10 Top of the World

Chapter 10 TOP OF THE WORLD So much for Arkansas. They crossed the Oklahoma state line. Spontaneously—and inevitably—the entire McDonald family burst into the song "Oklahoma!" from the 1955 Rogers and Hammerstein musical of the same name. i would print the lyrics for you here, but we would have to pay a lot of money for the rights, so forget that idea. YouTube it, and you can hear the whole song for free. "Woo-hoo!" Coke shouted when the family couldn't remember the words to the second verse. "We're in the Sooner State, baby! Hey, ya know why Oklahoma is called the Sooner State?" "Nobody cares!" Pep shouted.

第十章世界之巅阿肯色州就是这样。 他们越过了俄克拉荷马州的州界。 麦当劳全家自然而然地、不可避免地唱起了1955年罗杰斯和汉默斯坦的同名音乐剧《俄克拉何马》。 我可以在这里帮你打印歌词，但我们得为版权支付一大笔钱，所以忘了那个主意吧。 把它放到YouTube上，你可以免费听到整首歌。 “啊!”当家人记不住第二节歌词时，科克喊道。 “宝贝，我们是在先行者之州！”嘿，你知道为什么俄克拉何马州被称为‘更快的州’吗？”“没有人在乎!”Pep喊道。

"I'll bet you guys can't name four things that were invented in Oklahoma," Coke said. "Here we go," grumbled Pep. "Genetically engineered soybeans?" guessed Dr. McDonald. "No, it was the shopping cart, the aerosol can, the parking meter, and the automated twist tie machine!" Coke proclaimed proudly. He had learned this while Googling "American inventions." "Is that so?" said his father. After all these years, he never ceased to be impressed by the amount of seemingly worthless information his son could hold in his head. It was as though Coke's brain was a hard drive with unlimited gigabyte storage, and nothing ever got deleted. Outside, one of the prettiest parts of Oklahoma was passing by. They don't call it the Talimena Scenic Drive for nothing. The road winds fifty-four spectacular miles along the mountaintops, with lush green forests, meadows

“我敢打赌，你们说不出俄克拉何马州发明的四种东西，”科克说。 “我们走吧，”佩普抱怨道。 “转基因大豆？” 麦当劳。“不，是购物车、喷雾罐、停车计时器和自动打结机！”可口可乐自豪地宣称。 他是在谷歌搜索“美国发明”时了解到这一点的。 “是吗？”他父亲说。 这么多年过去了，他从来没有停止过对儿子脑海中那些看似毫无价值的信息的印象。 就好像可口可乐的大脑是一个拥有无限gb存储空间的硬盘，而且没有任何东西被删除。 外面，俄克拉何马州最美丽的地方之一正在经过。 他们称它为塔里梅纳风景大道不是无缘无故的。 这条路沿着山顶蜿蜒54英里，沿途有郁郁葱葱的绿色森林和草地

full of wildflowers, and a smoky blue haze in the distance. The McDonalds were craning their necks in all directions to take in the scenery. "Look! A bear!" Pep shouted suddenly. "Where?" "Over there!" And so it was. A black bear on the right side of the road gamboled off into the woods. It was past three o'clock now, which meant it was time to start thinking about a place to stop for the night. When they had the RV, they were able to just pull over into any parking lot, if necessary, to sleep. Ferraris are fine cars, but you'll never hear people say they want to sleep in one. Certainly not a family of four. And not with bears around. Mrs. McDonald dropped her Arkansas guidebook into the trash bag and pulled out Oklahoma Off the Beaten Path. She discovered that Poteau, an old coal-mining town, was only a half hour away. The guidebook said there were three hotels there, so Mrs. McDonald called on

到处都是野花，远处有一层蓝色的烟雾。 麦当劳的人向四面八方伸长脖子欣赏风景。 “看!一只熊!”佩普突然喊道。 “在哪里?”“在那边!”事实也的确如此。 一只黑熊在路的右边蹦蹦跳跳地跑进了树林。 现在已经三点多了，这意味着该开始考虑找个地方过夜了。 当他们有了房车，他们可以把车停在任何停车场，如果有必要的话，他们可以睡觉。 法拉利是好车，但你永远不会听到有人说他们想睡在法拉利里。 当然不是一家四口。 而且不是有熊在身边。 麦克唐纳太太把她的阿肯色旅行指南扔进垃圾袋，拿出了《远离人迹罕至的俄克拉何马州》。 她发现波托，一个古老的煤矿小镇，离这里只有半小时的路程。 旅游指南上说那里有三家旅馆，所以麦克唐纳夫人就去拜访了

her cell phone and made a reservation at the Holiday Inn Express. She punched the address into the GPS and leafed through her guidebook to find out if there was anything in the area worth seeing. "Hey, you won't believe this!" she blurted out. "The world's highest hill is in Poteau. It's called Cavanal Hill." "No kidding?" said Dr. McDonald. "Never heard of it," said Coke. "I thought Mount Everest was the highest," said Pep. Intrigued, the family agreed to stop by Cavanal Hill before checking into the hotel for the night. A few miles west and slightly north of town, it wasn't hard to find. "Wait a minute," Coke said as he got out of the car. "This mountain doesn't look all that high. How can they say it's the highest one in the world?" "It's not a mountain," a tall guy with a fancy bike in the parking lot told him. "It's a hill."

