英语故事CloudyWithaChanceofMeatball.doc

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatball

We were all sitting around the big kitchen table. It was Saturday morning. Mom was squeezing oranges for juice. Henry and I were betting on how many pancakes we each could eat. And grandpa was doing the flipping.

Seconds later, something flew through the air headed toward the kitchen ceiling… and landed right on Henry.
After we realized that the flying object was only a pancake, we all laughed, even grandpa. Breakfast continued quite uneventfully. All the other pancakes landed in the pan. And all of them were eaten, even the one that landed on Henry.

A chance of sth. 某事的机会 sit around the table: 围坐桌旁
squeeze orange for juice: 榨橙汁 squeeze 挤,榨 pancake薄饼
bet on sth. 为某事打赌 flip a coin 抛硬币 flip 抛,掷
head toward 向某处去,直奔 land 降落
ceiling 天花板 roof房顶 object物体
event 大事,结果 uneventfully 平安无事地
land on somewhere 降落在某处

That night, touched off by the pancake incident at breakfast, grandpa told us the best tall-tale bedtime story he’d ever told.

“Across an ocean, over lots of huge bumpy mountains, across three hot deserts, and one smaller ocean… there lay the tiny town of Chewandswallow…
In most ways, it was very much like any other tiny town. It had a Main Street lined with stores, houses with trees and gardens around them, a schoolhouse, about three hundred people, and some assorted cats and dogs.

But there were no food stores in the town of Chewandswallow. They didn’t need any. The sky supplied all the food they could possibly want.

Touch接触 　　　　　　　touch off有感而发
Incident事件 　　　　　　 accident事故
Tall-tale夸大的故事 　　　　 tall高,夸大
Bumpy 崎岖,颠簸的 　　 desert沙漠
chew嚼,咀嚼 　　　　swallow吞咽,吞一口, 燕子
lay 躺下, 坐落 (lay egg 下蛋) tiny微小,特别小
assorted各式各样的,杂拌的, 杂种的,混合的
main street 主街道
supply 提供

Whatever the weather served, that was what they ate. But it never rained rain. It never snowed snow. And it never blew just wind. It rained things like soup and juice. It snowed mashed potatoes and green peas. And sometimes the wind blew in storms of hamburgers.

When the townspeople went outside, they carried their plates, cups, glasses, forks, spoons, knives and napkins with them. That way they would always be prepared for any kind of weather.

The people could watch the weather report on television in the morning and they would even hear a prediction for the next day’s food.

If there were leftovers, and there usually were, the people took them home and put them in their refrigerators in case they got hungry between meals.

Serve服务，上菜 　　　blew wind 吹风　　
mashed potatoes 土豆泥　　　　　mash 糊，捣成糊，压碎
storm风暴　　　　　　napkin餐巾，尿布
weather report （weather forecast）天气预报
report报告　forecast预测 　　prediction预测，预言
leftover 剩饭，剩菜　　　take it home拿回家
refrigerator (frige) 冰箱

The menu varied. By the time they woke up in the morning, breakfast was coming down.

After a brief shower of orange juice, low clouds of sunny-side up eggs moved in followed by pieces of toast. Butter and jelly sprinkled down for the toast. And most of the time it rained milk afterwards.

Dinner one night consisted of lamb chops, becoming heavy at times, with occasional ketchup. Periods of peas and baked potatoes were followed by gradual clearing, with a wonderful Jell-O setting in the west.

Manu菜单　　 vary变化　　　brief 简短的，概述　
a brief shower短暂的雨 　　 （brief period of enthusiasm　三分钟热情）
sunny-side up egg 煎一面的蛋　　　　　move in搬进
toast烤面包 jelly果冻　 sprinkle小雨，下小雨　 afterwards．．．之后
consist of sth. 包括　　lamb chop羊排
chop　切碎，砍（动）----chops肋骨，排骨
heavy难消化　　　　　　　　　occasion偶尔的，经常的
period of sth. 有时有．．　　　　　baked potato 烤土豆
gradual 逐渐　　　　　　　　　　Jell-O 果冻品牌
the setting of the sun 日落　　 setting 日落　

The Sanitation Department of Chewandswallow had a rather unusual job for a sanitation department. It had to remove the food that fell on the houses and sidewalks and lawns. The workers cleaned things up after every meal and fed all the dogs and cats. Then they emptied some of it into the surrounding oceans for the fish and turtles and whales to eat. The rest of the food was put back into the earth so that the soil would be richer for the people’s flower gardens.

