"Quiet, children!" said Mrs. Hammerbotham sternly. "We'll start with the letter A."
“安静，孩子们!”哈默博瑟姆太太严厉地说，“我们下一面从字母A开始学。”
She picked up a piece of chalk and made a big A onthe blackboard. "Now you try it, Louis!"
她拿起一枝粉笔，在黑板上写了一个大大的“A”。“你来试试，路易斯!”
Louis grabbed a piece of chalk in his bill and drew aperfect A right under the one the teacher had drawn.
路易斯用嘴叼起一枝粉笔在老师写的那个字母下一面写出了一个完美无暇的“A”。
"You see?" said Sam. "He's an unusual bird."
“你看到了吗?”萨姆说，“他是一只不一般的鸟。”
"Well," said Mrs. Hammerbotham, "A is easy. I'll give him something harder."
“噢，”哈默博瑟姆太太说，“A 很容易写。我要教他点更难的。”
She wrote CAT on the board. "Let's see you write cat, Louis!" Louis wrote cat.
她在黑板上写出了“CAT ”这个单词。“让我们看你写cat ，路易斯!” 路易斯写出了“cat”。
"Well cat is easy, too," muttered the teacher.
“Cat 也太容易写了，”老师嘀咕，
"Cat is easy because it is short. Can anyone think of a word that is longer than cat?"
“Cat 这个单词容易写是因为它很短。谁能想出一个比cat 更长点的单词?”
"Catastrophe," said Charlie Nelson, who sat in the first row.
“Catastrophe 。”坐在第一排的查利·纳尔逊说。
"Good!" said Mrs. Hammerbotham. "That's a good hard word.
“好极了!”哈默博瑟姆太太说，“这真是一个很难的单词，
But does anyone know what it means? What is a catastrophe?"
但谁知道它是什么意思?什么是Catastrophe 呢?”
"An earthquake," said one of the girls.
“一场地震。”一个女孩说。
"Correct!" replied the teacher. "What else?"
“正确!”老师回答，“还有别的吗?”
"War is a catastrophe," said Charlie Nelson.
“战争是一场Catastrophe 。”查利·纳尔逊说。
"Correct!" replied Mrs. Hammerbotham. "What else is?"
“正确!”哈默博瑟姆太太回答，“还有吗?”
A very small, redheaded girl named Jennie raised her hand.
一个很小的，名叫珍妮的红头发女孩举起了她的手。
"Yes, Jennie? What is a catastrophe?"
“珍妮?什么是Catastrophe ?”
In a very small, high voice, Jennie said,
珍妮用尖细的嗓音说：
"When you get ready to go on a picnic with your father and mother and you make peanut-butter sandwiches and jelly rolls
“当你和你的父母准备去野餐而且你也做好了花生酱三明治和果冻面包卷
and put them in a thermos box with bananas and an apple and some raisin cookies
并把它们和香蕉还有一个苹果还有一些葡萄曲奇饼
and paper napkins and some bottles of pop and a few hard-boiled eggs
还有纸巾还有几瓶汽水还有几个熟透了的鸡蛋
and then you put the thermos box in your car and just as you are starting out it starts to rain
都放到一个保温箱里，然后你再把这个保温箱放进你的汽车正准备起程的时候，天突然下起雨来
and your parents say there is no point in ha一ving a picnic in the rain, that's a catastrophe.
这时你的父母说在雨里可找不到地方野餐，那就是一场大灾难。”
"Very good, Jennie," said Mrs. Hammerbotham.
“很好，珍妮，”哈默博瑟姆太太说，
"It isn't as bad as an earthquake, and it isn't as bad as war.
“虽然这不像地震一样糟糕，也没战争那么可怕。
But when a picnic gets called on account of rain, it is a catastrophe for a child, I guess.
不过当一次野餐由于雨来捣乱的缘故被取消时，对一个孩子来说就等于发生了一场大灾难，我猜。
Anyway, catastrophe is a good word. No bird can write that word, I'll bet.
不管怎样，Catastrophe 都是个好词儿。没有一只鸟能写出那个单词的，我打赌。
If I can teach a bird to write catastrophe, it'll be big news all over the Sweet Grass country.
如果我能教会一只鸟写Catastrophe ，这将是整个香草乡里的大新闻。
I'll get my picture in Life magazine. I'll be famous."
我的照片会上《生活》杂志的。我准会变成名人。”
Thinking of all these things, she stepped to the blackboard and wrote CATASTROPHE.
这么想着，她走到黑板前，把“CATASTROPHE”这个单词写了出来。
"O.k., Louis, let's see you write that!"
“好，路易斯，让我们看你写这个单词!”