Introductions: Hamsters’ Magic English (Series) Long ago there was a Magic Mountain, and on the Magic mountain, there lived a hamster family, Morris, Doris, their friend Jane, Denies, and their dog Digby and……They were very happy to live together and their lives were full of songs, rhymes and stories, of course magic as well for here was Magic Mountain. I’m very lucky to find out their stories with the help of a kind fairy and have had all the stories sorted with a wave of my magic wand. Okay, let’s now walk into their life on Magic Mountain and share their happiness and their wonderful English in daily life.
(学法指导:Maybe there are some words new to you but I suggest you just relax yourself and enjoy the story. If you are as clever as the little hamster you can get the meaning across in your reading, right? After the reading you can check at the end to see whether your guesses are right or wrong.)
One morning, I was woken up by the sun streaming in through the windows. The birds were singing noisily in the trees. “Wake up, wake up, sleepy head!” I said to Morris, “Summer’s really here at last!” We both ate our breakfast very quickly. “It’s such a lovely day. We must do something special!” said Morris. “ I know, let’s have a picnic!” I said. “We could go to Pea Green Park!” “Oh, yes!” said Morris, “I love it there. It’s so green. It’s like being under the sea!” Pea Green Park is in a lovely valley surrounded by trees. You’ve never seen so many flowers and there’s a stream running through it! “I’ll pack the picnic “said Morris, who makes delicious sandwiches, “and you fetch our rug for us to sit on.” Soon, we were ready and after walking and walking and walking we arrived at Pea Green Park. “Oh, I’m so thirsty after that walk! ” said Morris, “I’m going to have some lemonade. Now where did I put it?” We looked everywhere but we couldn’t find the lemonade. “Oh dear!” said Morris, “I must have forgotten to pack it!” “Oh you careless hamster!” I said. “Never mind,” said Morris, “I’ll drink some water from the stream!” He dipped his glass in again and again and drank glasses and glasses ice cold water. “Don’t drink any more, Morris, You’ll burst!” Morris stood up “I do feel rather funny.” he said. I stared at him “Huh Morris, you’re getting bigger, bigger and bigger! Can’t you stop?’ “No, I can’t!” said Morris, “ and I’m not sure I want to. I’m twice as tall as you now, I’ll soon be able to pick the cherries high up on this tree. Yummy, yummy!” Morris was not at all worried but I was. “Supposing you never become smaller again!” I said, “You won’t fit into your bed, you won’t even get through our front door at this rate, I think we’d better go home and I’ll find you a spell to make you small!” “All right, but first I just need a few more cherries.” Said Morris. “Oh, he’s so greedy” I had to run to keep up with Morris on the way home. He took huge steps and he was still getting bigger! While I was looking for my book of spells, I came across an old map of Magic Mountain. “Look Morris! It says here that the stream in Pea Green Park is called ‘the Growing Stream’. Ah! No wonder the water made you so big!” Morris looked down from a great height, “but what can we do?” he said. “I’m beginning to feel uncomfortable, and my fur’s gone all tight!” I leafed through my book of spells as quickly as I could “Hang on! Morris.” I said. I’ll try this one: bing bang bong! Oh, what a surprise, hamsters must be hamster size!” There was a funny hissing sound like an untied balloon and Morris became smaller and smaller and smaller until at last he was the same size as me again! “Thank goodness for that!” he said “I thought I was going to burst, Now, where’s our picnic? I’m starving!” 生词注释 1. sleepyhead n. 贪睡者;懒鬼 2. valley n. 山谷;流域;溪谷 3. rug n.小地毯;毛毯 4. thirsty a. 口渴的,渴望的,干燥的 5. burst vi. 1.爆炸,破裂 2.突然发生 n. 爆炸;突然破裂;爆发 6. cherry n.樱桃;樱桃树 7. Supposing conj. 假如,如果 8. at this rate这样的话;照这(那)样下去 9. greedy a. 1.贪婪的,贪吃的 2.渴望的 10. tight a. 紧的;紧身的;密封的 ad. 紧紧地 11. leaf n. 叶子;(书刊的)一页;金属薄片 12. Hang on 坚持住 13. starve v.(使)饿死,挨饿;渴望(for)
孩系列之小仙女们的故事之一 Do you have kittens? Do they sometime climb up a tree and get stuck in the branches and won’t come down? What will you do to get them down? Do you really know what happened to them? Fairies to the rescue What do you do if a kitten gets stuck in a tree? Well, you stand at the bottom and call. You hold up his bowl of kitty food and try to tempt him down. You try being cross and you try being nice. You may even point out the nice strong branch that he should jump on to. But the chances are that none of these ideas will work. Kittens, once they get stuck, seem to get well and truly stuck. And somehow, they can’t remember exactly how they managed to climb up to where they are now. If only they could remember where they had been put each little paw. Coming down would be so much easier. But kittens are not as sensible as fairies. They prefer just to sit in the tree and wait to be rescued. When all other ideas have been tried, most people call firefighter. These fine people are usually only too happy to help, as long as they are not busy fighting a fire, of course. Along comes the fire engine. When it gets very near, it flashes its light to amuse the children, then the engine parks safely by the side of the road, and the firefighters get out. “Where’s the little rascal?” they ask, peering up into the tree. And there he is, sitting on his branch, looking sadly down at the ground. “No problem.” say the brave firefighters. “We’ll have him down in no time.” Up go the long long ladders, and up go the firefighters. Nearer and nearer to the little kitten they come until… have they got him? Yes… no … yes…oh! Just before the first firefighter reaches the kitten, he jumps down from his branch and runs merrily down the tree into your arms! Ask any firefighters and he or she will tell you that happens all the time. Now most people believe that the reason for the kitten’s annoying behavior is that it just doesn’t want to be caught. When the firefighter comes near, its fear vanished and it skips down the tree to avoid those reaching hands. But what really happens is very differently. Shall I let you into a secret? Don’t tell, will you? It is fairies who are to be blame! Yes, fairies, who are normally such good and kind little creatures, just occasionally like to have a joke. They flutter up into the tree with the kitten and say, “Stay where you are until we say the word. This is a good game, isn’t it?” And the kitten is only too happy to play along. So next time you see a kitten apparently trapped in a tree, look very carefully at the leaves and branches nearby. You just might see a cheeky little face peeping out at you, if you look hard enough!
