inventors cottage.docx

1、inventors cottageInventors cottageDad dropped us off with our suitcases at aunt Agathas. He kissed us and drove away so fast that the wheels of the car skidded up the drive making the gravel fly. Hes always in a hurry. My little sister Laura looked up at the sign above the door. It said,Inventors co

2、ttage. We were both really pleased to be seeing our aunt and all her inventions again: the hard-boiled egg breaker, the toast-buttering machine and the automatic face clothWe rang the bell several times and at last Aunt Agatha came to the door.“Darling one and Darling two!” she cried and hugged us t

3、ight.“its so lovely to see you! Come in! Edgar will take your things up.”Edgar the robot-butler appeared in the hall. He took our cases and started to climb the stairs.“Edgar, dont use your right arm!” shouted Aunt Agatha. “you know perfectly well“She didnt have time to finish her sentence. Edgar le

4、t go of one of the suitcases. It slipped and bumped down the stairs.“Edgars right arm gets stuck,” explained Aunt Agatha. “I must get it repaired.”Aunt Agatha took us into the sitting room. She flopped down on her electric rocking chair with a big sigh. She seemed tired and on edge.“Whats wrong, Aun

5、t Agatha?” I asked.“Its nothing, Amy. Im just a bit overworked at the moment. Im preparing for the Big Idea. Its the most important inventors competition of the year. It starts in three days and Im behind with my new invention.”Laura said,” We can help you!”“Thats very kind of you, my dirlings,” sai

6、d Aunt Agatha.”But I dont even know if three of us will manage it. The problem is that my memory is playing tricks on me.I put down a bottle in one place and a few seconds later I cant remember where I put it. I think I ordered washing powder by post but then I get bubble bath instead It has really

7、slowed me down.” “What are you invention for the competition?” asked my sister.Aunt Agathas eyes lit up.“Its called GGG,”she said.”That s short for “Grow Grow Grow ”. Its a new kind of totally natural fertilizer that makes plants grow a hundred times faster than usual and makes them much bigger.”“Co

8、ol!” I cried.” We cant wait to give you a hand!”Aunt Agatha looked at her watch and said, “Okay, but its dinner time now. Come and have some honey and cabbage soup.”Laura made her worst ugly face.We loved our aunts wild imagination, but not when she used it in her cooking! On the way to the kitchen,

9、 I whispered, “Laura, dont you think it is a bit weird about her money?”“You are right,” said my sister.” Aunt Agatha usually remembers everything.”“We need to keep our eyes peeled for the next few days” I said.The next morning, when we opened our bedroom window, we saw Mrs. Brady the neighbor rushi

10、ng out of the house.We went downstairs for breakfast.Aunt Agatha was in a state.”Im looking for the key to my workshop,” she told us.”I have lost it again. But Im sure I put it on this chest of drawers last night.”I immediately said, “We will help you find it. What does it look like?”“Its a quite ea

11、sy to recognize. It has a triangular head.”We searched high and low but there was no sign of the key.“Did anyone go near the chest of drawers this morning?” I asked.“Only Mrs. Brady. She has just left. She wanted to see my new crumb detector.”Aunt Agatha thought for a moment.“Mrs. Brady must have wa

12、lked past it twice. She forgot her bag and had to come back for it.”Laura and I glanced at each other.After breakfast there was still no sign of the key so Aunt Agatha asked Edgar to break inside and unlocked the latch on the door.Aunt Agatha gave us some instructions. “First we have to extract the

13、juice of a hundred baobab shoots and mix them with fifty kilos of mushrooms. Then we add sunflower oil to produce a dangerously explosive mixture. The whole lot has to be distilled* in that big tub over there. Thats the most delicate part of the process. If it works, we will have several centiliters

14、 of GGG.”It was a bit tricky to follow what she was saying, but we could not wait to see the results. We collected all the ingredients we needed and started work.Laura and I had to liquidize the mushrooms while Aunt Agatha took care of the baobab shoots. We worked so hard that by midday feeling very

15、 pleased with ourselves.Edgar was in the kitchen.He had made some pancake-tossing machine. All we had to do was lay the table.As the first pancake shot up towards the ceiling like a rocket, Aunt Agatha said in a jolly voice, “If we carry on working at this rate, we will be finished by this evening!”

