The Adventures of Kathleen the Great and Mark the Meek 英勇凱薩琳與害羞馬克歷險記

The Shrinking Machine 縮小機

One afternoon, Kathleen decided she wanted to have some fun without Mark, so she went to visit her old friend Professor Zooks in his laboratory. When she arrived, the professor was working on an amazing machine covered with flashing lights and making strange noises.

“What on earth is that?” Kathleen cried.

“That’s my shrinking machine! Anything that I put in it will shrink to the size of a peanut. But it’s not finished yet. I haven’t worked out how to make things bigger again. Let me show you how it works,” the professor said.

Professor Zooks took out a huge pumpkin and placed it on a table under the machine. He pressed a red button on the wall and suddenly the machine started to shake. Two lasers pointed at the pumpkin, and then it disappeared behind a cloud of smoke.

Kathleen ran over to the table and picked up the tiny pumpkin. It really was the size of a peanut.

“Wow professor, it really works!” Kathleen said.

Just then Mark ran in. He jumped up and sat on the professor’s table.

“Hi, Mark,” the professor and Kathleen said happily.

“Hey, what does this red button do?” Mark asked, as he pressed it.

“No!” shouted Kathleen, just as the lasers appeared…

(JOHN PHILLIPS, STAFF WRITER)

某天下午，凱薩琳決定撇下馬克自己去找點樂子，於是她跑去老朋友祖克思教授的實驗室玩。她抵達實驗室時，教授正在操作一台佈滿閃爍燈光、並發出奇怪聲響的神奇機器。

凱薩琳大喊：「那究竟是什麼啊？」

教授說：「這是我的縮小機！任何被放進去的東西都會被縮小成花生米的大小，但我還沒完工，因為我還沒找到把東西恢復原貌的方法。我來示範給你看。」

祖克思教授拿出一顆大南瓜，把它放到機器下方的一個桌台上，按下牆上的紅色按鈕後，機器忽然開始搖晃。兩道雷射光射在南瓜上，南瓜就在一陣煙霧中消失了。

凱薩琳跑到桌子旁，從桌上撿起那顆迷你南瓜，那顆南瓜真的變成和花生米一般大。

凱薩琳說：「哇，教授，這個機器真的可以把東西變小耶！」

就在那時，馬克跑了進來，他跳到教授的桌上坐下。

教授和凱薩琳開心地打招呼說：「嗨，馬克。」

馬克一邊問：「嘿，這個紅色按鈕是做什麼的啊？」一邊按下按鈕。

凱薩琳大叫：「不！」但雷射光已經射了出來…

（翻譯：袁星塵）