Pre-reading Dear boys and girls; Welcome to Senior Three---an important year in your high school life. To show our greeting, I have brought with me an very interesting story. It’s a story about an elf student who has some trouble in his learning. But I’m sure you are not like that elf because you are careful with your study and always listen to your teacher carefully in class, right? Do you want to know what happened to him? Okay, let’s read together to find out.
The Elf Who Couldn’t Spell Once upon a time, there was a little elf who would not pay attention at school. He would look out of the window, or draw pictures in his book, or simply float away in a world of his own, imagining what it would be like to be a grown-up elf. As you know, it is always very important to listen carefully during lessons. At any moment, you may learn something that will be useful to you five minutes later or for the rest of your life. It is a great pity that Elderberry Elf was not paying attention one Tuesday morning last autumn when Mrs. Maple was teaching one of her interesting classes in Elementary Magic. “Now remember.” She said, “These words must always be used at the end of each spell. If they are not, then you will not be bale to undo the spell. Are you listening, Elderberry?” “Yes, Mrs. Maple,” said the little elf. “We must always use those words at the end of a spell, so that we can undo it if we want to.” “Good, ”said Mrs. Maple. “If there is one thing you must remember from everything I teach you this year, it is that.” Well, it sounded as though Elderberry understood, and in a way he did, but there was one big problem. He couldn’t remember what “those words” were! Elderberry knew that he should ask his teacher, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to admit he had not been listening. And the longer he left it, the harder it became to ask the question. From time to time, the little elf worried about those words he did not to know, but usually he tried not to think about it. Now. I’m sure you’re imagining that something dreadful happened to Elderberry. Did he turn himself into a cabbage and have to stay like that? Did he take a magic trip to Peru, and is he still there? Well, no. What Elderberry did was to try out a little magic to make him forget all the spells he had learnt. This is a useful spell to use on evil wizards, of course, but it is better to practise on yourself first… if you remember “those words” so that you can reverse it. The result is that Elderberry now cannot do any magic at all. This sometimes makes him sad, but I think that we are all muse, much safer that way. If you see Elderberry, you won’t tell him any of your magic, will you?
不会魔法的小精灵 很久很久以前,有一个上课不专心听讲的小精灵。他总是在上课的时候看着窗外,要么就在书上画画,要么就游荡在自己的世界里,想象着自己要是是一个已经长大成人的精灵多好。 就像你所知道的,在课堂上认真听课是非常重要的。那个时刻学到的知识很有可能五分钟以后就可以用到了,甚至对于你的以后的生活都非常有用。 可惜的是接骨木小精灵在去年秋季的一个星期二,在蔓佩小姐那有趣的初级魔法课堂上,他的注意力不够集中。 “现在都记好了,”蔓佩小姐说:“在每一个咒语结束的时候,你们都要说这几句话。如果你不说这几句话的话,你就根本不可能解除你的咒语了。你在听吗,大樱桃?” “是的,蔓佩小姐,”小精灵回答道。“我们必须在每个咒语结束的时候都说这几句话,以便我们在我们想解除咒语的时候解除掉它。” “好,”蔓佩小姐说道,“如果我过去一年的教学中有一件事情是你们必须牢记的话,这就是了!” 好吧,看来接骨木小精灵是懂了----,是的,从某个方面来说,他确实是懂了。可是还有一个最大问题的是:他记不清楚那几句话到底是什么了! 接骨木小精灵知道他应该去问问老师的,可是他没有勇气去承认他没有认真听课。而时间拖的越久,他就越不好意思去问老师。一想到那几句他不清楚的话,小精灵的心里就很焦急,于是他总是尽量不让自己去想这件事情。 现在,我想你肯定在猜想这个小精灵到底出了什么可怕的事情了。是不是他把自己变成一个大白菜以后就没有办法再变回来了?是不是他用魔法去秘鲁做了一次旅行,然后就呆在那里,回不来了? 不,接骨木小精灵所做的唯一的事情就是试着用一个魔法把他所学过的咒语都忘掉。这个魔法一般用在那些坏巫师身上是很有用的。你最好还是在自己身上先实验一下才好----但是要在你能够记得那几句话的情况下,这样你才可以解除掉这魔咒啊。 而现在的结果是接骨木小精灵什么魔法都不会了,有些时候他很为这个难过。但是我想这样做的结果是我们都要安全的多。如果你见到接骨木小精灵了,可千万别教给他你的任何魔法,可以吗? Post reading question: My clever boys and girls, do you know the reason I bring you this story? I believe you are always paying attention to your teacher in class, and I believe you have learnt a lot of magic spells already and you are still working hard to learn more------because they are “something that will be useful to you five minutes later or for the rest of your life”