8 Slime City

chapter 8 SLIME CITY "Great!" said Judy. "Now what do we do?" All the water was out of the tub. But the sponge was still shoving the Umbubble slowly through a slush of dirty gray soap scum and dog hair. Outside the tub, Harley was howling. "You get your tail over here!" Mrs. Scuttle hollered. "I'm not finished with you yet!" Suddenly the Umbubble came to a jolting stop. "The sponge must have hit the front of the tub," said Judy.

“太好了！”朱迪说。 “现在我们该怎么办？”所有的水都从浴缸里流出来了。 但海绵仍然在慢慢地推着Umbubble，穿过一团肮脏的灰色肥皂渣和狗毛。 浴缸外面，哈利在嚎叫。 “你把尾巴弄过来！”斯卡特尔太太喊道。 “我还没说完呢！”突然，Umbubble颠簸地停了下来。 “海绵一定是碰到浴盆前面了，”朱迪说。

"Uh-oh," said Andrew. They were hanging over an enormous dark hole. It looked as if it went down forever. "We're hanging over the drain!" he said.

“哦哦，”安德鲁说。它们悬在一个巨大的黑洞上方。 它看起来好像永远下去了。 “我们悬在排水沟上了！”他说。

Thudd crept down to Andrew's knee to get a look. Sticking to the sides of the drain were all the things that get washed away in bathtubs— eyelashes and nose hairs and nose goo and pieces of toenails and skin flakes and old scabs and all kinds of dirt. And all of that was covered with a thick coat of oozy slime. "Euuw!" said Judy. She yanked her legs inside the Umbubble. "Slime gravy!" said Andrew. He yanked his legs in, too. "Everything is grosser when it's slimy!" meep… "Slime alive!" said Thudd. "Look at—" Just then Thudd's purple button started blinking again. It snapped open and beamed out the Uncle Al hologram. This time, Uncle Al was inside the drain! Judy chuckled. "Uncle Al, do you know you're up to your belt buckle in slime?"

砰砰爬到安德鲁的膝盖上看了看。 粘在排水管边上的都是在浴缸里被洗掉的东西——睫毛、鼻毛、鼻胶、脚趾甲碎片、皮肤碎片、老痂和各种污垢。 所有这些都覆盖着一层厚厚的黏液。 “呜！”朱迪说。她猛地把腿缩进了泡泡。 “黏液肉汁！”安德鲁说。 他把腿也缩了进去。 “黏糊糊的东西更恶心！” “看——”就在这时，砰的紫色按钮又开始闪烁起来。 它啪的一声打开，射出了阿尔叔叔的全息图。 这一次，阿尔叔叔在排水沟里！朱迪咯咯地笑了。 “艾尔叔叔，你知道你的皮带扣上都是黏液吗？”

"Good golly, Miss Molly!" said Uncle Al. "I wish I could see it! Slime is amazing stuff! It's made by bacteria, which some people call germs. Bacteria cover themselves with slime blankets to protect themselves from stuff that can hurt them! Bacteria build whole cities out of slime! They even send messages to each other through slime! Thudd, show Andrew and Judy a slime city." meep… "Look!" said Thudd. "That's interesting, Uncle Al," said Judy. "But we have more important things to worry about right now." "Oops!" said Uncle Al. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get carried away! Andrew, you were

“天哪，莫莉小姐！”艾尔叔叔说。 “我希望我能看到它！”黏液是神奇的东西！它是由细菌产生的，有些人称之为细菌。 细菌用黏液毯子覆盖自己，以保护自己免受可能伤害它们的东西的伤害！细菌用黏液建造整个城市！它们甚至通过黏液互相传递信息！泰德，带安德鲁和朱迪去看一个黏糊糊的城市。” “看！” “真有趣，阿尔叔叔，”朱迪说。 “但我们现在有更重要的事情要担心。” “哎呀！”阿尔叔叔说。“我很抱歉。 我不是故意要得意忘形的！安德鲁，你是

about to tell me something when we were cut off last time. I think I know what it is. Did Thudd get wet?" "How did you know?" said Andrew. Uncle Al nodded. "That's why we were disconnected," he said. "The soapy water removed the protective coating from Thudd's antennas. Has Thudd been snoozing?" "Yes," said Andrew. Uncle Al scratched his chin. "What about jokes? Is Thudd telling jokes?" he asked. "Uh-huh," Andrew said. "I'm awfully worried about him." "It sounds like Thudd's thought chips are soggy," said Uncle Al. "Thudd hasn't told any elephant jokes, has he?" "No," said Andrew. "Good," said Uncle Al. "Telling elephant jokes would be much more serious." Uncle Al looked thoughtful. "This is important," he said. "You must keep Thudd from

上次我们被切断联系的时候，他正要告诉我一些事情。 我想我知道是什么了。 泰德淋湿了吗？”“你怎么知道的？” 艾尔叔叔点点头。“这就是为什么我们的电话不通，”他说。 肥皂水除去了泰德天线上的保护涂层。 泰德一直在打盹吗？”“是的，”安德鲁说。 阿尔叔叔挠了挠下巴。 “那笑话呢？泰德在开玩笑吗？”他问。 “嗯哼，”安德鲁说。“我非常担心他。” “听起来好像泰德的思想芯片湿透了，”阿尔叔叔说。 “泰德没有讲过关于大象的笑话吧？”“不，”安德鲁说。 “很好，”阿尔叔叔说。“讲大象的笑话会严肃得多。” 艾尔叔叔若有所思。 “这很重要，”他说。 “你一定要让砰远离

getting wet again. And you need to stop him from rusting. Rubbing him with something greasy would do the trick. Something like—butter!" Judy spoke up. "Uncle Al, how in the world are we supposed to get butter? We're the size of pinpoints and we're stuck to the bottom of a sponge!" "An unusual problem," said Uncle Al, nodding. "But solving unusual problems is what we Dubbles do best!" "Could you come help us?" asked Andrew. "I'm leaving right now," said Uncle Al. "But I'm all the way up at the Arctic Circle," he added. Uncle Al was starting to fade away. "Wait!" yelled Judy. "I'm sorry!" called Uncle Al. "I can't hear you! But remember this: When you've got an unusual problem, look at everything in an unusual way! You have everything you need… in your… heads… and… in… your… pockets.…" Uncle Al disappeared. And in his place was—

又湿了。你得防止他生锈。 给他擦点油腻的东西就行了。 一些像黄油一样!”朱迪大声说。 “艾尔叔叔，我们到底怎么才能弄到黄油呢？” 我们只有针尖那么大，还被粘在海绵的底部！”“一个不寻常的问题，”艾尔叔叔点点头说。 “但是解决不寻常的问题是我们双布尔最擅长的！”“你能来帮我们吗？”安德鲁问。 “我现在就走，”阿尔叔叔说。 “但我一直在北极圈，”他补充说。 艾尔叔叔开始渐渐淡出人们的视线。 “等等！”朱迪喊道。“对不起！”艾尔叔叔叫道。 “我听不见！”但请记住：当你遇到一个不寻常的问题时，用一种不寻常的方式看待每件事！你们需要的一切都在你们的脑子里，在你们的口袋里。艾尔叔叔消失了。 取而代之的是——