12. Pencils 铅笔

Jason borrowed a pencil from Allison. When he gave it back to her, it was full of teeth marks.

Allison held the pencil by its point. "Yuck!" she said. "You chewed on it."

Jason felt awful. It is very embarrassing¹ to borrow somebody's pencil and then chew on it. "Sorry," he said. "I didn't do it on purpose."

"You can keep it," said Allison. She dropped the pencil on Jason's desk, then raised her hand. "Mrs.

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Jewls, can I go to the bathroom? I have to wash my hands. Jason slobbered all over my pencil."

Everybody laughed.

Jason turned red. "I'm sorry, Allison," he said. "I know it's a disgusting habit. I just can't help it."

"Don't let Jason touch any of my books," said Allison as she headed out of the room. "He might eat them!"

Everybody laughed again.

"Here, you can eat my book, Jason," said Todd. "I don't like it anyway."

Mrs. Jewls made Todd write his name on the blackboard under the word DISCIPLINE.

Jason was so mad at himself, he broke the chewed-up pencil to bits.

That wasn't a smart thing to do.

"Everybody take out a pencil and a piece of paper," said Mrs. Jewls. "It's time for our spelling test."

Jason slapped² himself on the forehead. I'm so stupid! he thought. "Rondi, may I borrow a pencil, please?" he asked.

Rondi made a face. "All my pencils are new," she said. "How do I know you won't eat it?"

"I won't," said Jason. "I promise."

"You better not," said Rondi. She gave him one of her pencils.

It was new and freshly sharpened³. Jason liked the way it smelled.

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"The first word is 'orchestra⁴,' " said Mrs. Jewls.

Jason tried to remember how to spell orchestra. He stuck the back of the pencil in his mouth.

"Second word, 'garbanzo.' "

Jason chewed on the eraser.

When the spelling test was over, Rondi's pencil was worse than Allison's.

Jason looked at it in horror⁵. He didn't even remember chewing it. Oh, no! he thought. What am I going to do? He stuck it inside his desk.

"Jason, may I have my pencil back, please?" asked Rondi.

"What pencil?" asked Jason.

"The one I lent you," said Rondi.

Jason opened his desk and pretended to look for it. "I don't know where it is," he said.

"Mrs. Jewls, Jason stole my pencil!" called Rondi.

"Jason, give Rondi back her pencil," said Mrs. Jewls.

He gave it to her.

"You chewed on it!" exclaimed⁶ Rondi.

Everyone laughed.

"No I didn't," said Jason, "Those are your teeth marks."

"How can they be my teeth marks?" asked Rondi. She smiled. She was missing⁷ her two front teeth.

"So?" said Jason. "You don't chew pencils with your front teeth. You chew them with your back teeth."

"How do you know?" asked Rondi.

"Um, um, uh," said Jason.

Mrs. Jewls made Jason write his name on the board under the word DISCIPLINE because he chewed Rondi's pencil, then lied about it. "And try not to eat the chalk," she said.

Everyone laughed.

Rondi threw the chewed-up pencil out the window.

It hit Louis on the head.

Mrs. Jewls gave Dameon a stack⁸ of work sheets and asked him to pass them out. They contained arithmetic problems.

Jason had to borrow another pencil.

"Allison, may I borrow another pencil, please?" he asked.

"Eat my socks," said Allison.

That wasn't such a bad idea, Jason realized. If he stuffed⁹ a sock in his mouth, he wouldn't be able to chew a pencil.

Myron looked at his work sheet. "I don't feel like doing this stuff," he said. "Here, Jason, you can have my pencil."

"Thanks, Myron," said Jason. "I promise not to chew it." He hoped he'd be able to keep his promise.

He thought about asking Mrs. Jewls for a Tootsie Roll Pop. If I'm sucking on that, I won't chew Myron's pencil. And a Tootsie Roll Pop would probably taste better than Allison's socks. He didn't know for sure because he had never tasted Allison's socks.

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But before he could ask Mrs. Jewls, Mrs. Jewls called him. "Jason, will you come here for a moment," she said. "I think I know how to keep you from chewing pencils."

Jason smiled as he walked to her desk. "I like the purple ones," he told her.

But Mrs. Jewls didn't give him a Tootsie Roll Pop. Instead, she taped his mouth shut with heavy-duty masking tape. She had to use a lot of tape, because Jason had the second biggest mouth in the class. "There," she said.

