12 George the Joker

George the Joker written by Pam Holden illustrated by Michael Cashmore-Hingley

小丑乔治，帕姆·霍尔顿编剧，迈克尔·卡什莫尔-辛利插画

George was a practical joker. He loved to play tricks on his family and friends. Sometimes he played scary tricks. He thought of ways to surprise children and make them frightened. He hid around corners and jumped out yelling "Boo!" "It's only a joke," he laughed. George used scary noises for some of his jokes. He liked to hide outside the window and make strange noises that sounded like wild animals growling. He jumped up and laughed when people got frightened and whispered to each other, "What was that?"

乔治是个爱开玩笑的人。 他喜欢捉弄家人和朋友。 有时他会玩一些可怕的把戏。 他想办法让孩子们大吃一惊，让他们害怕。 他躲在角落里，然后跳出来大喊“嘘!”“这只是个玩笑，”他笑着说。 乔治在他的一些笑话中使用了可怕的声音。 他喜欢躲在窗外，发出奇怪的声音，听起来像野兽的咆哮。 当人们被吓得互相窃窃私语:“那是什么?”

At school, he glued a coin onto the step, then he counted how many people stopped to try to pick it up. They felt very silly when they learned it was a trick. One day he stuck a sign onto the back of his sister's jacket. It said "It's my birthday", so all day her friends kept saying "Happy birthday!" She had to tell them that it wasn't really her birthday that day. When she took off her jacket, she found the sign on the back. "I can guess who put that there," she said. "I am tired of George's practical jokes."

在学校里，他把一枚硬币粘在台阶上，然后数有多少人停下来想把它捡起来。 当他们知道这是一个骗局时，他们感到非常愚蠢。 一天，他在妹妹的外套后面贴了一个牌子。 上面写着“今天是我的生日”，所以她的朋友们一整天都在说“生日快乐!”她不得不告诉他们那天并不是她的生日。 当她脱下夹克时，她发现了后面的牌子。 “我能猜到是谁放的，”她说。 “我受够了乔治的恶作剧。”

At home, George opened his brother's bedroom door and put a pillow on the top. When the young boy pushed the door to go inside, the pillow fell down on his head George laughed and laughed, but it didn't seem funny to his brother. None of the children liked George's mean tricks, but they didn't know how to stop him. They decided to do something kind to please him, so they let him be the captain of their soccer team. But that didn't make him stop playing tricks. He thought it was funny to tie the players' shoelaces together, and he laughed when they could hardly walk. "It's only a joke," George told them.

回到家，乔治打开哥哥卧室的门，在门上放了一个枕头。 当小男孩推开门要进去时，枕头掉在了他的头上。乔治笑了又笑，但这对他哥哥来说并不好笑。 孩子们都不喜欢乔治的恶作剧，但他们不知道如何阻止他。 他们决定做些好事来取悦他，所以他们让他成为他们足球队的队长。 但这并没有让他停止耍花招。 他认为把球员的鞋带系在一起很有趣，当他们几乎走不动的时候，他笑了。 “这只是个玩笑，”乔治告诉他们。

But at last, Matthew felt tired of George's tricks, so he told his Grandfather about the practical jokes. "I have an idea to help you," said Grandpa. "Jokers like to play tricks, but they don't like to have tricks played on them. Watch him carefully until you notice something that frightens him. Then you'll be able to teach him a lesson." So Matthew and his friends watched George carefully. One day, they noticed that he was very quiet when the class was having a lesson about different kinds of spiders. He stayed at the back of the classroom and he would not touch the spiders. "Ooooh!" he said. "I hate creepy, crawly creatures."

但最后，马修对乔治的恶作剧感到厌倦，所以他告诉了他的祖父他的恶作剧。 “我有一个主意可以帮助你，”爷爷说。 “爱开玩笑的人喜欢捉弄人，但他们不喜欢别人捉弄他们。 仔细观察他，直到你发现他害怕的东西。 这样你就可以给他上一课了。” 所以马修和他的朋友们仔细地看着乔治。 有一天，他们注意到当班级正在上关于不同种类蜘蛛的课时，他很安静。 他呆在教室的后面，不去碰那些蜘蛛。 “哦!”他说。“我讨厌令人毛骨悚然的小爬虫。”

Matthew and the other children made a clever plan. Each person found a huge, hairy spider to take to school. They waited until it was time for the sports captains to go up onto the stage to get the teams' prizes. As George proudly walked up the steps to get the soccer prize, the children carefully dropped the enormous spiders into the hood of his jacket.

马修和其他孩子制定了一个聪明的计划。 每个人都找到了一只巨大的，毛茸茸的蜘蛛带到学校。 他们一直等到体育队长上台领奖的时间到了。 当乔治骄傲地走上台阶去领取足球奖时，孩子们小心翼翼地把巨大的蜘蛛放进他夹克的兜帽里。