典范英语816Doohickeyandtherobot原文+翻译.docx

1、典范英语816Doohickeyandtherobot原文+翻译8-16 Doohickey and the robotWritten by Jonathan and illustrated by Stephen LewisChapter oneDoohickey had just moved to a new town when he spotted a notice. It was stuck outside a big house at the end of his street. That s the job for me, said Doohickey. I nee-dm soonm

2、eye. more pocketHe pushed the doorbell. Then he jumped.Weeeeyow-weeeeyow-weeeeyow! Kaaabooooom!A loud alarm sounded inside the house, followed by a terrific explosion.A window flew open at the top of the house. A cloud of thick smoke billowed out. What do you want? coughed a voice from inside the cl

3、oud. Can t you see that I m busy?The smoke cleared. The professor s face peered down at Doohickey. Excuse me, said Doohickey. My name s Doohickey. I ve come about the job. What job? snapped the professor. As assistant, said Doohickey. The notice says you need one. Oh, absolutely! said the professor,

4、 beginning to grin.The notice had been up for over a year, but Doohickey was the first person to ask about it. Come on up! said the professor. His head disappeared.A moment later, the front door sprang half-open. Doohickey peered inside. A huge mountain of post had stopped the door from opening prop

5、erly. But there was no one there.Doohickey felt sure that the door had opened for him, so he squeezed through into the hallway.A buzzer sounded in Doohickey s ear. He was surprised to see -as hlititple b aoibrbing in the hallway beside him.Tiny propellers spun the ship around. Doohickey saw the word

6、 s, FOLLOW ME written in big red letters on its side.Chapter twoHe followed the ship up a tall, winding staircase. He passed room after room stuffed full of strange-looking machines. Were they the professor s inventions?Doohickey knew that he was s upposed to go straight up the stairs, but he couldn

7、 t help himself. He poppthe rooms to take a closer look.The first thing Doohickey came across was a computer screen fixed to a huge metal cage. The cage seemed to be stuffed full of straw.Doohickey pushed his hand into it. Ouch! he squealed, pulling it out again. A tiny needle was sticking out of hi

8、s thumb.There was a label fixed to the computer screen. Well, it didn t find this one, said Doohickey crossly,e aesd lhee b satcukc kin tthoe t hne straw.The next machine had lots of electric fans fixed beneath a large metal funnel. There was sand all over the floor. The label said:This looks like f

9、un, thought Doohickey. He switched it on.Sand began trickling out of the funnel and the fans started spinning. Then the strangest thing happened.The sand didn t fall on to the floor. It hung in the air. And slowly, it shaped itself into a floating castle.Doohickey walked slowly around the machine. H

10、e couldn t hte b welaiesv see weihnag.Then all of a sudden, he bumped into someone else. When he saw who it was, he nearly jumped out of his skin.The other person was him!It was like looking in a mirror, except that there was no glass.Doohickey reached out his hand and the other Doohickey did the sa

11、me. Their fingers met in mid-air and he felt the warmth of his own hand pressing back. It was too creepy. Ughhh! shivered Doohickey. He stepped backwards straight into the floating sa-ncdastle.The castle exploded and Doohickey found himself in the middle of a sandstorm. Sand blew everywhere, into hi

12、s eyes and up his nose.Coughing and sneezing, he groped his way back to the switch and turned it off.The sandstorm disappeared. And so had the other Doohickey!Then Doohickey noticed a large metal plate on the floor. There was another label on it.Of course! sighed Doohickey.The metal plate was anothe

13、r of the professor invse ntions. It had made the other Doohickey appear when he had stepped on to it.I wont try that again, he thought. It s a bit too spooky.A buzzer sounded. Doohickey saw the air-ship bobbing up and down in the doorway. It had come back to find him.I got lost, said Doohickey. He c

14、ouldn t think of a better excuse.The ship buzzed again crossly and glided back towards the stairs. Coming, said Doohickey.Chapter ThreeThey reached the top of the house.The air-ship led Doohickey into a smoky attic. It was stuffed full of books, test tubes and lumps of tangled wiring.A small shaggy

15、dog peered out at him from beneath a workbench. A cat lay sunning itself on the window sill.What kept you? asked the professor. He was hunched over a heap of metal in one corner.I was admiring some of your inventions, said Doohickey. Oht,h ose old things, said the professor. This,he s aid, pointing

