14 The Singing Sand

Chapter 14 The Singing Sand The twins woke up the next morning—June 20 —to hear their father ranting to nobody in particular. "A ticket?" Dr. McDonald bellowed. "I can't believe the cops gave me a parking ticket. In a campground! That's un-American!" Coke buried his face in his pillow and tried to go back to sleep. When Dr. McDonald went outside and peeled the "ticket" off the windshield, he realized it wasn't a ticket at all. No ticket would say JNTET FFHNO LCDNB LTYUL VSEED NTHTU EWNYI TOECO

双胞胎第二天早上醒来——6月20日——听到他们的父亲在对别人大吼大叫。 “票?”麦克唐纳博士吼道。 “我真不敢相信警察给了我一张停车罚单。 在露营地！这是反美的!”科克把脸埋在枕头里，试图继续入睡。 麦克唐纳医生走到车外，把“罚单”从挡风玻璃上扯下来，他意识到这根本不是一张罚单。 没有一张票会写着：jintt FFHNO LCDNB LTYUL VSEED NTHTU EWNYI TOECO

KOTEA EORIEDPNOITOR "What do you make of this, Bridge?" he asked. "It's not a ticket," Mrs. McDonald replied. "Maybe it's a new kind of sudoku puzzle or some word game. It looks like some sort of a code." With the word code, Pep and Coke bolted up from their bunks. If somebody left a message with a secret code on the windshield, it was meant for them, not for their parents. Coke ran outside in his pajamas and bare feet to snatch the piece of paper out of his father's hand. He glanced at it for a few seconds—long enough to commit it to memory. Then he ripped up the paper and threw the pieces in the garbage can at the side of their campsite. "It's probably just some kids pulling a prank," he said. "So, what's for breakfast? And what fabulous place are we going to visit today? Maybe a museum devoted to Mr. Potato Head?" "Oh, you'll see," his mother replied. "All I can tell you is this—it has something to do with

“你怎么看这个，布里奇？”他问。 “这不是一张票，”麦克唐纳太太回答。 “也许这是一种新的数独或文字游戏。 看起来像是某种密码。” 听到“密码”这个词，佩普和科克从他们的铺位上钻了出来。 如果有人在挡风玻璃上留下了带有密码的信息，那是给他们的，不是给他们的父母的。 寇克穿着睡衣，光着脚跑到外面，从父亲手里抢过那张纸。 他瞥了它几秒钟——足够让他记住它了。 然后他把那张纸撕碎，扔进了他们营地旁边的垃圾桶里。 “这可能只是一些孩子在恶作剧，”他说。 “那么，早餐吃什么？” 我们今天要去什么神奇的地方呢？ 也许建个土豆头先生的博物馆？”“哦，你会看到的，”他妈妈回答。 “我只能告诉你——这和

singing." While the others got dressed and brushed their teeth over the little sink, Coke carefully rewrote the message from the windshield on a sheet of paper. Even people who have photographic memories know that photos fade in time. "Somebody left us another cipher," he confirmed to his sister while their parents prepared breakfast. "If it's anything like the last one, you should be able to solve it." Pep looked at the letters and then wrote them down in reverse order on her pad, the same way she did with the first cipher. Only this time the message didn't make any sense. It didn't look anything like English. Go to Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/). Click Get Directions. In the A box, type Truckee CA. In the B box, type Fallon NV. Click Get Directions.

唱歌。”当其他人穿好衣服，在小水池边刷牙时，科克小心翼翼地把挡风玻璃上的信息写在一张纸上。 即使是过目不忘的人也知道照片会随着时间的流逝而褪色。 “有人给我们留下了另一个密码，”他在父母准备早餐时向妹妹证实。 “如果它和上一个类似，你应该能够解决它。” 佩普看了看这些字母，然后把它们按相反的顺序写在她的便笺簿上，就像她写第一个密码一样。 只是这一次的信息没有任何意义。 它看起来一点也不像英语。 进入谷歌Maps （http://maps.google.com/）。 点击“获取路线”。在A框中，输入特拉基CA。 在B框中，输入Fallon NV。 点击“获取路线”。

