The Shortcut

The Shortcut

捷径

Julie and Doug arrived at Tim’s house very excited. The three friends were going to hear Lisa Byrd sing. Lisa was a famous performer. “ I can’t believe Lisa grew up in our town! ” said Julie. “ Her parents own the Byrd Music School where she is performing, ” said Tim.

朱莉和道格到达蒂姆家时非常兴奋。 三个朋友要去听丽莎·伯德唱歌。丽莎是一位著名的演员。 “我不敢相信丽莎在我们镇上长大!”朱莉说。 “她的父母拥有伯德音乐学校，她正在那里表演，”蒂姆说。

“ I can’t believe our parents are letting us go alone! ” said Doug. “ It’s not very far, ” said Tim, rolling his wheelchair to his desk. “ I take piano lessons there every week. ” Tim opened a map on his desk. He followed the streets on the map with his finger. “ You go north on Oak Street, turn east on Elm Drive, then north on Maple Street. ”

“我不敢相信我们的父母让我们单独去!”道格说。 “不是很远，”蒂姆说着，把轮椅推到桌前。“我每周都去那里上钢琴课。” 蒂姆打开桌子上的一张地图。他用手指沿着地图上的街道走。 “你在橡树街向北走，在榆树路向东拐，然后在枫树街向北走。”

“ Here’s a shortcut! ” said Doug. He pointed to a path through the park. “ That’s not a shorter route, ” said Tim. “ The streets are straight. The path in the park is squiggly. ” “ A straight line is the shortest distance between two points, ” said Julie.

“这里有一条捷径!”道格说。他指了指穿过公园的一条小路。 “这不是一条更短的路线，”蒂姆说。“街道是笔直的。公园里的小路弯弯曲曲的。” “直线是两点之间最短的距离，”朱莉说。

Doug looked at both routes on the map. “ I still think it’s shorter to go across the park. ” “ Hmm, ” said Julie. “ The shortest distance across an area is a diagonal. ” She looked unsure. “ Let’s measure the length of each route on the map. ” Tim picked up a ruler. “ I’ll measure the streets, ” he said.

道格看了看地图上的两条路线。“我还是觉得穿过公园要短一些。” “嗯，”朱莉说。“穿过一个区域的最短距离是对角线。” 她看起来很不确定。“让我们在地图上测量每条路线的长度。” 蒂姆拿起一把尺子。“我来量街道，”他说。

Julie wrote down the lengths of the streets. Then she added them together. “ The street route is ten centimeters. ” “ The map scale shows that each centimeter equals two hundred meters, ” said Tim. “ So it’s two kilometers along the streets. ” Doug tried to measure the park path.

朱莉写下了街道的长度。然后她把它们加在一起。“街道是十厘米。” “地图比例尺显示每厘米等于200米，”蒂姆说。“沿着街道走两公里。” 道格试着测量公园小径。