Jason started back to his seat.

"Aren't you even going to say thank you?" asked Mrs. Jewls.

"Mhhmm hhm," said Jason.

"You're welcome," said Mrs. Jewls.

"Hey, Jason," teased¹⁰ Allison. "You look like a mummy!"

"Don't sneeze," said Rondi. "You'll blow your head off!"

They both laughed.

"Mh mhhh mhrhhmmm!" Jason said back to them. It was a very bad thing to say. He wasn't supposed to use words like that.

"You better not pull the tape off," said Rondi. "You might rip¹¹ off your lips!"

They both laughed again.

Jason had never been more embarrassed in his

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whole life. His ears burned as he set to work on the arithmetic problems.

They were tough problems. Several times the pencil crashed against the tape, but the tape held firm.

Mrs. Jewls was very proud of herself. Not only did the tape protect Myron's pencil, but Mrs. Jewls also noticed that Jason was quieter than he'd ever been. I should tape all their mouths shut, she thought. Then they'd all be so nice and quiet.

It was such a good idea, she wondered why no other teacher had ever thought of it.

1 embarrassing   

adj.使人尴尬的，令人为难的v.（使）窘迫，（使）局促不安( embarrass的现在分词)

参考例句：

• His jokes didn't even raise a smile, which was embarrassing. 听了他讲的笑话，都没人笑一下，真是太尴尬了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I was in the embarrassing position of having completely forgotten her name. 当时我完全忘记了她的名字，很是尴尬。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 slapped   

v.掌击，拍打( slap的过去式和过去分词 )；制止；镇压；（尤指生气地）啪的一声放下

参考例句：

• She slapped his face hard. 她狠狠给了他一个耳光。
• They slapped the workers who had gone on strike. 他们对参加罢工的工人大加镇压。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 sharpened   

adj. 尖锐的

参考例句：

• Knives can be sharpened by grinding them against a rough stone. 刀能在一块粗石上磨快。
• A knife is sharpened on the grindstone;steel is tempered in fire. 刀在石上磨，钢在火中炼。

4 orchestra   

n.管弦乐队；vt.命令，定购

参考例句：

• He plays the violin in an orchestra.他在管弦乐队中演奏小提琴。
• I was tempted to stay and hear this superb orchestra rehearse.我真想留下来听这支高超的管弦乐队排练。

5 horror   

n.惊骇，恐怖，惨事，极端厌恶

参考例句：

• The public has been awakened to the full horror of the situation.公众完全意识到了这一状况的可怕程度。
• The thought of working nights fills me with abject horror.一想到要夜间工作我就觉得惨兮兮的。

6 exclaimed   

vt.exclaim的过去式v.呼喊，惊叫，大声说( exclaim的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• "We have a good chance of winning," he exclaimed optimistically. “我们很可能获胜。”他乐观地喊道。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She exclaimed in delight when she saw the presents. 她见到礼品高兴得叫了起来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 missing   

adj.遗失的，缺少的，失踪的

参考例句：

• Check the tools and see if anything is missing.检点一下工具，看有无丢失。
• All the others are here;he's the only one missing.别人都来了，就短他一个。

8 stack   

n.堆叠，堆；vt.堆积，成叠放在；vi.堆成一堆

参考例句：

• There's a whole stack of bills waiting to be paid.有一大堆账要付呢。
• They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。

9 stuffed   

adj.充满的；饱的v.塞住( stuff的过去式和过去分词 )；把…装进；把…装满；（使）吃撑

参考例句：

• stuffed animals in glass cases 玻璃柜里的动物标本
• I was stuffed to the gills with chocolate cake. 我嘴里塞满了巧克力蛋糕。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 teased   

v.取笑，戏弄( tease的过去式和过去分词 )；梳理（羊毛等）

参考例句：

• He took a screwdriver and teased out the remaining screws. 他拿出螺丝刀把其余的螺丝卸了下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I felt annoyance at being teased. 我恼恨别人取笑我。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 rip   

n.拉裂，破绽，激流，浪荡子；vt.撕裂，激昂地说，贬损；vi.裂开，仓促地冲过...

参考例句：

• He had seen the rip in the book.他看到了书里的裂缝。
• I tried not to rip the paper as I unwrapped it.我把纸打开的时候，尽量不把它撕破。