1 The Atom Sucker

1 THE ATOM SUCKER "Wowzers!" Andrew shouted. "This is the best thing I've ever invented!" Ten-year-old Andrew Dubble parked his new machine under a tree. The machine was as big as a doghouse. It looked like a porcupine. Skinny copper tubes poked out all over it. A fat iron pipe stuck out from the front. The machine squatted on four big springs. A thick electrical cord hung from the back like a tail. On the fat iron pipe, Andrew had painted the words THE ATOM SUCKER. In smaller letters he had written THE MOST POWERFUL SHRINKER IN THE UNIVERSE! Andrew dragged the plug to the back porch of an old white house. Andrew's thirteen-year-old

原子吸盘“哇！”安德鲁喊道。 “这是我发明过的最好的东西！”10岁的安德鲁·杜布尔把他的新机器停在一棵树下。 这台机器和狗窝一样大。 它看起来像一只豪猪。 细铜管到处都是。 一根粗铁管从前面伸出来。 这台机器靠在四个大弹簧上。 一根粗电线像尾巴一样挂在后面。 在那根肥大的铁管上，安德鲁画了“原子吸盘”几个字。 他用更小的字母写着：宇宙中最强大的收缩学家！安德鲁把插头拖到一栋老白房子的后门廊。 安德鲁13岁

cousin Judy Dubble lived here with her parents. But nobody was home on this sunny summer day. Andrew had the field behind the house all to himself. Andrew plugged in the Atom Sucker. Then he walked back to the machine to set the controls. On the back of the Atom Sucker were a black power dial and a big red switch. The dial set the shrinking power from 0 to 100. Moving the dial past 0 turned the Atom Sucker on. The red switch could be pushed up or down. Up was marked SHRINK. Down was marked UN-SHRINK. Andrew pushed the big red switch up to SHRINK. Then he turned the power dial up to 5—low shrinking power. The Atom Sucker began to wobble. The skinny tubes began to twirl. Soon they were whistling like a hundred teakettles. "Super-duper pooper-scooper!" Andrew shouted. "What should I shrink first?" He looked around the fenced-in field. Judy's parents kept equipment for their adventure-travel

表妹朱迪·杜布尔和她父母住在这里。 但在这个阳光明媚的夏日，没有人在家。 安德鲁把房子后面的那块地占为己有。 安德鲁插上了原子吸盘的电源。 然后他走回机器前设置控制。 原子吸盘的背面有一个黑色的电源刻度盘和一个红色的大开关。 刻度盘将收缩功率从0调到100。 把刻度盘移到0之后，原子吸盘就打开了。 红色开关可以向上或向下推。 上面标着缩水。Down被标记为UN-SHRINK。 安德鲁把红色的大开关推到“心理医生”面前。 然后他把电源拨到5 -低收缩功率。 原子吸盘开始摇晃。 细细的管子开始旋转。 很快，他们就像100个茶壶一样吹起了口哨。 “了不起的pooper-scooper !”安德鲁喊道。 “我应该先收缩什么？”他环视了一下围起来的田地。 朱迪的父母为他们的冒险旅行保留了装备

business here. At the far end of the field was an airplane with just four seats. A silver speedboat leaned against the fence. A helicopter was parked in front of the tree where the Atom Sucker sat. "The helicopter!" Andrew smiled. "Yes!" meep… "Drewd! Noop!" came a squeaky little voice from Andrew's pants pocket. Andrew looked down. "What's the matter, Thudd?" he asked. Sticking out of Andrew's front pocket was a little silver robot. Andrew's Uncle Al, a top-secret scientist, had invented him. The robot's official name was The Handy Ultra-Digital Detective. But Andrew called him Thudd for short.