16、At the end of the meal the bell rang and a tall, thin man in a suit popped his head round the door.“Ah! Your family is with you! I have just come to see how the GGG is going.”“This is my friend, Professor Mowitt,” said Aunt Agatha. “Hes the famous inventor of the remote-controlled lawn mower.”Our au

17、nt turned to look at the professor. “Have you got time for a coffee, Professor? Edgar has just made some. My dear robot is working a lot better since you helped me mend him. Although he still has a slight problem with his arm.”“I must see to that one of these days,” said the professor. “I would love

18、 a coffee by the way.”Aunt Agatha told the professor all about our hard work that morning.“And how is your project coming along, Professor?” She asked.“Im designing a remote-controlled hedge-cutter at the moment,” he explained. “But its not quite finished.”When he had gone, Aunt Agatha explained tha

19、t the professor was very good at electronics. But it was often hard for him to come up with new ideas.Then we went back to the workshop.We got a nasty surprise. The bottle of baobab juice had been spilled.“Who could have done that?” said Laura.“Oh, nobody!” said our aunt.” Theres such a draught comi

20、ng through that broken window that the bottle could have tipped over again!”“It feels like someone is trying to sabotage our work,” I said.“No” she replied. “Who could possibly want to do that?”By early evening, all we had left to do was to pour the sunflower oil into the mixture. It was then that w

21、e noticed that the bottle of oil had disappeared“Where on the earth did I put it?” grumbled Aunt Agatha.Laura and I glanced at each other. I could see we were thinking the same thing. Aunt Agatha was not losing her memory! The oil had definitely been on the shelf that morning.“It must be the neighbo

22、r,” murmured Laura.“What do you mean?” asked Aunt Agatha.Laura stuttered, ”ErI mean maybe your neighbour borrowed the oil”We both suspected Mrs. Brady had gone into the workshop. We should go over to her house to borrow some oil and watch her reaction. That would soon tell us if she was the thief.Bu

23、t Aunt Agatha exclaimed, “Mrs. Brady? She has gone away for two days. She came round this morning to ask me to water her plants for her.”Aunt Agatha looked at her watch. “I will go and get a bottle of oil from the grocers. they should still be open.”As soon as my aunt had gone out, my sister and I w

24、ent to the end of the garden to check out Mrs. Bradys house. It all looked pretty quiet and her old banger was still parked in front of the garage.“its a bit odd to go away for two days without your car,” I said. “We need to get to the bottom of this”When Aunt Agatha came back from the shops, we wen

25、t straight to work. By eight oclock, we had a bucketful of green, sticky liquid.“Well done, my darlings! Now we just need to distil it!” cried Aunt Agatha in excitement. She poured part of the liquid into the machine and turned it on.At last, at ten in the evening, the first drops of GGG dripped out

26、 of one of the tubes. Aunt Agatha collected the precious liquid in a plant spray bottle. We had 30 centilitres in all. It was more than we had hoped for. Then she opened the window in the kitchen and gently sprayed some geranium plants outside.The result was immediate and spectacular. The geraniums

27、grew and grew. Soon they were the size of a bush and their roots had spilt the flower pot!“Fantastic!” said Aunt Agatha.“We are bound to win the competition with our miracle spray.”We put the spray in the fridge to keep it at the right temperature.“You are my witnesses that the GGG is in the fridge!

28、” said Aunt Agatha laughing.“Right, time for bed, everyone! We deserve a good nights sleep.”Edgar went to our room with us and leaned over to kiss us. Just then, a metal object fell on the floor. He quickly picked it upbut I had time to see that it was a keya key with a triangular head.When we were

29、in the bedroom, I made sure the robot was not listening at the door. Then I told Laura about the key.“So Edgar is making Aunt Agatha think she is losing her memory,” said Laura.” But why would he try to stop her getting on with her work? Maybe hes helping Mrs. Brady.”“Thats what we need to find out,

30、” I said. I think I have an idea”“But hang on!” said Laura suddenly.”If Edgar is trying to interfere with Aunt Agathas work thenthe GGG is in danger!”Laura was right. We decided to go and get the spray bottle immediately and give it to our aunt. We tiptoed quietly down to our aunt. We tiptoed quietl

31、y down to the kitchen. Then Laura opened the fridge and screamed.The GGG had disappeared!Just as Laura closed the fridge, we heard a noise outside on the gravel path.I hurried over to the window and saw Edgar disappearing in the moonlight. The robot was heading for the gate with something in his han

32、d.“Quick, Laura!” I gasped.”Edgar has taken the GGG. We must go after him!”When we got outside, the garden gate was half open.Laura glanced down the street.”Hes heading for Mrs. Bradys house,” she whispered.But, as I had suspected, Edgar didnt stop. He carried on up Crane Street. He got to a litter square and slowed down. Then he went up an alleyway.Finally, Edgar stopped in front of a huge gate which opened as he approached.“Lets follow him,” sa