"What's wrong?" Coke asked his sister after she had been staring at the pad for five minutes. "Nothing," she replied. "It's just a different kind of cipher. Give me a little time. I'll crack it." When everyone had eaten and the dishes were washed, Dr. McDonald started the RV and jumped back onto I-80 heading east. In about an hour they crossed the state line. "Did you guys know that the word nevada means 'snowcapped' in Spanish?" Coke announced. "Very impressive!" Mrs. McDonald said. "Thank you, Mr. Show-off," said Pep. Less than ten miles from the California border

“怎么了?”在他妹妹盯着笔记本看了五分钟后，科克问她。 “没什么，”她回答。“这只是一种不同的密码。 给我一点时间。我要把它打开。” 当每个人都吃过饭，盘子都洗好了，医生。 麦克唐纳启动了房车，跳回80号州际公路向东行驶。 大约一小时后，他们越过了州界。 “你们知道内华达这个词在西班牙语里的意思是‘白雪覆盖’吗？”可口可乐宣布。 “印象深刻!”麦克唐纳太太说。 “谢谢你，爱炫耀的先生，”佩普说。 离加州边境不到十英里

is the big city of Reno. The flashing lights of the casinos were beckoning, but Dr. McDonald barely glanced at them. "Hey, gambling is legal here, Dad," Coke hollered from the backseat. "We should hit the slots. Play some blackjack." "You're too young to gamble," Dr. McDonald hollered back, "and I'm too smart." Coke shared a smile with his sister. They had been attacked by guys in golf carts with blow guns, jumped off a cliff, been locked in a burning school, and had their heads stapled, but putting coins in a slot machine was considered too dangerous for kids. Go figure. As the buildings of Reno disappeared behind them, Pep worked feverishly on the cipher. She jumbled the letters on her pad every which way, trying to make sense of them. She grew increasingly frustrated. The family continued east on I-80; and shortly after passing Wadsworth, Nevada, the road split. Mrs. McDonald instructed her husband to take

是大城市里诺。赌场闪烁的灯光吸引着他。 麦克唐纳几乎没看他们一眼。 “嘿，赌博在这里是合法的，爸爸，”可乐从后座喊道。 “我们应该去玩老虎机。玩21点。” “你还太年轻，不能赌博。” 麦克唐纳喊道：“我太聪明了。” 可口可乐对着妹妹笑了笑。 他们曾被开着高尔夫球车的家伙用吹枪袭击过，也曾从悬崖上跳下，被锁在燃烧的学校里，还被钉过头，但对孩子们来说，把硬币扔进老虎机太危险了。 图。当里诺的建筑消失在他们身后时，佩普狂热地研究着密码。 她把便笺簿上的字母弄得乱七八糟，想弄明白它们的意思。 她越来越沮丧。 一家人沿着80号州际公路继续向东行驶；在经过内华达州的沃兹沃斯后不久，这条路就分开了。 麦克唐纳太太吩咐她丈夫拿

the Reno Highway, which is also called Route 50 East. It wasn't long before they reached the town of Fallon and a sign... They had driven another twenty-five miles east when Mrs. McDonald suddenly shouted, "There it is!" In the distance, nestled between two mountain ranges, out in the middle of nowhere, was a gigantic mountain of sand. A beach at the edge of the ocean is no big deal. But a beach in the middle of Nevada was just plain strange. To make things even stranger, as the McDonalds got closer, they could hear the sand singing.

里诺高速公路，也被称为50号东公路。 没过多久，他们就到了法伦镇，看到了一个路标…… 他们又向东开了25英里，麦克唐纳太太突然喊道：“在那儿！”在远处，坐落在两座山脉之间，在偏僻的地方，有一座巨大的沙山。 海边的沙滩没什么大不了的。 但内华达州中部的海滩却很奇怪。 更奇怪的是，当麦当劳走近时，他们能听到沙子在唱歌。