9 SASSAFRAS

CHAPTER 9 SASSAFRAS? I woke up early and reached out to give Sassafras his morning snuggle. His usual spot by my feet was cold and empty. I sat up and looked around my room. No Sassafras. "Sassafras?" I hollered. "Sassafras?" Still nothing. He was always here when I woke up. Where could he be? He had to be around here somewhere. Maybe he went out to the barn? I quickly threw

第九章黄樟？我起得很早，伸出手给萨萨法斯一个早晨的拥抱。 他平时在我脚边的位置又冷又空。 我坐起来，环视了一下房间。 没有黄樟。“黄樟?”我大声喊道。 “黄樟?”还是什么都没有。 我醒来的时候他总是在这里。 他会在哪里呢？他肯定就在这附近。 也许他去谷仓了？ 我赶紧扔

on a jacket and a hat. It sure was cold out. I opened the barn door and called out, "Sassafras? Are you in here?" Instead of running to greet me, I heard him meow from Marshmallow's pen. I peeked at them. "Sassafras! You scared me. What are you doing in here? Were you missing Marshmallow, sweet boy?" I held out my hand, expecting Sassafras to come over for his morning cuddles. But he wouldn't budge from the dragon's side. I got closer and put a hand down to pet both Sassafras and Marshmallow. As soon as my hand touched Marshmallow's back, I jumped. He was like a block of ice! Why was he so cold? And he wasn't moving. Oh no! Something was really wrong.

穿上夹克，戴上帽子。外面确实很冷。 我打开谷仓的门，喊道：“檫树？ 你在这里吗？”我没有跑过来迎接我，而是听到他在棉花糖的围栏里喵喵叫。 我偷看了一下。“黄樟!你吓到我了。 你在这里做什么？ 你想念棉花糖吗，好孩子？”我伸出手，期待着萨萨弗拉斯能过来拥抱他。 但他不肯离开巨龙这边。 我走近一点，伸手抚摸着黄樟和棉花糖。 我的手一碰到棉花糖的背，我就跳了起来。 他就像一块冰！他为什么这么冷淡？ 他没有动。噢,不!有些事情真的不对劲。

And then it hit me. Our little dragon was a reptile. How could I have forgotten that reptiles can't make their own heat? I jumped to my feet in search of a heater. Thankfully, the third cabinet I looked in had one. I let out a big sigh of relief. I plugged it in and set it in the pen facing the dragon.

然后我突然想到。我们的小龙是爬行动物。 我怎么会忘了爬行动物不能自己产生热量呢？ 我跳起来寻找加热器。 谢天谢地，我看过的第三个柜子里有。 我松了一口气。 我插上电源，把它放在面对龙的围栏里。

I should have remembered this! Only a few months ago, my friend Sophie went on vacation. She had just gotten the sweetest little baby lizard as a pet. I was over-the-moon excited to watch him while she was gone. When she brought him over, this big lamp thing was resting on top of his terrarium. Sophie told me it was his heat lamp, and she made me pinky promise to be really careful about always leaving it on. I thought that was weird, so I asked her why. "He needs something to make him warm all the time. He's cold-blooded, so he can't do it himself," she told me. "If you don't plug in the lamp, he can get really sick — or die!" After Sophie left, I asked my mom to tell me

我应该记得的！几个月前，我的朋友苏菲去度假了。 她刚得到一只最可爱的小蜥蜴当宠物。 她不在的时候，我很高兴能看到他。 当她把他带过来的时候，他的水族箱顶上放着一个大台灯。 苏菲告诉我那是他的加热灯，她让我小指保证一定要小心不要让它一直开着。 我觉得很奇怪，就问她为什么。 “他需要一些东西让他一直保持温暖。 他是冷血的，所以他不能自己动手，”她告诉我。 “如果你不把灯的插头插上，他会病得很重——甚至会死！”苏菲走后，我让我妈告诉我

more about what being cold-blooded meant. "Reptiles are cold-blooded," Mom told me. "Mammals like Sassafras and us keep warm using energy from the food we eat. We can even keep ourselves the same temperature by sweating when we are too hot and shivering when we are too cold. We are warm-blooded animals. "But reptiles like Sophie's lizard can't use food energy to keep themselves warm," she continued. "Reptiles can't shiver to warm themselves up either. They are cold-blooded animals. In the mornings, you can often spot cold-blooded animals warming their bodies with heat from the sun. Once they're warm enough, they slither, crawl, or hop away! At night and in the winter, they find caves or burrows or other animals to huddle up with to keep warm. It's important to keep pet reptiles at a safe temperature using something like a heat lamp."

更多关于冷血的含义。 “爬行动物是冷血动物，”妈妈告诉我。 “像黄樟和我们这样的哺乳动物利用我们吃的食物中的能量来保暖。 我们甚至可以在太热的时候流汗，太冷的时候颤抖，来保持体温不变。 我们是温血动物。 “但是像索菲的蜥蜴这样的爬行动物不能利用食物能量来保暖，”她继续说。 爬行动物也不能通过颤抖来取暖。 它们是冷血动物。 在早晨，你经常可以看到冷血动物利用太阳的热量来取暖。 一旦它们足够暖和，它们就会滑行、爬行或跳跃离开！在夜晚和冬天，它们会找到洞穴或洞穴或其他动物，蜷缩在一起取暖。 使用热灯之类的东西将宠物爬行动物保持在安全的温度下是很重要的。”

Good thing Mom had a little heater out here in the barn! Now that the pen was nice and warm, the baby dragon started moving a bit. He picked up his head. Phew. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. Marshmallow took a few more steps, then stumbled and fell to the ground. He didn't get up. I fixed the temperature. I fed him the night before. What could be going on?

好在妈妈在谷仓里有个小加热器！现在，笔又暖和又漂亮，小龙开始动了起来。 他抬起头。唷。 我呼出了一口气，我没有意识到自己一直憋着。 棉花糖又走了几步，踉跄着跌倒在地上。 他没有起床。我定了温度。 我前一天晚上喂过他。 会发生什么呢？