业务在这里。在场地的另一端是一架只有四个座位的飞机。 一艘银色快艇靠在篱笆上。 一架直升机停在吸盘坐着的那棵树的前面。 “直升飞机!”安德鲁笑了。 “太棒了！”一个尖细的声音从安德鲁的裤子口袋里传出来。 安德鲁低下头。“怎么了，泰德？”他问。 从安德鲁的前口袋里伸出一个银色的小机器人。 安德鲁的叔叔艾尔，一位绝密的科学家，发明了他。 这个机器人的正式名称是“便携超数字侦探”。 但安德鲁简称他为“砰”。

Thudd's face was a video screen. His ears were two antennas. On Thudd's chest were three rows of buttons. All the buttons glowed green except for one. The big button in the center glowed purple. Thudd had three fingers on each hand. Thudd was using all his fingers to hang on to the top of Andrew's pocket. Thudd's rubbery little feet were like jelly beans with flat bottoms. They were kicking the keys in Andrew's pocket.

泰德的脸就像一个屏幕。 他的耳朵是两根天线。 泰德的胸前有三排钮扣。 除了一个按钮外，所有的按钮都发出绿光。 中间的大按钮发出紫色的光。 泰德每只手上都有三个手指。 泰德用他所有的手指抓住了安德鲁的口袋。 泰德那双橡胶般的小脚就像平底的软糖。 他们在安德鲁口袋里踢钥匙。

meep… "Copter too big!" said Thudd. "Atom Sucker choke maybe! Explode maybe! Small thing first, please!" Thudd made the keys jangle in Andrew's pocket. "Okay, okay," Andrew said. "Calm down. Let's go see if there's something good in the garbage." Leaning against the porch were a garbage can and a lumpy black bag. It smelled stinky. Andrew lifted the lid of the garbage can. Inside were empty paint cans, sticky brushes, and an old radio. Andrew pulled the radio out. "How about this?" Andrew asked. meep… "Good! Good! Good!" said Thudd. Andrew fiddled with the radio as he walked back to the Atom Sucker. meep… "Drewd! Stay way from big pipe!" said Thudd. "Whoops!" said Andrew. "Thanks, Thudd." The fat iron pipe at the front of the Atom Sucker was where the shrinking was supposed to

“直升机太大了！” “可能是原子吸盘噎住了！”爆炸也许!请先做小事！”砰的一声把安德鲁口袋里的钥匙弄得叮当作响。 “好吧，好吧，”安德鲁说。 “冷静下来。我们去看看垃圾里有没有什么好东西。” 门廊上倚着一个垃圾桶和一个鼓鼓囊囊的黑色袋子。 闻起来很臭。安德鲁掀开垃圾桶的盖子。 里面是空油漆罐、粘刷子和一台旧收音机。 安德鲁拿出收音机。 “这个怎么样？”安德鲁问道。 meep…”好!好!太好了！” 安德鲁一边摆弄着收音机，一边向吸盘走去。 meep…”Drewd !离大烟斗远点！”萨德说。 “哎呀！”安德鲁说。“谢谢,Thudd。” 原子吸盘前面的粗铁管就是收缩的地方

happen. The pipe was snorting and wagging from side to side. It was looking for something to shrink! meep… "No shrink us, please!" Thudd squeaked. "Don't worry," said Andrew. "I'm not worried." meep… "Worried!" said Thudd. Andrew crouched behind the Atom Sucker. He double-checked the controls. "Ready." He raised the radio over his head. "Set." He tossed it toward the front of the machine. "Go!" A cloud of orange smoke whooshed out of the twirling copper tubes. SHNOOOOORP! snorted the Atom Sucker. Andrew couldn't see the radio through the orange smoke. He couldn't see anything at all. But he could hear a scream.

发生。烟斗喷着气，左右摇晃着。 它在寻找可以收缩的东西！“别给我们心理医生，求你了！”Thudd发出“吱吱”的响声。 “别担心，”安德鲁说。 “我不担心。” 安德鲁蹲在原子吸盘后面。 他再次检查了控制装置。 “准备好了。”他把收音机举过头顶。 “设置”。他把它扔到机器前面。 “走吧!”一团橙色的烟雾从旋转的铜管中呼啸而出。 SHNOOOOORP !原子吸盘哼了一声。 在橙色的烟雾中，安德鲁看不到收音机。 他什么也看不见。 但他听到一声尖叫。