并在快捷假日酒店预订了房间。 她把地址输入全球定位系统，翻了翻旅游指南，想看看这附近有没有值得一看的地方。 “嘿，你不会相信的！”她脱口而出。 “世界上最高的山在波托。 它叫卡瓦纳尔山。” “不是开玩笑吧？”麦克唐纳医生说。 “从来没听说过，”可口可乐说。 “我以为珠穆朗玛峰是最高的，”佩普说。 出于好奇，这家人同意在入住酒店之前先去卡瓦纳尔山（Cavanal Hill）过夜。 在小镇往西几英里，稍微往北一点的地方，不难找到。 “等一下，”可口可乐下了车说。 “这座山看起来并没有那么高。 他们怎么能说它是世界上最高的山峰呢？”“这不是一座山，”停车场里一个骑着一辆漂亮自行车的高个子男人告诉他。 “那是座山。”

"What's the difference?" Pep asked. "A mountain has to be at least two thousand feet high," the guy explained. "Anything less than that is a hill." "And how high is this hill?" asked Dr. McDonald. "One thousand, nine hundred and ninety- nine feet," the guy replied. "You mean to say that if Cavanal Hill was just one foot higher it would be the world's shortest mountain?" asked Mrs. McDonald. "But because of some dumb rule it's the world's highest hill?" "You got it," said the guy with the bike. "That's bogus!" shouted Coke. "This place is a rip-off!" "It can't be a rip-off," Pep told him. "It doesn't cost anything." "I don't care," Coke said. "It's still a rip-off. It's false advertising." "There's no ad either!" Pep said. "I'll tell you what it is," Mrs. McDonald said,

“有什么区别？”Pep问道。 “一座山至少要有两千英尺高，”那人解释说。 “比这小的都是山。” “这座山有多高？” 麦当劳。“一千九百九十九英尺，”那人回答。 “你的意思是说，如果卡瓦纳尔山再高一英尺，它就会成为世界上最短的山？”麦克唐纳太太问。 “但是因为一些愚蠢的规则，它是世界上最高的山？”“你说对了，”骑自行车的人说。 “那是骗人的！” “这地方简直是敲竹杠！”“这不可能是敲竹杠，”佩普告诉他。 “它不需要任何成本。” “我不在乎，”可口可乐说。 “这仍然是敲竹杠。这是虚假广告。” “也没有广告！”Pep说。 “我来告诉你是什么，”麦克唐纳太太说，

reaching for her notepad. "It's perfect for Amazing but True. My readers will love this." While Cavanal is no Everest, the tree- covered hill draws hikers, bikers, and runners from all over who want to climb it. In fact, the hike to the top is called "the Cavanal Killer." The nickname alone made Coke and Pep want to reach the summit. "You kids go on ahead," said Dr. McDonald. "It still looks pretty high to me. Mom and I will wait down here with the other old fogies." Coke and Pep looked at each other. The same memory flashed through both of their minds—the Singing Sand Dunes in Nevada, where they had been just a few weeks earlier. Their parents had waited in the parking lot while they hiked up the mountain of sand. When they reached the top, they were confronted by a nut in a bowler hat who threw them into a pit and left them there to die. If Coke hadn't hit the guy in the back of the head with a jar full of sand, they would probably still

伸手去拿她的记事本。“这是《惊人但真实》的完美选择。 我的读者会喜欢的。” 虽然卡瓦纳尔不是珠穆朗玛峰，但这座树木覆盖的小山吸引了来自世界各地想要攀登它的徒步旅行者、骑自行车者和跑步者。 事实上，到山顶的徒步旅行被称为“Cavanal杀手”。 这个绰号本身就让可口可乐和佩普想要登上顶峰。 “你们这些孩子继续吧。” 麦当劳。“对我来说，它看起来仍然很高。 妈妈和我和其他老家伙在这里等着。” 可口可乐和佩普面面相觑。 同样的记忆闪过他们的脑海——内华达州的歌唱沙丘，他们几个星期前刚刚去过那里。 当他们爬上沙山时，他们的父母一直在停车场等着他们。 当他们到达山顶时，他们遇到了一个戴圆顶礼帽的坚果，他把他们扔进了一个坑里，让他们在那里死去。 要不是可口可乐用一罐沙子砸了那家伙的后脑勺，他们可能还会