Tired of sleeping on the floor, a young man in Teheran saved up for years to buy a real bed. For the first time in his life, he became the proud owner of a bed which had springs and a mattress. Because the weather was very hot, he carried the bed on to the roof of his house. He slept very well for the first two nights, but on the third night, a storm blew up. A gust of wind swept the bed off the roof and sent it crashing into the courtyard below. The young man did not wake up until the bed had struck the ground. Although the bed was smashed to pieces, the man was miraculously unhurt. When he woke up, he was still on the mattress. Glancing at the bits of wood and metal that lay around him, the man sadly picked up the mattress and carried it into his house. After he had put it on the floor, he promptly went to sleep again.
Lesson50 Taken for a ride
I love travelling in the country, but I don't like losing my way. I went on an excursion recently, but my trip took me longer than I expected. ' I'm going to Woodford Green,' I said to the conductor as I got on the bus,' but I don't know where it is.' 'I'll tell you where to get off,' answered the conductor.
I sat in the front of the bus to get a good view of the countryside. After some time, the bus stopped. Looking round, I realized with a shock that I was the only passenger left on the bus.
'You'll have to get off here,' the conductor said. 'This is as far as we go.' 'Is this Woodford Green?' I asked. 'Oh dear,' said the conductor suddenly.' I forgot to put you off.' 'It doesn't matter,' I said. 'I'll get off here.' 'We are going back now,' said the conductor. 'Well, in that case, I prefer to stay on the bus,' I answered.
Lesson51 Reward for virtue
My friend, Hugh, has always been fat, but things got so bad recently that he decided to go on a diet. He began his diet a week ago. First of all, he wrote out a long list of all the foods which were forbidden. The list included most of the things Hugh loves: butter, potatoes, rice, beer, milk, chocolate, and sweets. Yesterday I paid him a visit. I rang the bell and was not surprised to see that Hugh was still as fat as ever. He led me into his room and hurriedly hid a large parcel under his desk. It was obvious that he was very embarrassed. When I asked him what he was doing, he smiled guiltily and then put the parcel on the desk. He explained that his diet was so strict that he had to reward himself occasionally. Then he showed me the contents of the parcel. It contained five large bars of chocolate and three bags of sweets!
《神奇树屋》第一册——《恐龙谷历险记》的文本。
1 Into the Woods
“Help! A monster!” said Annie.
“Yeah,sure,” said Jack. “A real monster in Frog Creek, Pennsylvania.”
“Run,Jack!” said Annie. She ran up the road.
Oh,brother.
This is what he got for spending time with his seven-year-old sister.
Annie loved pretend stuff. But Jack was eight and a half. He liked real things.
“Watch out, Jack! The monster’s coming! Race you!”
“No,thanks,” said Jack.
Annie raced alone into the woods.
Jack looked at the sky. The sun was about to set.
“Come on,Annie! It’s time to go home!”
But Annie had disappeared.
Jack waited.
No Annie.
“Annie!” he shouted again.
“Jack! Jack! Come here!”
Jack groaned. “This better be good,” he said.
Jack left the road and headed into the woods. The trees were lit with a golden late-afternoon light.
“Come here!” called Annie.
There she was. Standing under a tall oak tree. “Look,” she said. She was pointing at a rope ladder.
The longest rope ladder Jack had ever seen.
“Wow,” he whispered.
The ladder went all the way up to the top of the tree.
There—at the top—was a tree house. It was tucked between two branches.
“That must be the highest tree house in the world,” said Annie.
“Who built it ?” asked Jack. “I’ve never seen it before.”
“I don’t know. But I’m going up,” said Annie.
“No. We don’t know who it belongs to,” said Jack.
“Just for a teeny minute,”said Annie. She started up the ladder.
“Annie,come back!”
She kept climbing.
Jack sighed. “Annie,it’s almost dark. We have to go home.”
Annie disappeared inside the tree house.
“An-nie!”
Jack waited a moment. He was about to call again when Annie poked her head out of the tree house window.
“Books!” she shouted.
“What?”
“It’s filled with books!”
Oh,man!Jack loved books.
He pushed his glasses into place. He gripped the sides of the rope ladder,and up he went.
2 The Monster
Jack crawled through a hole in the tree house floor.
Wow. The tree house was filled with books. Books everywhere. Very old books with dusty covers. New books with shiny, bright covers. “Look. You can see far, far away,” said Annie. She was peering out the tree house window.
Jack looked out the window with her. Down below were the tops of the other trees. In the distance he saw the Frog Creek library. The elementary school. The park.
Annie pointed in the other direction.
“There’s our house,” she said.
Sure enough. There was their white wooden house with the green porch.
Next door was their neighbor’s black dog,Henry. He looked very tiny.
“Hi,Henry!” shouted Annie.
“Shush!” said Jack. “We’re not supposed to be up here.”
He glanced around the tree house again.
“I wonder who owns all these books,”he said. He noticed bookmarks were sticking out of many of them.
“I like this one,” said Annie. She held up a book with a castle on the cover.
“Here’ s a book about Pennsylvania,”said Jack. He turned to the page with the bookmark.
“Hey,there’ s a picture of Frog Creek in here,” said Jack. “It’s a picture of these woods!”
