(2011年10月18日)
昨天吃晚饭的时候,骏骏还没拿起碗筷,就对我说:“Daddy, I have a story to tell you. It's in English.”
骏骏一到吃饭的时候就特别多话,很影响吃饭,我就打断他:“We are having supper now. Can you tell me the story after supper?”骏骏只好答应了。
吃饭时,我忽然有了个主意:以前骏骏讲故事,我们都没记录下来,事后想写点什么,却又回忆不全,这次要用手机的录音功能录下来才行。
吃完饭后,骏骏看他的 Megastructure 记录片,我去洗碗。等我们都忙完了,我问他:“Can you tell me the story now?”骏骏高兴地说:“Yes!”
考虑到卧室里比较安静,我把骏骏带到卧室,把手机调到录音功能,然后告诉骏骏:“You can start now.”
骏骏讲的故事是 The Garage machine。我听他讲了一部分就知道是模仿 A Little Golden Book 系列里的 Bugs Bunny's Carrot Machine 的情节,不过语言是骏骏自己的语言,内容也换成了他自己的内容。这本书是两年前买给他的,他很喜欢,常常翻出来看。
讲了近十分钟,故事结束了。这时已经比较晚了,骏骏还要做《奇迹幼儿数学》,睡前还要读书,因此没时间把录音整理出来。
今天晚上,我和骏骏一起听录音,终于把故事整理出来了。我只修改了一两处时态错误,修改了一两个用错的词,其它全部照录音搬下来的。骏骏思考故事如何接下去时用了不少 And then...,这个就不删了,只在此说明一下。
The Garage Machine
Once upon a time, there was a man called Sud. He really liked machines.
One day, he raced out of a second-hand bookshop and bumped into his friend.
"Hey, man! What's the rush?"
Sud said, "Look what I've found in this old magazine. Plan to build a garage machine! This way, I won't need to work so hard when I am fixing my car."
His friend asked, "That's good. But where will you get all of the parts?"
Sud said, "To the garbage dump!"
At the garbage dump, they found an old washing machine, and some old engine parts, and some old gloves, and some pipes, and some wires. And they all took them to Sud's house.
When they'd finished, his friend asked, "Will this really work?"
Sud looked at the book and then pressed a green button. Nothing happened.
Then his friend said, "This old magazine tells us that you should tell the machine what you need to fix. And then you need to press the green button."
Sud said, "Mmmm..., it looks like I have a problem with my van."
Then he pressed the green button, and then the hands came out. He quickly pushed the machine to where the van was parked.
The machine started the engine parts to have a look. And then in a jerk, the machine stopped.
Sud checked it. Without even a minute, Sud jumped up and opened the lid and dumped his head into the engine parts. Then he saw that one of the connections was loose. So he went back home and used a hammer to knock at it. And then it was dark in there. Then, suddenly, he accidentally knocked on the fuel tank. And then the fuel blasted out and he quickly closed the cap. And then more and more fuel were rushing out. Soon the washing machine couldn't bear it any more. And the whistle tooted and the oil over-flooded. And then suddenly it was blocked. And then instead of going out of there, the oil burst the outer core. Oil blasted around. After the blast, everything was in orange oil color.
Then Sud looked at the parts. They lined up into an arrow, pointing straight towards his friend's Cleanest Prized van.
His friend said, "You dare that! Go away!"
(The end)
这个结尾需要解释一下,没看过 Bugs Bunny's Carrot Machine 的人可能看不懂,因为他是想模仿该故事的结尾,但说得不够明白。骏骏是想说,由于 garage machine 修不好 Sud 的面包车,只好爆成一堆碎片,掉在地上变成一个箭头,指向他朋友那部得过“干净大奖”的面包车,等于是告诉 Sud:“我修不好你的面包车,你去开朋友那部面包车吧”,所以他朋友才生气。