Chapter 3

Chapter 3 SCIENCE! HITHOUT IT THERE WOULD BE NO CANDY Several days later, Harper Houston stepped back to admire her team's creation. She smiled. There was just something beautiful about a perfectly constructed volcano. "I hope this works," said Po Chen. He was one of her partners for the science fair. "It will work," Harper promised. "That's the beauty of science. If you follow the instructions, you get the same result every time." She turned to Morgan, the third member of their group. "Right, Morgan?" Morgan didn't say anything.

第三章科学！几天后，哈珀·休斯顿（Harper Houston）退后一步，欣赏她团队的发明。 她笑了。一座构造完美的火山真是太美了。 “我希望这能奏效，”波真说。 他是她在科学博览会上的搭档之一。 “会成功的，”哈珀保证道。 “这就是科学之美。 如果你按照说明做，每次都会得到同样的结果。” 她转向摩根，他们小组的第三个成员。 “摩根?”摩根什么也没说。

"Right, Morgan?" she repeated. But Morgan wasn't paying attention to her. He was looking toward the doors of the auditorium. Harper turned to look, too. She saw Morgan's sister, Jodi, with the new girl, Ash. They were arriving with their own project. It was tall and covered with a white sheet, like a Halloween costume of a ghost. "What is that?" Harper asked him. "Did your sister make a volcano, too?" "I don't know," Morgan answered. "They've been working on it in secret for days." "Well, don't let it distract you," Harper said. "This isn't a competition." He raised an eyebrow at her. "They hand out trophies for the best projects. I'm pretty sure that makes it a competition." Harper sighed. She just didn't worry about things like that. She loved learning for the sake of learning—especially science. And she didn't need a trophy to know that her team had done a good job. There were other volcanoes made of paper

“对吧，摩根？”她重复道。 但摩根并没有注意到她。 他望着礼堂的门。 哈珀也转过头去看。 她看到摩根的妹妹乔迪和新来的女孩阿什在一起。 他们带着自己的项目来了。 它很高，上面盖着一条白色的床单，就像万圣节的鬼魂服装。 “那是什么？”哈珀问他。 “你妹妹也做了一座火山吗？”“我不知道，”摩根回答。 “他们已经秘密研究了好几天了。” “好吧，别让它分散你的注意力，”哈珀说。 “这不是竞争。” 他对她扬起眉毛。 “他们会为最佳项目颁发奖杯。 我很确定这是一场竞争。” 哈珀叹了口气。她只是不担心那样的事情。 她喜欢为学习而学习，尤其是科学。 她不需要奖杯来证明她的团队做得很好。 还有其他纸做的火山

mache, clay, and other craft materials in the auditorium. But none of them was quite like theirs. They had constructed it out of one hundred identically sized cubes of modeling clay. It was brown and green and blocky. And it looked like something right out of Minecraft. Harper, Morgan, and Po were very different. But they all liked Minecraft. That had been all the inspiration they needed. Po pulled the finishing touches from his backpack: a bottle of vinegar and a box of baking soda. A small amount of each would make their volcano erupt. That would prove to the teachers that they understood chemical reactions. And a dash of red food coloring would give it some flair! "What do you think their project is?" Morgan asked. Jodi and Ash were setting up their station nearby. Morgan couldn't take his eyes off them. "Focus, Morgan," Harper said in a singsong voice. "Do you have the food coloring?" "Yeah," Morgan grumbled. He began rooting around in his backpack.