“Oh,here’s a book for you,”said Annie. She held up a book about dinosaurs. A blue silk bookmark was sticking out of it.
“Let me see it.” Jack set down his backpack and grabbed the book from her.
“You look at that one,and I’ll look at the one about castles,”said Annie.
“No,We better not,” said Jack. “We don’t know who these books belong to.”
But even as he said this,Jack opened the dinosaur book to where the bookmark was. He couldn’t help himself.
He turned to a picture of an ancient flying reptile. A Pteranodon.
He touched the huge bat-like wings.
“Wow,” whispered Jack. “I wish I could see a Pteranodon for real.”
Jack studied the picture of the odd-looking creature soaring through the sky.
“Ahhh!” screamed Annie.
“What?” said Jack.
“A monster!” Annie cried. She pointed to the tree house window.
“Stop pretending,Annie”, said Jack.
“No,really!” said Annie.
Jack looked out the window.
A giant creature was gliding above the treetops!He had a long, weird crest on the back of his head. A skinny beak. And huge bat-like wings!
It was a real live Pteranodon!
The creature curved through the sky. He was coming straight toward the tree house. He looked like a glider plane!
The wind began to blow.
The leaves trembled.
Suddenly the creature soared up. High into the sky. Jack nearly fell out the window trying to see it.
The wind picked up. It was whistling now.
The tree house started to spin.
“What’s happening?” cried Jack.
“Get down!” shouted Annie.
She pulled him back from the window.
The tree house was spinning. Faster and faster.
Jack squeezed his eyes shut. He held on to Annie.
Then everything was still.
Absolutely still.
Jack opened his eyes. Sunlight slanted through the window.
There was Annie. The books. His backpack.
The tree house was still high up in an oak tree.
But it wasn’t the same oak tree.
3 Where Is Here?
Jack looked out the window.
He looked down at the picture in the book.
He looked back out the window.
The world outside and the world in the picture—they were exactly the same.
The Pteranodon was soaring through the sky. The ground was covered with ferns and tall grass.
There was a winding stream. A sloping hill. And volcanoes in the distance.
“Wh—where are we?” stammered Jack.
The Pteranodon glided down to the base of their tree. The creature coasted to a stop. And stood very still.
“What happened to us?” said Annie. She looked at Jack. He looked at her.
“I don’t know,” said Jack. “I was looking at the picture in the book—”
“And you said,‘Wow, I wish I could see a Pteranodon for real,’”said Annie.
“Yeah. And the we saw one. In the Frog Creek woods”,said Jack.
“Yeah. And then the wind got loud. And the tree house started spinning,”said Annie.
“And we landed here,” said Jack.
“And we landed here,” said Annie.
“So that means...” said Jack.
“So that means... what?” said Annie.
“Nothing,”said Jack. He shook his head. “None of this can be real.” Annie looked out the window again.“But he’s real,”she said. “He’s very real.”
Jack looked out the window with her. The Pteranodon was standing at the base of the oaktree.Like a guard. His giant wings were spread out on either side of him.
“Hi!” Annie shouted.
“Shush!” said Jack.“we’re not supposed to be here.”
“But where is here?” said Annie.
“I don’t know,” said Jack.
“Hi!” Annie called again to the creature.
The Pteranodon looked up at them.
“Where is here?” Annie called down.
“You’re nuts. He can’t talk,” said Jack. “But maybe the book can tell us.”
Jack looked down at the book. He read the words under the picture:
This flying reptile lived in the Cretaceous period. It vanished 65 million years ago.
No. Impossible. They couldn’t have landed in a time 65 million years ago.
“Jack,” said Annie. “He’s nice.”
“Nice?”
“Yeah,I can tell. Let’s go down and talk to him.”
“Talk to him?”
Annie started down the rope ladder.
“Hey!” shouted Jack.
But Annie kept going.
“Are you crazy?” Jack called.
Annie dropped to the ground. She stepped boldly up to the ancient creature.
刚开始,孩子对英语还没什么兴趣的时候,坚持比较难一点。
需要家长陪着学,但这个过程也不长,大约几个月。
这期间,我觉得要让孩子听简单的材料,学简单的、图片多的、趣味性强的材料,不能让他觉得难,要想方设法让他体会到学英语的乐趣。
我们从钟琬婷的爸爸那里学了很多。
越到后面,越觉得钟琬婷真是很了不起。
清华北大,钟琬婷是不肯去的。即使在香港科技大学,她也是最好的学生之一。
我个人感觉,钟琬婷其实学习能力是强于刘亦婷的。
难道,哈佛大学也是以貌取人吗……
应该是从《伦敦大火》、《peppa pig》等材料开始,听力方面,那就已经是他追着要听了,我们反而要加以限制,规定每天不能多听,不能超过1个小时,避免偏科。
7、8岁的孩子,爱听故事是天性,尤其是探险类的,对男孩子特别有吸引力。
我感觉,他听《神奇树屋》,纯是为了乐趣,而绝不是为了学习英语。
应该是从听《神奇树屋》开始,就从未中断过,每天至少1个小时,包括出去旅游和过春节。
如果我们忙,没时间管他,最多的时候,他一天听了3个小时。
现在,已经听到第42本了。
《神奇树屋》好像一共有48本。
不知道,是不是还在继续出新的。