Chapter 2

Chapter 2 HYPOTHESIS: OUR SCIENCE TEACHER IS FROM A POST-APOCALYPTIC FUTURE Jodi Mercado looked over her list of equipment. Binoculars: check. Sunglasses: check. Trench coat: too hot and probably not necessary, so she had left it at home. She had done her research. She knew all the tools of the spy trade. "It's difficult to use sunglasses and binoculars at the same time, though," she said, switching back and forth between the two. "Excuse me," said a voice at Jodi's back. She turned and saw the new girl standing there. "Is this second-period gym?"

第二章假设：我们的科学老师来自后世界末日的未来乔迪·梅尔卡多看了看她的设备清单。 双筒望远镜:检查。太阳镜:检查。 风衣：太热，可能不需要，所以她把它留在家里了。 她已经做了研究。 她知道间谍交易的所有工具。 “不过，同时使用太阳镜和双筒望远镜很难，”她一边说，一边在两者之间来回切换。 “对不起，”乔迪背后有个声音说。 她转过身来，看见新来的女孩站在那里。 “这是第二节课的健身房吗？”

"Yes," Jodi replied quickly. "Welcome! Here, hold these, please." She handed her sunglasses over. The binoculars gave a much clearer view. She now saw her science teacher, Doc Culpepper, walking through the school parking lot with a box full of circuit boards and wires and…gadgets of some sort. "Sorry, one more question," said the new girl. "Where is the gym teacher?" "Coach Graham is always three or four minutes late," Jodi answered. "Which means these are the best three minutes of the day to test my hypothesis."

“是的，”乔迪迅速回答。 “欢迎!给，请拿着这些。” 她把墨镜递了过来。 双筒望远镜看得清楚多了。 这时，她看见自己的科学老师卡尔佩珀博士正从学校的停车场走过，手里拿着一个箱子，里面装满了电路板、电线和……各种小玩意儿。 “对不起，还有一个问题，”新来的女孩说。 “体育老师在哪儿？”“格雷厄姆教练总是迟到三四分钟，”乔迪回答。 “这意味着这是一天中检验我的假设的最佳三分钟。”

"Hypothesis?" echoed the new girl. "It means an educated guess," explained Jodi. "You try to prove your guess is right or wrong through experimentation or observation." "I know what a hypothesis is," the girl replied. "We already had our science fair at my last school. I meant, what is your hypothesis?" "I think our science teacher is from the future," Jodi answered. "I think she was fighting evil robots, but the robots were winning. So she traveled back to our time to change the past and prevent them from conquering the world." The new girl laughed. But it wasn't a mean laugh. Jodi knew what a mean laugh sounded like. Jodi lowered her binoculars and continued. "Culpepper is new this year. She's brilliant. She's a real doctor! I looked her up online, and she has worked on artificial intelligence. So what is she doing at our school?" "Maybe she enjoys teaching," said the new girl.

“假设？”新来的女孩应声说。 “这意味着有根据的猜测，”乔迪解释说。 “你试图通过实验或观察来证明你的猜测是对还是错。” “我知道什么是假设，”女孩回答。 “在我上一所学校，我们已经举办了科学博览会。 我的意思是，你的假设是什么？”“我认为我们的科学老师来自未来，”乔迪回答。 “我认为她是在和邪恶的机器人战斗，但机器人赢了。 所以她回到我们的时代来改变过去，阻止他们征服世界。” 新来的女孩笑了。但这并不是一种刻薄的笑。 乔迪知道刻薄的笑声是什么样子。 乔迪放下望远镜，继续说。 “卡尔佩珀是今年的新产品。 她是杰出的。她是个真正的医生！我在网上查了她的资料，她研究人工智能。 那么她在我们学校做什么呢？”“也许她喜欢教书，”新来的女孩说。

"That's an interesting hypothesis," said Jodi. "But I like mine better." "Well, I have bad news," said the girl. "I think your science project has gotten away." Jodi spun around and looked through the binoculars. "How did she do that?" she asked. "Did she step through a time portal?" "She stepped into…a minivan!" the new girl answered dramatically. "Hmmm…," said Jodi, disappointed. "That's so normal, it's almost suspicious…." The new girl giggled. "I'm Ash, by the way."

“这是一个有趣的假设，”乔迪说。 “但我更喜欢我的。”“嗯，我有个坏消息，”女孩说。 “我觉得你的科学项目失败了。” 乔迪转过身，透过双筒望远镜往外看。 “她是怎么做到的？” “她是不是穿越了时间传送门？”“她上了……一辆小货车！”新来的女孩戏剧性地回答。 “嗯……”乔迪失望地说。 “这太正常了，几乎令人怀疑....” 新来的女孩咯咯地笑。“顺便说一下，我叫艾什。”

Jodi put the binoculars away. "I'm Jodi. I saw you this morning. We both have Ms. Minerva for homeroom." She pointed to Ash's sash. "So you're a Wildling Scout? You have so many badges!" Ash nodded. "Unfortunately, there's no Spycraft badge. But maybe I can help you anyway. I do have a badge for bird-watching. And camouflage. And drone building." "Oh, I love the drone idea," Jodi said. "I could

乔迪把望远镜收起来。 “我是乔迪。我今天早上看到你了。 我们的班主任都是密涅瓦老师。” 她指着艾什的腰带。 “这么说你是一名野人侦察兵？” 你有这么多徽章！”灰点了点头。 “不幸的是，没有间谍徽章。 但也许我能帮你。 我倒是有个赏鸟徽章。 和伪装。还有无人机制造。” “哦，我喜欢这个无人机的想法，”乔迪说。 “我可以

paint it to look like a ghast!" She scratched her chin. "But what if Doc takes control of it remotely with advanced technology from the twenty- third century?" "You're right," said Ash. "A drone is too risky." Jodi sighed. "I need a real science project, anyway." She perked up. "Wait. Did you say you've already done one this year?" "Yes," Ash said. She pointed to a badge with the image of a test tube on it. "I made an exploding pi.ata. It uses carbon dioxide." "A pi.ata you don't even have to hit?" Jodi said. "It's the invention of the century!" "The science is easy," said Ash. "But it takes an artist to make it look like a real pi.ata."

把它画得像个幽灵！”她挠了挠下巴。 “但是如果博士用来自23世纪的先进技术远程控制它呢？”“你说得对。”阿什说。 “无人机太危险了。”乔迪•叹了口气。 “反正我需要一个真正的科学项目。” 她精神起来了。”等。你是说你今年已经做了一件吗？”“是的，”阿什说。 她指着一个徽章，上面有一个试管的图案。 “我做了一个会爆炸的钢琴。 它使用二氧化碳。”“一个π。难道你连打都不用打吗？”乔迪说。 “这是本世纪的发明！”“科学很简单，”阿什说。 “但只有艺术家才能让它看起来像一架真正的钢琴。”