Life for the people was delicious until the weather took a turn for the worse.
One day there was nothing but Gorgonzola cheese all day long.
The next day there was only broccoli, all overcooked.
And the next day there were brussel sprouts and peanut butter with mayonnaise.

sanitation卫生　　department局，部门 rather非常
usual平常 unusual不平常 remove移走　 sidewalk过道
lawn草坪 feed dog喂狗 surrounding周围的　　rich soil肥沃的泥土
take a turn for the worse 转头变坏
broccoli 西兰花 brussel sprout 圆白菜汤　　
peanut butter花生酱 mayonnaise蛋黄酱
overcooked烹过头的

Another day there was a pea soup fog. No one could see where they were going and they could barely find the rest of the meal they got stuck in the fog.
The food was getting larger and larger, and so were the portions. The people were getting frightened. Violent storms blew up frequently. Awful things were happening.
One Tuesday there was a hurricane of bread and rolls all day long and into the night. There were soft rolls and hard rolls, some with seeds and some without. There was white bread and rye and whole wheat toast. Most of it was larger than they had ever seen bread and rolls before. It was a terrible day. Everyone had to stay indoors. Roofs were damaged, and the Sanitation Department was beside itself. The mess took the workers four days to clean up, and the sea was full of floating rolls.
To help out, the people piled up as much bread as they could in their backyards. The birds picked at it a bit, but it just stayed there and got staler and staler.
barely仅仅能　　stick (过去时stuck)粘住，钉住（动）；小棍（名）
portion一份，分份　 frightened被吓的　　 frequently经常的
awful可怕的　　 hurricane龙卷风　　 all day long一整天　
rye黑麦 　　whole wheat toast 全麦面包 float漂浮　
pile up堆积　stale不新鲜的，腐坏的　 pick 采，挑，啄食
roll 面包卷　　soft roll 软面包（如牛角包）　　hard roll小硬面包

There was a storm of pancakes one morning and a downpour of maple syrup that nearly flooded the town. A huge pancake covered the school. No one could get it off because of its weight, so they had to close the school.
Lunch one day brought fifteen-inch drifts of cream cheese and jelly sandwiches. Everyone ate themselves sick and the day ended with a stomachache.

There was an awful salt and pepper wind accompanied by an even worse tomato tornado. People were sneezing themselves silly and running to avoid the tomatoes. The town was a mess. There were seeds and pulp everywhere.
The Sanitation Department gave up. The job was too big.
Everyone feared for their lives. They couldn’t go outside most of the time. Many houses had been badly damaged by giant meatballs, stores were boarded up and there was no more school for the children.

downpour泼下　 maple syrup 枫树汁　 flood洪水
drift 漂流，漂流物 stomachache胃痛 pepper胡椒
accompany by sth. 伴随而来某物　　　 tornado龙卷风
sneeze打喷嚏 　　　seed and pulp籽和果肉　 giant巨大的
（room and board 食宿）　　　board up用木板钉上

So a decision was made to abandon the town of Chewaswallow.
It was a matter of survival.
The people glued together the giant pieces of stale bread sandwich-style with peanut butter…took the absolute necessities with them, and set sail on their rafts for a new land.

After being afloat for a week, they finally reached a small coastal town, which welcomed them. The bread had held up surprisingly well, well enough for them to build temporary houses for themselves out of it.

The children began school again, and the adults all tried to find places for themselves in the new land. The biggest change they had to make was getting used to buying food at a supermarket. They found it odd that the food was kept on shelves, packaged in boxes, cans and bottles. Meat that had to be cooked was kept in large refrigerators..

abandon放弃　　　 survival生存　　　 glue胶水，用胶粘
absolute绝对　 　　　　　　necessary需要的——necessity需要
raft木筏 　　 float＝ be afloat漂流
coast海岸―― coastal海岸的　　
Temporary临时的　　　　 adult 成人　　　　　supermarket超市

Nothing came down from the sky except rain and snow. The clouds above their heads were not made of fried eggs. No one ever got hit by a hamburger again. And nobody dared to go back to Chewandswallow to find out what had happened to it. They were too afraid.
Henry and I were awake until the very end of Grandpa story. I remember his goodnight kiss.

The next morning we woke up to see snow falling outside our window.
We ran downstairs for breakfast and ate it a little faster than usual so we could go sledding with Grandpa.
It’s funny, but even as we were sliding down the hill we thought we saw a giant pat of butter at the top, and we could almost smell mashed potatoes.

Fried egg煎蛋 hill小山 sled雪橇，用雪橇滑雪
slide ( slid, slid) 滑下，滑动　
a pat of butter 一小块黄油　　pat扁平的小块