礼堂内的软泥、粘土和其他工艺材料。 但没有一个和他们的很像。 他们用100块大小相同的粘土模型立方体建造了这座雕像。 它是棕色、绿色和块状的。 它看起来就像《我的世界》里的东西。 哈珀、摩根和阿宝很不一样。 但他们都喜欢《我的世界》。 这就是他们所需要的全部灵感。 阿宝从背包里拿出最后一笔：一瓶醋和一盒小苏打。 每一种物质只要少量就会使它们的火山爆发。 这将向老师们证明他们理解化学反应。 一点红色的食用色素会让它更有风格！“你觉得他们的项目是什么？”摩根问道。 乔迪和阿什正在附近布置他们的工作站。 摩根目不转睛地盯着他们。 “集中精神，摩根。”哈珀用轻快的声音说。 “你们有食用色素吗？”“是啊，”摩根抱怨道。 他开始在背包里翻找。

Just then, Ash and Jodi pulled their sheet away with a flourish. Their project wasn't a volcano. They had constructed a pi.ata. It looked just like a MINECRAFT CREEPER. with a green body and black eyes. It was as tall as Jodi. Kids oohed and aahed. Harper couldn't blame them. The creeper looked amazing. Morgan went pale. "But…but…," he said. "Minecraft is my thing." Ash saw him looking. She smiled and waved. Morgan didn't wave back.

就在这时，阿什和乔迪把床单拉开了。 他们的项目不是火山。 他们造了一个圆锥体。 它看起来就像一个MINECRAFT CREEPER。 有着绿色的身体和黑色的眼睛。 它和乔迪一样高。孩子们啧啧称奇。 哈珀不能怪他们。 这棵攀缘植物看起来很神奇。 摩根脸色苍白。“可是……可是……”他说。 “我喜欢《我的世界》。”阿什看见他在看。 她微笑着挥手。摩根没有回应。

"You don't own Minecraft," Po reminded him. "But they copied our idea!" Morgan said. "It's probably a coincidence," Harper said. Ms. Minerva and Doc Culpepper looked the pi.ata over. They smiled and nodded and wrote notes on their clipboards. Then Ash directed the teachers and students to step back to a safe distance. Ash put on a pair of safety goggles. She attached a hose to the back of the pi.ata, and then she joined the other students. At the other end of the hose, Jodi stood beside a canister of gas. It was labeled CO2. Harper recognized that as the chemical formula for carbon dioxide. I wonder what they're up to? she thought, her mind racing with possibilities. At a signal from Ash, Jodi turned a handle on the CO2 tank. The hose went taut as gas moved from the tank to the pi.ata. Harper held her breath, excited to see what would happen next. The creeper exploded! It was just like in Minecraft. Except when this creeper exploded, it

“我的世界不是你的，”阿宝提醒他。 “但是他们抄袭了我们的想法！”摩根说。 “这可能是个巧合，”哈珀说。 密涅瓦女士和卡尔佩珀医生看着圆周率。ata结束。 他们微笑着点头，在写字板上写笔记。 然后，阿什让老师和学生退到安全距离之外。 阿什戴上了一副护目镜。 她在圆周率的后面系上一根软管。爱塔，然后她加入了其他学生。 在软管的另一端，乔迪站在一个煤气罐旁边。 它被标记为CO2。哈珀认为这是二氧化碳的化学式。 我想知道他们在做什么？ 她想，脑子里充满了各种可能性。 听到阿什的一个信号，乔迪转动了二氧化碳罐的把手。 当气体从油箱流向油箱时，软管绷紧了。 哈珀屏住呼吸，兴奋地想知道接下来会发生什么。 爬山虎爆炸了！就像在《我的世界》中一样。 除了这棵爬山虎爆炸的时候，它

sent candy flying across the floor. "Amazing," Harper said. "They made a pi.ata that breaks itself." All the other children cheered and laughed as they ran forward to grab fistfuls of candy. Doc Culpepper cheered, and Ms. Minerva gave Jodi and Ash a thumbs-up. "That does it," Morgan said. "We need to go

把糖果扔得满地都是。 “太棒了，”哈珀说。“他们做了一个圆周率。它会自己折断。” 所有其他的孩子都欢呼着笑着跑上前抓起一把又一把的糖果。 卡尔佩珀医生欢呼起来。 密涅瓦朝乔迪和阿什竖起大拇指。 “够了，”摩根说。 “我们得走了