16、to the twisted heap of metal, ism y latest and greatest invention. What is it? asked Doohickey. It didn t look very exciting. He expected that it was a machine for gettinag blostone. Or for making omelettes without breaking eggs. It s the RoBoffin 2000 M-Puultirpose Robot, said the professor, proudl

17、y.What does it do? asked Doohickey. Absolutely anything! said the professor. Let me show you. The professor scribbled some words on to a scrap of paper. He fed the paper through the slot in the robot Then he pressed a big button and stepped back.The robot hummed and whirred for a bit. Then it climbe

18、d slowly to its feet. It was enormous. Its head almost scraped the attic ceiling.The lights on the robot s face flickered on and off. It looked as if it was thinking about something.And then it painted a picture of the professor s dog.It played a piece of music on the test tubes.And it discovered th

19、ree new ways of splitting the atom. Pretty good, eh? said the professor, when the robot had finished. Cool!said Doohickey. He was really amazed. The huge, heavy robot had whizzed around the attic, and it hadn t disturbed so much as a paper clip.It can do anything I asked it to, said the professor. A

20、nything? asked the Doohickey. Absolutely! said the professor.CanI have a go?a sked Doohickey. He wanted to ask the robot to build a space rocket or tell him next week s winning lottery numbers. Absolutely not, said the professor, it s far too complicated. Besides, I ve got better thiSuch as? said Do

21、ohickey. He was disappointed.Such as there, said the professor, writing out a list. What month is it, by the way? August, said Doohickey. Summer! Already? said the professor. He looked surprised. I must go out and pay my bills.He handed Doohickey the list of jobs.I ll be gone for the rest of the day

22、, he said, rushing tohuets oef jtohbes dsohoru. ld be finished by thSeo time I getback. If you can t find anything, ask Newton. Whos Newton? shouted Doohickey, as the professor swept down the stairs.I am! said the dog.You can talk! said Doohickey, staring at the dog.How clever of you to notice, said

23、 Newton.And the cat? asked Doohickey, looking at the other animal. Can the cat talk too? Of course not, scoffed Newton, it s only a cat! Doohickey didnt know what to say to this. So he looked at the list of jobs the professor had given him. These jobs are all boring, said Doohickey. The notice said

24、I d be helping with “ excitininventions. ”Of course it did, said Newton, otherwise, you wouldnt have wanted the job. Well, I don t want the job, said Doohickey. I don t want to cook and clean all day. He tore up the list and threw it into a bin.I m off! he said.Suit yourself, said Newton.Chapter Fou

25、rDoohickey went back down the winding staircase, past the rooms full of inventions.Look at all these silly machines, he thought. Why doesn t the professor invent something useful; somethido the housework?Then he had a brain-wave. Of course! he said. He set off upstairs again. Back so soon? said Newt

26、on. I though you didn t want the job. I didn t, said Doohickey, but- Iwave.ve had a brain Oh, we get lots of them around here, said the dog, yawning.Doohickey picked the list out of the bin. He stuck it back together with some sticky tape. How does that look? he asked, showing it to Newton.Newton st

27、udied the list. It looks OK to me, he said. Now for the clever bit, said Doohickey.He climbed on top of a stool and fed the stuck-together list through the slot in th e robot s chest. Oh dear, said Newton, shaking his head, the professor isn t going to like this. The professor isnt going to find out

28、! said Doohickey. He hit the big button.The robot hummed, whirred and then straightened itself up. It ll all end in tears, sighed Newton.The lights on the robot s face flickered on and off for a few minutes and then it stomped out of the attic. Piece of cake! said Doohickey, grinning. Now, where can

29、 I take a nap? The robot stomped down the stairs and into the professor s bathroom.It grabbed a great armful of dirty clothes. Then it carried them down to the kitchen. But instead of putting them into the washing machine it stuffed them into the oven.Next, it took some meat and vegetables out of th

30、e fridge. It chopped and sliced them to make a delicious stew. Then it emptied the whole lot into the washing machine!After that, it brought the lawnmower into the house and ran it over the hall carpet.And it took the Hoover outside and sucked the leaves off the lawn.Chapter FiveThe professor s neig

31、hbours were used to strange things going on at his house. But they had never seen anything quite like the robot. What do you think its up to? asked one of them. The robot had just fetched an dh anmailms.e Irt awas now nailingup the front door. Perhaps the professor s gone away, suggested another, and he s afraid that someone will try an The robot didnt seem to mind that everyone was looking at it. It propped a ladder up against the side of the house.T