8 STUMPED

CHAPTER 8 STUMPED Tiny was not doing well. I brushed his tail with one of our rakes, and that seemed to make him feel a little better. But what Tiny really needed was a fixed leg. It felt like I had been waiting in the yard for hours when my mom finally called me in. I ran to the cooler and opened the lid, excited to move on to the second part of my experiment. "But… ?" I looked up at my mom. "The bacteria should've grown by now, right?" Mom glanced at the clock. "I really thought it would have." "So, what does this mean?" She sat down at the kitchen table. "Well, maybe the bacteria just needs more time to grow. Or maybe the agar mixture is missing something this bacteria requires. I'm not sure which."

第八章被难住了的拇指姑娘身体不太好。 我用我们的一把耙子刷了刷它的尾巴，这似乎让它感觉好些了。 但是蒂尼真正需要的是一条固定的腿。 感觉就像我在院子里等了几个小时，妈妈终于叫我进去了。 我跑到冷却器前，打开盖子，兴奋地开始我实验的第二部分。 “但是……？”我抬头看着妈妈。 “细菌现在应该已经生长了，对吧？”妈妈看了一眼钟。 “我真的以为会是这样。” “那么，这意味着什么呢？”她在厨房的桌子旁坐下。 “嗯，也许细菌只是需要更多的时间来生长。 或者琼脂混合物缺少这种细菌需要的东西。 我不确定是哪一个。”

I sat down next to Mom and flumped my head on my arms. "We really need to figure this out! I don't want to waste any more time." Mom rubbed my back. "I know what you mean." "Can we make a new agar mixture while we give this one more time to grow?" Mom nodded. "Let's try it. But what do you want to add this time?" I got up and paced and tapped my goggles. "Come on, Thinking Goggles! Give me some ideas," I muttered under my breath. But instead of new ingredients, all I could think about was yogurt. Was this really the best time for a

我在妈妈身边坐了下来，把头靠在胳膊上。 “我们真的需要解决这个问题！”我不想再浪费时间了。” 妈妈揉我的背。“我明白你的意思。” “我们能不能制作一种新的琼脂混合物，同时给它更多的时间生长？”妈妈点了点头。 “我们试试吧。但这次你想加什么呢？”我站起来踱步，轻拍着我的护目镜。 “加油，思考镜！”给我点主意吧。”我低声嘀咕着。 但我脑子里想的不是新的食材，而是酸奶。 现在真的是约会的最佳时机吗

snack? "ARGH!" I pouted. "The only thought I'm having is about yogurt. I don't want to eat! I want to solve this… OH!" Mom raised an eyebrow. "Oh! Oh!" I said again. "Yogurt! Of course!" "Care to share those thoughts?" Mom asked. "Well, we knew we could grow the store-bought yogurt bacteria in milk, because the bacteria was already growing there." "Right," Mom said. "We know that bacteria on Tiny grows on unicorns, so we just need to find a way to add some unicorn… something… to the agar mixture!" "Ooh, great thinking, Zoey! That just might work. What are you thinking of adding?" "Well, the cut on Tiny's leg is in his fur. Maybe I could clip some fur from one of his good legs and we could mix that in?"

零食吗?“啊!”我撅着嘴。“我唯一的想法就是酸奶。 我不想吃！我要解决这个问题……哦！”妈妈扬起了眉毛。 “哦!噢!”我又说。“酸奶!当然!”“愿意分享一下这些想法吗？”母亲问。 “嗯，我们知道我们可以在牛奶中培养商店购买的酸奶细菌，因为细菌已经在那里生长了。” “好的，”妈妈说。“我们知道Tiny上的细菌生长在独角兽身上，所以我们只需要找到一种方法，在琼脂混合物中添加一些独角兽的东西！”“噢，好主意，佐伊！”这也许行得通。 你还想加些什么？”“唔，拇指姑娘腿上的伤口是在它的皮毛上。 也许我可以从他的一条好腿上剪下一些皮毛，我们可以把它混在一起？”

"Excellent plan. You grab the fur and I'll start cooking a new batch." In no time at all, Mom and I had petri dishes filled with new agar— now with unicorn-ness added! Once they cooled, I took them out, and with my gloves and cotton swabs, I carefully added bacteria from Tiny's cut to the new petri dishes. Mom refilled the jars in the cooler with more hot water, and I gently settled the new petri dishes next to the old ones. "The old petri dishes still have nothing on

“优秀的计划。你去拿皮毛，我去做一批新的。” 很快，我和妈妈的培养皿里就装满了新的琼脂——现在又加了独角兽！冷却后，我把它们拿出来，用手套和棉签，小心翼翼地把蒂尼伤口上的细菌添加到新的培养皿中。 妈妈在冷却器里往罐子里装满了热水，我轻轻地把新的培养皿放在旧的培养皿旁边。 “旧的培养皿里什么也没有

them," I told Mom as I closed the lid. "Let's hope the new ones are more effective," she said. I sat down at the kitchen table. "And now we wait."

我一边合上盖子，一边对妈妈说。 “希望新的疫苗更有效，”她说。 我在厨房的桌子旁坐下。 “现在我们等着。”