30. Wayside School Is Falling Down 歪歪小学要倒了

A strong wind whooshed¹ around the playground in the early morning before school, blowing dirt and leaves in the faces of the children.

When the bell rang, they could hardly make it from the playground to the school. The wind was blowing directly at them, pushing their hair straight back.

With every gust² of wind the school building teetered one way, then tottered³ back the other.

As they headed up the stairs, they could feel the

174

building sway back and forth⁴. The higher they got, the more it swayed.

"Hooray!" yelled Kathy. "Wayside School is falling down!"

"What are you so happy about?" asked Joe. "Well all die."

"Yes, but we won't have to do our homework," said Kathy.

They entered the room on the thirtieth story.

Mrs. Jewls rang her cowbell. "Find your seats," she said.

That wasn't easy. All the desks were crammed⁵ together on one side of the room. The building swayed, and the desks slid to the other side of the room.

Finally the children all found their seats and planted their feet firmly on the floor.

"We are going to have a fire drill today," Mrs. Jewls told them. "So let's be prepared. Who is our door monitor this week?"

"I am," said Maurecia.

"Good," said Mrs. Jewls. "Who is our help monitor?"

"I am," said Jason.

"Very good," said Mrs. Jewls. "You have a big mouth."

Stephen raised his hand. "What if there really is a fire?" he asked.

"There's not going to be a real fire," said Mrs. Jewls. "It's just a drill."

175

"I know, but what if there really is a fire?" asked Stephen. "And then the firemen won't come because they'll think it's a drill! The school will burn down!"

"Don't worry," said Kathy. "The school is not going to burn down. It's going to fall down!"

BLEEP! BLEEP! BLEEP! . . . BLEEP! BLEEP! BLEEP! . . . BLEEP! BLEEP! BLEEP!

It was the fire drill.

Maurecia, the door monitor, held open the door.

Jason, the help monitor, ran to the window. "Help!" he screamed. "Save us! We're up here. Help! Help!"

Mrs. Jewls led the children out of the room. If there was a real fire, the children might not be able to see her because of the smoke, so she constantly rang her cowbell. There wouldn't be time to go all the way down the stairs, either. Mrs. Jewls led them up the ladder and through the trapdoor to the roof. If there was a real fire, helicopters would rescue them.

The wind was even worse on the roof than it was on the playground. Mrs. Jewls stood in the center and held the cowbell high above her head. She looked just like the Statue of Liberty.

"Everyone stay away from the edge!" she warned.

Kathy sang: "Wayside School is falling down, falling down ..."

"It's not falling down," said Stephen. "It's burning down! And no one will rescue us because they think it's a drill."

Jenny noticed a dark, funnel-shaped cloud off in

176

the distance. "Tornado⁶!" she screamed. "We're all going to get sucked off the roof!"

A flash of lightning lit the sky, followed by a loud crack of thunder.

"We're going to be struck by lightning!" shouted Todd.

"No we won't," said Stephen. "We'll burn in the fire."

"No, well be sucked up in the tornado," said Jenny.

"No, the school is going to fall down," said Kathy.

Mrs. Jewls continued to ring her cowbell. Kla-bonk! Klabonk! Klabonk! The strong wind carried the sound for miles.

Suddenly, screams came from down below. Then the whole building began to shake violently.

"Earthquake!" yelled Benjamin.

"Fire," corrected Stephen.

"The school must have been struck by lightning," said Todd.

"Tornado," said Jenny.

"All fall down," said Kathy.

The building continued to rumble⁷ and shake. There were more screams.

"Listen!" said Myron. "They're trying to warn us about something."

Down below, over five hundred kids and teachers were shouting together: "STAR BRINGING PURPLE!"

"What are they saying?" asked Mrs. Jewls.

"I don't know," said Myron.

177

Mrs. Jewls rattled⁸ her cowbell.

"STAR BRINGING PURPLE!" they shouted again.

"It sounds like 'Star bringing purple,'" said Myron.

"What does that mean?" asked Mrs. Jewls.

Myron shrugged⁹.

Mrs. Jewls rang her bell even louder.

"STAR BRINGING YORBEL!"

"Wait," said Myron. "They're not saying, 'Star bringing purple.' They're saying, 'Star bringing yorbel.' "

"What's a yorbel?" asked Mrs. Jewls. She rang her bell even louder.

The school shook and rumbled¹⁰.

