17. The Idea

CHAPTER 17 THE IDEA "I can't believe they're going to separate us," said Harold, as the boys walked home from school that afternoon. George said nothing. He was thinking. He KNEW there was a way to solve this problem. "I can't believe I have to spend an EXTRA YEAR at that school, too," Harold moaned, trying not to cry. "The worst part is that I actually studied! I know this stuff! I could have probably gotten straight Bs if I had taken those tests yesterday!"

“我不敢相信他们要把我们分开。”那天下午，孩子们放学回家时，哈罗德说。 乔治什么也没说。他在想。 他知道有一个办法可以解决这个问题。 “我真不敢相信我还要在那所学校多待一年。”哈罗德呻吟着，强忍着不哭出来。 “最糟糕的是，我真的在学习！”我知道这些东西！如果我昨天参加那些考试，我可能会得全b !”

"THAT'S IT!" cried George confidently. "We can fix this!" "But HOW?" said Harold. "They won't let us take makeup tests!" "Who says we have to take makeup tests?" George replied. "Let's take the real tests!" Harold looked suspicious. "What do you mean?" he asked. "Melvin said he kept his time-traveling squid thingy in his garage, right?" said George. "Let's borrow it and go back in time to yesterday morning. Then we can take those tests like we were supposed to. Problem solved!" "No WAY!" Harold protested. "Whenever we travel around in time, bad stuff happens!" "What could be worse than being in different grades next year?" George countered. "Do you really want to spend an extra YEAR at that school?"

“就是这样！”乔治自信地叫道。 “我们可以解决这个问题！”“怎么会？”哈罗德问。 “他们不让我们参加补考！”“谁说我们必须参加补考？”乔治回答说。 “让我们来做真正的测试吧！”哈罗德露出怀疑的神色。 “你是什么意思？”他问。 “梅尔文说他把那个能穿越时空的乌贼的东西放在车库里，对吧？”乔治说。 “让我们借它，回到昨天早上。 然后我们就可以按原计划去做测试了。 问题解决了!”“不可能!”哈罗德抗议。 “每当我们进行时间旅行时，不好的事情就会发生！”“还有什么比明年分年级更糟糕的呢？”乔治反驳道。 “你真的想在那所学校多待一年吗？”

Harold didn't have an argument for that. "Besides," said George, "we're only going back in time one day. How could anything bad happen in just one day?" "I guess you're right," said Harold. George and Harold turned around and headed over to Melvin's house. Luckily, Melvin's garage door was open. Cautiously, the two boys sneaked inside and looked around. And there, standing in the corner beside a box of Langstrom seven-inch gangly wrenches was the glow-in-the-dark, time- traveling Robo-Squid suit. "We shouldn't be doing this," Harold whispered. "We're trespassing—and stealing!" "Hey, Melvin started this whole mess," George reminded Harold. "We're just fixing it! Besides, we're not stealing. We're just borrowing."

哈罗德对此没有任何理由。 “再说，”乔治说，“我们只会在某一天回到过去。 一天之内怎么可能发生坏事呢？”“我想你是对的。”哈罗德说。 乔治和哈罗德转身向梅尔文的家走去。 幸运的是，梅尔文的车库门开着。 两个男孩小心翼翼地溜进屋里四处张望。 在角落里，一盒朗斯特罗姆七英寸长的细长扳手旁边，放着一套能在黑暗中发光、能穿越时间的机器乌贼套装。 “我们不应该这么做。”哈罗德低声说。 “我们擅闯民宅——偷窃！”“嘿，这一切都是梅尔文引起的。”乔治提醒哈罗德。 “我们只是在修理它！”再说了，我们又没偷东西。 我们只是借。”

Against his better judgment, Harold helped hoist George up into the cockpit. Suddenly, the Robo-Squid suit powered up and began to glow. A few moments later, the controls were all set. "OK," said George. "Let's go back in time and take those dumb tests!" He picked Harold up with one of his glowing tentacles, took a few steps forward, and pressed the "Start" button.

哈罗德不顾自己更好的判断，帮着把乔治抬进了驾驶舱。 突然，机器乌贼的宇航服启动了，开始发光。 过了一会儿，所有的控制都设置好了。 “好吧，”乔治说。“让我们回到过去，参加那些愚蠢的测试吧！”他用一只发光的触手把哈罗德抱起来，向前走了几步，按了“开始”键。

The glow-in-the-dark, time-traveling Robo-Squid suit began shaking and sputtering as it zipped backwards in time thirty-two hours. A blinding ball of light flashed suddenly, and George and Harold arrived bright and early yesterday morning, just in time for school.

这身能在黑暗中发光、能穿越时间的机器乌贼套装开始抖动，噼里啪啦地溅射着，它在时间上飞速倒退了32个小时。 一道炫目的光突然闪过，乔治和哈罗德昨天一大早就到了，正好赶上上学。

As Harold helped George climb out of the cockpit, he noticed that there were now TWO glow-in-the-dark, time-traveling Robo-Squid suits. "Hey," said Harold. "How come there are TWO glow-in-the-dark, time-traveling Robo-Squid suits?" "Hmmmm," said George. "I guess that one in the corner is the one from yesterday. When we went back in time, we created a duplicate time machine." "Oh," said Harold. "Melvin should thank us!" "Yeah," said George. "That was very thoughtful of us."

当哈罗德帮助乔治爬出驾驶舱时，他注意到现在有两套能在黑暗中发光、穿越时间的机器鱿鱼套装。 “嘿。”哈罗德说。“怎么会有两套能在黑暗中发光、穿越时间的机器鱿鱼套装？”“嗯，”乔治说。 “我猜角落里的那张是昨天的。 当我们回到过去时，我们创造了一个复制的时间机器。” “哦。”哈罗德说。“梅尔文应该感谢我们！”“是啊，”乔治说。 “我们考虑得很周到。”