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

Wednesday, Nov 26, 2008,Page 17

Time travel for beginners 時光旅行初體驗

Itwas a cold and wet day, and Mark and Kathleen were wondering what to do. “We haven’t used Professor Zooks’ time machine for a long time. Why don’t we have some fun with that?” said Mark. Kathleen thought about it. She was bored with the time machine, but then again, there was nothing else to do. “OK, why not?” she said.

Five minutes later they arrived at the professor’s house, and as usual he was happy to see his best friends. He was wearing the large top hat that he never took off. With a big smile he told them about his latest improvement to the time machine. “It now has a random setting! It will take you to a completely random time and place.” Kathleen was excited by this new idea and ran into the machine. Mark slowly followed her in.

“I really hope the professor knows what he’s doing. A time machine is dangerous enough without a random setting,” said Mark. But before he had a chance to think about it, Kathleen hit the start button and the machine started to shake. The shaking got stronger and stronger and then everything started to spin. The walls of the machine clattered and rattled and the engine whirred louder and louder until it seemed like it was going to explode. Then suddenly it stopped.

Kathleen nervously walked over to the door and tried to get it open. She pushed and pushed until it finally opened, letting in a river of sand. She put her head out the door and was amazed at what she saw. A huge pyramid stood before her. Men walked around carrying stone axes and huge stones, while soldiers looked on. In the distance an Egyptian king was being carried by his slaves. She turned to Mark and said: “I really don’t think you want to see what is out there…<>(JOHN PHILLIPS, STAFF WRITER)

這天的天氣又濕又冷，馬克和凱薩琳正在煩惱要做什麼。馬克說：「我們好久沒用祖克思教授的時光機了，何不用那個來找點樂子呢？」凱薩琳考慮了一下，她已經玩膩時光機了，但又沒有別的事可做，所以她說：「好吧，有何不可？」

五分鐘後，他們來到祖克思教授家。就像往常一樣，祖克思教授很開心見到這兩位好友。頭上仍戴著那頂從不離身的大禮帽的他，笑開懷地向他們說明他為時光機所做的最新改良。他說：「現在它有隨機裝置了！前往的時空完全是隨機選擇。」凱薩琳對這個新功能感到很興奮，於是跑進機器裡，馬克也慢慢尾隨。

馬克說：「我衷心希望教授知道自己在做什麼。時光機本身就夠危險了， 況且還有隨機功能」但他還來不及考慮，凱薩琳已按下啟動鍵，機器開始搖晃。機器愈晃愈劇烈，接著所有東西開始旋轉。機器內壁發出噹啷咯咯的聲響，引擎的運轉聲愈來愈大，最後簡直就像要爆炸了一樣。然後，這一切忽然停止了。

凱薩琳提心吊膽地走到門邊想打開門。她推了又推，好不容易打開門，大量沙土沖洩了進來。她把頭探出門外，眼前的景象讓她大吃一驚，一座大金字塔就矗立在她眼前。扛著石斧和大石塊的男子們走來走去，士兵則在旁監督。遠方，奴僕們正抬著一位埃及國王。她轉頭向馬克說：「我想你不會想知道外面是什麼情況…」

（翻譯：袁星塵）

TODAY’S WORDS 今日單字 1. improvement n. 改善 (gai3 shan4)，裝修 (zhuang1 xiu1) 例: The builders made several improvements to our house. (建築商把我們的房子整修了一番。) 2. explode v.i./v.t. 爆炸 (bao4 zha4) 例: We replaced our boiler after it exploded. (熱水壺爆炸後，我們又換了個新的。) 3. nervously adv. 提心吊膽地 (ti2 xin1 diao4 dan3 de5) 例: The kids nervously knocked on the door of the old house. (那些小孩提心吊膽地敲了敲那棟老房子的大門。) 4. distance n. 遠處 (yuan3 chu4) 例: Josh could see the mountain in the distance. (喬許可以看到遠處的山。)

WHAT HAPPENED? 究竟怎麼回事? 1. Kathleen ___ the random setting. a. liked b. didn’t like c. didn’t care about 2. What didn’t the machine do? a. Shake b. Break c. Make a noise

FINISH IT 故事接龍 Write your own ending to the story! 寫下你的故事結局: Idea 1: They have landed in Ancient Egypt during the building of the pyramids. Will they be forced to join the slave gangs? Will they escape? 想法一: 他們來到建造金字塔時期的古埃及。他們會被迫加入奴隸營嗎？他們會逃走嗎？ Idea 2: They have landed in Ancient Egypt, but the Egyptians want to make Mark into a god. Why? What does he think about it? What will he do as a god? 想法二: 他們來到古埃及，但埃及人把馬克當作神祇。為什麼？馬克有何感想？作為神祇，他會做什麼？ Idea 3: The Egyptians decide to sacrifice Mark and Kathleen! Why? Do they escape? How? 想法三: 埃及人決定要把馬克和凱薩琳當作祭品！為什麼？他們會逃走嗎？怎麼逃走？

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