Chapter 3

3 AT 8:34 A.M. EASTERN STANDARD TIME, FRANK'S ALARM CLOCK goes off. And because this is inventor Frank Einstein's alarm clock, of course it doesn't go off by simply ringing. It goes off by way of a hammer on top of an old alarm clock smacking a nail... that knocks a peg... that frees a ten-speed bicycle gear

东部标准时间上午8点34分，弗兰克的闹钟响了。 因为这是发明家弗兰克·爱因斯坦的闹钟，当然，它不会通过简单的铃声响起。 它是用锤子敲在旧闹钟上敲钉子的方式爆炸的…… 那是敲门砖……这样就可以腾出一个十速自行车齿轮

...that drops a little barbell on the end of a chain... that turns another gear... and a wheel... and another and another and another in a maze of interlocking gears and wheels covering the entire wall until the last wheel turns a worm gear... that spins a metal rod... that opens the vertical floor-to-ceiling blinds... filling the room with bright morning sun.

…在链条的末端放一个小杠铃… 这是另一个齿轮…… 还有一个轮子……一个又一个，一个又一个，像迷宫一样，齿轮和齿轮环环相扣，覆盖了整面墙，直到最后一个轮子变成了一个蜗轮…… 旋转一根金属棒…打开垂直的落地窗… 让房间充满清晨的阳光。

Frank sits up and scratches his head with both hands. He loves staying with Grampa Al in this cool old factory he has turned into his house, Fix It! repair shop, and now also a laboratory of Frank's very own. The Fix It! shop might not be the most successful business in Midville. People seem to throw stuff away instead of fixing it. And Grampa Al is always more interested in the fixing than the moneymaking. But Grampa Al's shop is the greatest place in the world to make and test any invention you might dream of. Frank throws on jeans, a T-shirt, and his rumpled, soft, washed-a-thousand-times lab coat. He slides on shoes. No socks. Because that's how he does his best thinking. In comfort. Frank scientifically observes the model-train tracks at his feet. He concludes that he's glad he disconnected his Model-Train Shoe

弗兰克坐起来，用双手搔着头。 他喜欢和爷爷呆在这个很酷的旧工厂里，他把它变成了他的房子，修理它！修理店，现在也是弗兰克自己的实验室。 修理它！这家店可能不是米德维尔最成功的生意。 人们似乎把东西扔掉，而不是修理它。 阿尔爷爷总是对打球比对赚钱更感兴趣。 但阿尔爷爷的店是世界上最好的地方，可以制作和测试任何你梦寐以求的发明。 弗兰克穿上牛仔裤、t恤和他那件皱巴巴的、柔软的、洗了一千遍的实验服。 他穿着鞋子滑行。没有袜子。 因为那是他最好的思考方式。 在安慰。弗兰克科学地观察着脚下的火车模型轨道。 他总结说，他很高兴自己把火车模型鞋拆开了

Delivery System last night. That invention isn't quite working yet. Too many early- morning shoe-train wrecks. Frank grabs the book on his oversized wooden cable-spool bedside table. The smell of pancakes and coffee from the kitchen downstairs hurries him along the wide-wooden-plank-floor hallway, under the old MIDVILLE ZIPPER CO. sign stamped in concrete letters over the doorway arch. Frank hustles past the walls covered with his Grampa Al's charts and diagrams of The Phases of the Moon and The Constellations. He takes a left down the hall of Tectonic Plates and The Geological Timescale. He takes

昨晚的配送系统。 那项发明还没有完全发挥作用。 太多的清晨的鞋火车事故。 弗兰克抓起他那张超大号的木线轴床头柜上的书。 楼下厨房里传来煎饼和咖啡的味道，让他匆匆走过米德维尔拉链公司（MIDVILLE ZIPPER CO）下面宽阔的木板走廊。 门口拱门上用混凝土写的标志。 弗兰克匆匆走过墙上，墙上挂满了他爷爷的月相图和星座图。 他在“构造板块与地质年表”大厅左拐。 他把

a right past The Human Skeletal System and The Circulatory System. He hops onto the Double Helix DNA slide, spirals down two floors, and pops through the Plant-Cell/Animal-Cell swinging doors right into the kitchen. "Good morning, Einstein," says Grampa Al, scooping pancakes out of a frying pan. "Good morning, Einstein," answers Frank, repeating their classic joke that's not really a joke. Grampa Al serves Frank and himself each a steaming stack of pancakes. He turns on the carbon-atom light fixture above the table. It glows with a funny mix of six blue proton and six red neutron lights in the center nucleus, surrounded by six occasionally blinking white electron lights. Frank swallows a delicious mouthful of warm pancake, melted butter, and maple

右边经过人体骨骼系统和循环系统。 他跳上了双螺旋DNA滑梯，盘旋着下了两层楼，然后穿过植物-细胞/动物-细胞旋转门，直接进入了厨房。 “早上好，爱因斯坦，”爷爷说，从煎锅里舀出煎饼。 “早上好，爱因斯坦，”弗兰克回答道，重复着他们的经典笑话，其实这并不是一个笑话。 爷爷给弗兰克和他自己每人端上一叠热气腾腾的煎饼。 他打开桌子上方的碳原子灯。 它的中心原子核中有6个蓝色质子灯和6个红色中子灯，周围有6个偶尔闪烁的白色电子灯。 弗兰克吞下一口美味的热煎饼、融化的黄油和枫糖