"STOP BRINGING YORBEL!"

"Stop something," said Myron.

Mrs. Jewls rang her cowbell.

"STOP RINGING YOUR BELL!"

"Stop ringing your bell," said Myron.

"Oh," said Mrs. Jewls. She stopped ringing her bell.

Down below, all the students and teachers clapped their hands.

But it was too late.

Rondi opened the trapdoor. "Cows!" she exclaimed.

The school was filled with cows.

From all over the countryside, cows had heard Mrs. Jewls's cowbell and heeded¹¹ the call. There were

178

thousands of them. They filled the stairs and all the classrooms.

There was no way for the children to get down. Helicopters finally came and took them one at a time off the roof.

Wayside School didn't blow down. It didn't burn down. It wasn't struck by lightning, sucked up in a tornado, or destroyed by an earthquake.

It was cowed.

No one knew how to get rid of the cows. Cows are strange animals. They don't mind walking up stairs, but nothing can make them walk down stairs.

Someone suggested starving the cows, but the farmers wouldn't allow that. Thousands of bales of hay were sent in. Several cows had calves¹².

The newspapers thought it was funny and made jokes about smart cows learning to read and write.

And so Wayside School was closed. The kids and teachers were temporarily sent to different schools.

Only one person stayed behind. He was there all day and all night trying to get the cows to go home.

"C'mon," pleaded Louis, the yard teacher, as he pushed and pulled on the cows. "Go home. Please? Pretty please?"

Everybody mooed.

The End

1 whooshed   

v.（使）飞快移动( whoosh的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Oil whooshed up when the drill hit the well. 当钻孔机钻井时，石油喷了出来。 来自互联网
• Then his breath had whooshed out again, making Bianca's magic useless. 接着他终于发出一声低沉的呼吸，这让比安卡的魔法失去了作用。 来自互联网

2 gust   

n.阵风，突然一阵（雨、烟等），（感情的）迸发

参考例句：

• A gust of wind blew the front door shut.一阵大风吹来，把前门关上了。
• A gust of happiness swept through her.一股幸福的暖流流遍她的全身。

3 tottered   

v.走得或动得不稳( totter的过去式和过去分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠

参考例句：

• The pile of books tottered then fell. 这堆书晃了几下，然后就倒了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The wounded soldier tottered to his feet. 伤员摇摇晃晃地站了起来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

5 crammed   

adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式)

参考例句：

• He crammed eight people into his car. 他往他的车里硬塞进八个人。
• All the shelves were crammed with books. 所有的架子上都堆满了书。

6 tornado   

n.飓风，龙卷风

参考例句：

• A tornado whirled into the town last week.龙卷风上周袭击了这座城市。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。

7 rumble   

n.隆隆声；吵嚷；v.隆隆响；低沉地说

参考例句：

• I hear the rumble of thunder in the distance.我听到远处雷声隆隆。
• We could tell from the rumble of the thunder that rain was coming.我们根据雷的轰隆声可断定，天要下雨了。

8 rattled   

慌乱的，恼火的

参考例句：

• The truck jolted and rattled over the rough ground. 卡车嘎吱嘎吱地在凹凸不平的地面上颠簸而行。
• Every time a bus went past, the windows rattled. 每逢公共汽车经过这里，窗户都格格作响。

9 shrugged   

vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Sam shrugged and said nothing. 萨姆耸耸肩膀，什么也没说。
• She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. 她耸耸肩，装出一副无所谓的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 rumbled   

发出隆隆声，发出辘辘声( rumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 轰鸣着缓慢行进； 发现…的真相； 看穿（阴谋）

参考例句：

• The machine rumbled as it started up. 机器轰鸣着发动起来。
• Things rapidly became calm, though beneath the surface the argument rumbled on. 事情迅速平静下来了，然而，在这种平静的表面背后争论如隆隆雷声，持续不断。

11 heeded   

v.听某人的劝告，听从( heed的过去式和过去分词 )；变平，使（某物）变平( flatten的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She countered that her advice had not been heeded. 她反驳说她的建议未被重视。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I heeded my doctor's advice and stopped smoking. 我听从医生的劝告，把烟戒了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 calves   

n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解

参考例句：

• a cow suckling her calves 给小牛吃奶的母牛
• The calves are grazed intensively during their first season. 小牛在生长的第一季里集中喂养。 来自《简明英汉词典》