnover-dumpling with oranges in it! I just love them! Ah, ha!"

    "Oh," thought Uncle Wiggily. "I hope he eats it, for then maybe I can get away when he doesn't notice me. I hope he eats it!"

    And the bear, leaning his back against the pine tree in which the woodpecker had been boring holes, began to take bites out of the apple dumpling which Nurse Jane had baked for Grandpa Goosey.

    "Now's my chance to get away!" thought the bunny gentleman. But when he tried to hop softly off, as the bear was eating the sweet stuff, the bad creature saw him and cried:

    "Ah, ha! No you don't! Come hack15 here!" and with his claws he pulled Uncle Wiggily close to him again.

    Then the bunny uncle noticed that some sweet, sticky juice or gum, like that on fly paper, was running down the trunk of the tree from the holes the woodpecker had drilled in it.

    "Oh, if the bear only leans back hard enough and long enough against that sticky pine tree," thought Mr. Longears, "he'll be stuck fast by his furry16 hair and he can't get me. I hope he sticks!"

    And that is just what happened. The bear enjoyed eating the apple dumpling so much that he leaned back harder and harder against the sticky tree. His fur stuck fast in the gum that ran out. Finally the bear ate the last crumb17 of the dumpling.

    "And now I'll get you!" he cried to the bunny uncle; "I'll get you!"

    But did the bear get Uncle Wiggily? He did not. The bear tried to jump toward the rabbit, but could not. He was stuck fast to the sticky pine tree and Uncle Wiggily could now run safely back to his hollow stump bungalow to get another dumpling for Grandpa Goosey.

    So the bear had no rabbit, after all, and all he did was to stay stuck fast to the pine tree until a big fox came along and helped him to get loose, and the bear cried "Wouch!" because his fur was pulled.

    So Uncle Wiggily was all right, you see, after all, and very thankful he was to the pine tree for holding fast to the bear.

    And in the next story, if our cat doesn't go hunting for the poll parrot's cracker18 in the gold fish bowl and get his whiskers all wet, I'll tell you about Uncle Wiggily and the green rushes.



