Meet Kathleen the mouse and Mark the elephant. Kathleen is very brave and likes adventure, but Mark is very shy and scared of many things. But friends stay together, so Mark follows Kathleen wherever she goes. Sometimes they get into some very sticky situations.
見見老鼠凱薩琳和大象馬克。凱薩琳非常勇敢又喜歡冒險，但馬克的個性十分害羞，對許多事情都感到害怕。不過，朋友都喜歡黏在一塊兒，所以凱薩琳走到哪兒，馬克就會跟到哪兒。有時候，他們也會碰上非常棘手的情況...
“Party time!”派對時間
Mark and Kathleen were standing outside the door of their friend's apartment.
“Go ahead, ring the doorbell,” Kathleen said.
“Are you sure you want to go to a party?” Mark said. “We could just stay at home where it's nice and quiet. We could watch a movie, maybe,” he said hopefully.
“But think of all the new people we'd never get to meet if we did that!” Kathleen said. Mark thought about not having to meet new people and smiled. But Kathleen had rung the doorbell and before Mark knew it, they were inside a crowded room with lots of people talking, laughing and dancing.
“Oooh, dancing!” said Kathleen, and she ran over to the dance floor where some of her friends were dancing.
Mark didn't know what to do. He looked around and tried to pretend he was at ease. It seemed like everyone was talking to someone else. Then he saw a turtle sitting by herself on the couch who looked just as scared and nervous as he felt. She had pulled her head almost all the way into her shell so only her eyes were sticking out and she was looking around at everyone with big eyes. He looked at her and she looked at him.
“Hi, I'm Mark,” he said, only a tiny bit nervous now.
“I'm Lynn,” she said, lifting her head out of her shell a tiny bit.
(Kayleen Hartman, staff writer)
馬克和凱薩琳站在朋友的公寓門外。
1. ring v.i. /v.t.
按(鈴) (an4 ling2)
例: When the bell rings, school is over.
(鐘聲響起，放學了。)
2. hopefully adv.
懷希望地 (huai2 xi1 wang4 di5)
例: Whenever I have any food, my dog watches me hopefully because he thinks I'm going to give him some.
(每當我有食物，我的狗就會滿心期盼地看著我，因為牠認為我會餵牠。)
3. pretend v.i.
假裝 (jia3 zhuang1)
例: Sometimes Penny pretends to be sick so that she doesn't have to go to school.
(有時潘妮會裝病，這樣她就不必上學。)
4. at ease adj. phr.
從容的 (cong1 rong2 de5)
例: I am most at ease at home with my families.
(我和家人一起待在家最自在。)
「去啊，按門鈴，」凱薩琳說。
「你確定你想去派對？」馬克說。「我們大可待在安靜舒適的家裡，也許我們可以看電影，」他滿心期盼地說著。
「可是想想，這樣我們就沒機會認識這些新的面孔！」凱薩琳說。馬克想到不必認識新朋友，臉上就堆滿了笑容，但是凱薩琳已經按了門鈴，馬克還沒回神，他們已身處一間擁擠的房間，許多人說說笑笑，跳著舞。
「喔，跳舞去！」凱薩琳說著，就衝向舞池，她有些朋友在那裡跳舞。
馬克不知所措，四處張望，假裝鎮定。每個人都看似在跟人說話。然後他看到烏龜小姐獨自一人坐在沙發上，看起來就跟他一樣緊張害怕。她幾乎把頭完全縮進殼裡，只有眼睛露在外面，並且張大著眼睛看著周圍的每個人。他看著她，她也看著他。
「嗨，我是馬克，」他說，不過他現在沒那麼緊張了。
「我是琳，」她說著，把頭微微伸出殼外。（翻譯：鄭湘儀）
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