4. The Invention

CHAPTER 4 THE INVENTION Early that evening, George and Harold sneaked back to school with their supplies. They crept into the gymnasium and peeked around. "I think somebody's still in here," whispered Harold. "Oh, it's just Melvin Sneedly," said George. Melvin was the school brainiac. He was busy putting some last-minute touches on his new invention for the contest.

第四章发明那天傍晚，乔治和哈罗德带着补给品偷偷溜回学校。 他们偷偷溜进体育馆，四处张望。 “我想有人还在这里。”哈罗德小声说。 “哦，是梅尔文·斯内利。”乔治说。 梅尔文是学校的天才。 他正忙着为比赛做最后的润色。

"We should wait here until he leaves," whispered Harold. "No way," said George. "He could be here all night! Let's just go over and talk to him." When Melvin saw George and Harold approaching, he was not happy. "Oh, no!" he said. "I'll bet you guys are here to mess with everybody's inventions." "Nice guess," said George. "Listen, we promise not to mess with your invention, if you promise not to tell anybody that you saw us here tonight." Melvin looked lovingly at his invention, and reluctantly agreed. "I promise," he said.

“我们应该在这里等他离开。”哈罗德小声说。 “不可能。”乔治说。“他可能整晚都在这儿！”我们过去和他谈谈吧。” 当梅尔文看到乔治和哈罗德走近时，他很不高兴。 “哦，不！”他说。“我敢打赌，你们是来搅乱别人的发明的。” “猜得好。”乔治说。 “听着，我们保证不破坏你的发明，只要你保证不告诉任何人你今晚在这里看到我们。” 梅尔文深情地看着他的发明，勉强同意了。 “我保证，”他说。

"Great," said George. "Say, what is that invention of yours, anyway? It just looks like a photocopy machine." "Well, it used to be a photocopy machine," said Melvin, "but I've made some major adjustments to it. Now it is an invention that will revolutionize the world. I call it the PATSY 2000." "It'll revolutionize the world, and you named it PATSY???" asked Harold. "Yes," said Melvin. "PATSY is an acronym for Photo-Atomic Trans- Somgobulating Yectofantriplutonic- zanziptomiser." "I'm sorry I asked," said Harold.

“太好了。”乔治说。“喂，你的那个发明是什么？” 它看起来就像一台复印机。” “嗯，它以前是一台复印机，”梅尔文说，“但我对它做了一些重大调整。 现在它是一项将彻底改变世界的发明。 我称之为PATSY 2000。” “它会彻底改变世界，而你给它起名叫帕齐——？”哈罗德问。 “是的，”梅尔文说。“PATSY是光-原子反- Somgobulating yetofantriplutonic zanziptomiser的首字母缩写。” “对不起，我问了。”哈罗德说。

"Allow me to demonstrate," said Melvin. "The PATSY 2000 can take any two-dimensional image and create a living, breathing, three-dimensional copy of that image. For example, take this ordinary photograph of a mouse." Melvin placed the photo of the mouse onto the glass screen of the PATSY 2000 and pressed "Start." The lights in the gymnasium dimmed as all the power in the entire school seemed to get sucked into the PATSY 2000. Soon the machine began to vibrate and hum loudly, and tiny bolts of static electricity snapped out from underneath.

“请允许我演示一下，”梅尔文说。 “PATSY 2000可以拍摄任何二维图像，并创造出该图像的生动、有呼吸的三维副本。 以这张普通的老鼠照片为例。” 梅尔文把鼠标的照片放在PATSY 2000的玻璃屏幕上，按下“开始”键。 体育馆的灯光暗了下来，整个学校的电力似乎都被PATSY 2000吸走了。 很快，机器开始震动，发出响亮的嗡嗡声，微小的静电螺栓从下面啪的一声冒了出来。

"I hope that thing doesn't explode," said Harold. "Oh, this is nothing," said Melvin. "You should have seen how the PATSY 2000 reacted when I copied a poodle!" Finally, after a series of flashes and loud zaps, everything stopped. A small ding was heard, then a tiny mouse crawled out the side door of the PATSY 2000 and onto the floor. "Isn't it wonderful?!!?" exclaimed Melvin.

“我希望那东西不要爆炸。”哈罗德说。 “哦，这没什么，”梅尔文说。 “你应该看看当我模仿一只贵宾犬时，PATSY 2000是什么反应！”最后，在一连串的闪光和响亮的电击声之后，一切都停止了。 听到了一声小小的叮，然后一只小老鼠从PATSY 2000的侧门爬到了地板上。 “这不是很棒吗？！！？”梅尔文惊呼道。

George inspected the mouse closely. "That's a great trick," George laughed. "You really had me goin' for a while!" "It's not a trick," cried Melvin. "The PATSY 2000 really does bring photos to life! I've even created living creatures from paintings and drawings!" "Yeah, right!" laughed Harold. "And I thought we were con artists!" George and Harold walked away chuckling. It was time to move on to bigger and better things.

乔治仔细地观察着那只老鼠。 “这是一个伟大的把戏，”乔治笑着说。 “你真的让我兴奋了一会儿！”“这不是恶作剧，”梅尔文叫道。 “PATSY 2000真的让照片变得栩栩如生！我甚至用油画和素描创造了生物！”“是啊，没错！”哈罗德笑道。 “我还以为我们是骗子呢！”乔治和哈罗德咯咯地笑着走开了。 是时候去追求更大更好的东西了。