    点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

    1 rheumatism [ˈru:mətɪzəm] hDnyl   第9级
    n.风湿病
    参考例句:
    • The damp weather plays the very devil with my rheumatism. 潮湿的天气加重了我的风湿病。
    • The hot weather gave the old man a truce from rheumatism. 热天使这位老人暂时免受风湿病之苦。
    2 crutch [krʌtʃ] Lnvzt   第10级
    n.T字形拐杖;支持,依靠,精神支柱
    参考例句:
    • Her religion was a crutch to her when John died. 约翰死后,她在精神上依靠宗教信仰支撑住自己。
    • He uses his wife as a kind of crutch because of his lack of confidence. 他缺乏自信心,总把妻子当作主心骨。
    3 stump [stʌmp] hGbzY   第8级
    n.残株,烟蒂,讲演台;v.砍断,蹒跚而走
    参考例句:
    • He went on the stump in his home state. 他到故乡所在的州去发表演说。
    • He used the stump as a table. 他把树桩用作桌子。
    4 bungalow [ˈbʌŋgələʊ] ccjys   第9级
    n.平房,周围有阳台的木造小平房
    参考例句:
    • A bungalow does not have an upstairs. 平房没有上层。
    • The old couple sold that large house and moved into a small bungalow. 老两口卖掉了那幢大房子,搬进了小平房。
    5 muskrat [ˈmʌskræt] G6CzQ   第12级
    n.麝香鼠
    参考例句:
    • Muskrat fur almost equals beaver fur in quality. 麝鼠皮在质量上几乎和海獭皮不相上下。
    • I saw a muskrat come out of a hole in the ice. 我看到一只麝鼠从冰里面钻出来。
    6 housekeeper [ˈhaʊski:pə(r)] 6q2zxl   第8级
    n.管理家务的主妇,女管家
    参考例句:
    • A spotless stove told us that his mother is a diligent housekeeper. 炉子清洁无瑕就表明他母亲是个勤劳的主妇。
    • She is an economical housekeeper and feeds her family cheaply. 她节约持家,一家人吃得很省。
    7 spoke [spəʊk] XryyC   第11级
    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
    参考例句:
    • 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。
    8 pendulum [ˈpendjələm] X3ezg   第7级
    n.摆,钟摆
    参考例句:
    • The pendulum swung slowly to and fro. 钟摆在慢慢地来回摆动。
    • He accidentally found that the desk clock did not swing its pendulum. 他无意中发现座钟不摇摆了。
    9 chestnut [ˈtʃesnʌt] XnJy8   第9级
    n.栗树,栗子
    参考例句:
    • We have a chestnut tree in the bottom of our garden. 我们的花园尽头有一棵栗树。
    • In summer we had tea outdoors, under the chestnut tree. 夏天我们在室外栗树下喝茶。
    10 bugs [bʌgz] e3255bae220613022d67e26d2e4fa689   第7级
    adj.疯狂的,发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 );病菌;虫子;[计算机](制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的)错误
    参考例句:
    • All programs have bugs and need endless refinement. 所有的程序都有漏洞,都需要不断改进。 来自《简明英汉词典》
    • The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
    11 hop [hɒp] vdJzL   第7级
    n.单脚跳,跳跃;vi.单脚跳,跳跃;着手做某事;vt.跳跃,跃过
    参考例句:
    • The children had a competition to see who could hop the fastest. 孩子们举行比赛,看谁单足跳跃最快。
    • How long can you hop on your right foot? 你用右脚能跳多远?
    12 den [den] 5w9xk   第9级
    n.兽穴;秘密地方;安静的小房间,私室
    参考例句:
    • There is a big fox den on the back hill. 后山有一个很大的狐狸窝。
    • The only way to catch tiger cubs is to go into tiger's den. 不入虎穴焉得虎子。
    13 growled [ɡrauld] 65a0c9cac661e85023a63631d6dab8a3   第8级
    v.(动物)发狺狺声, (雷)作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 );低声咆哮着说
    参考例句:
    • \"They ought to be birched, \" growled the old man. 老人咆哮道:“他们应受到鞭打。” 来自《简明英汉词典》
    • He growled out an answer. 他低声威胁着回答。 来自《简明英汉词典》
    14 turnover [ˈtɜ:nəʊvə(r)] nfkzmg   第7级
    n.人员流动率,人事变动率;营业额,成交量
    参考例句:
    • The store greatly reduced the prices to make a quick turnover. 这家商店实行大减价以迅速周转资金。
    • Our turnover actually increased last year. 去年我们的营业额竟然增加了。
    15 hack [hæk] BQJz2   第9级
    n.劈,砍,出租马车;vt.劈,砍,干咳;vi.砍
    参考例句:
    • He made a hack at the log. 他朝圆木上砍了一下。
    • Early settlers had to hack out a clearing in the forest where they could grow crops. 早期移民不得不在森林里劈出空地种庄稼。
    16 furry [ˈfɜ:ri] Rssz2D   第9级
    adj.毛皮的;似毛皮的;毛皮制的
    参考例句:
    • This furry material will make a warm coat for the winter. 这件毛皮料在冬天会是一件保暖的大衣。
    • Mugsy is a big furry brown dog, who wiggles when she is happy. 马格斯是一只棕色大长毛狗,当她高兴得时候她会摇尾巴。
    17 crumb [krʌm] ynLzv   第9级
    n.饼屑,面包屑,小量
    参考例句:
    • 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。
    18 cracker [ˈkrækə(r)] svCz5a   第8级
    n.(无甜味的)薄脆饼干
    参考例句:
    • Buy me some peanuts and cracker. 给我买一些花生和饼干。
    • There was a cracker beside every place at the table. 桌上每个位置旁都有彩包爆竹。

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