23 Chapter 23

Chapter 23 "And now," announced Dr. Zinchenko, "it is time for today's second game. This way, please." The teams followed her from the third-floor railing to the nearby Electronic Learning Center. All the video games and flight simulators were dark. The arcade was eerily quiet. Kyle noticed something new in what had always been his favorite room in the library: One whole wall was covered, floor to ceiling, with a panoramic (but blank) video screen. As Kyle squinted at the wide swath of shiny white, he noticed a series of evenly

第二十三章“现在，”菲利普医生宣布说。 津琴科说:“现在是今天第二场比赛的时间。 请这边走。”队员们跟着她从三楼的栏杆走到附近的电子学习中心。 所有的电子游戏和飞行模拟器都是黑暗的。 游戏厅安静得出奇。 凯尔注意到，在图书馆里他一直最喜欢的房间里，出现了一些新情况:整面墙从地板到天花板都被覆盖了，上面有一个全景(但空白的)视频屏幕。 当凯尔眯着眼睛看那一大片闪闪发光的白色时，他注意到一系列均匀的

spaced glowing green LEDs at eye level on the wall. Kyle couldn't move closer to examine the screen, because the area fifteen feet in front of it had been fenced off with a series of brass poles and velvet ropes. Suddenly, the floor on the other side of the ropes opened. Up came the smiling head and extremely long neck of a life-size Apatosaurus— what everybody used to call a Brontosaurus, thanks to The Flintstones. The giant dinosaur had leaves stuck between its teeth. Its breath reeked of rancid salad, smelling worse than the middle school cafeteria that time all the refrigerators stopped working on Taco Tuesday. "Woo-weee!" cried Mr. Lemoncello, who, in a complete cowboy costume, was riding in a saddle strapped around the giant audio-animatronic Apatosaurus's neck. "I knew the dinosaurs were extinct, but I didn't know they were extra stinky, too." He took in a deep breath. "Ah, isn't smell-a-vision wondermous?"

在与眼睛平齐的墙上间隔着发光的绿色led。 凯尔无法靠近屏幕查看，因为屏幕前15英尺的地方已经用一系列黄铜杆和天鹅绒绳围起来了。 突然，绳子另一边的地板打开了。 一只真人大小的迷惑龙露出了微笑的头和超长的脖子——多亏了《摩登原始人》，大家以前都叫它雷龙。 这只巨大的恐龙牙齿间夹着树叶。 它嘴里散发着一股腐臭的沙拉味，比中学食堂里的味道还要难闻，当时所有的冰箱都在周二的墨西哥卷饼上停止工作了。 “哇!”莱蒙切罗叫道，他穿着全套牛仔服装，骑在一个鞍座上，鞍座上系着巨大的听觉电子迷惑龙的脖子。 “我知道恐龙已经灭绝了，但我不知道它们也特别臭。” 他深吸了一口气。“啊，嗅觉-视觉不是很神奇吗?”

He unbuckled some sort of seat belt and hopped out of his saddle. "Thank you, Brontie," he said to the big Apatosaurus. "By the way, I love your sister Charlotte. Now, please—go floss." The enormous creature roared pleasantly, rattling all the blank video screens in the game room, then disappeared back into the floor, which closed up around it like a collapsing ring of tiles. "Since today is all about flights of fancy and fancy flights, our next contest is to see which of you would make the paleontologically perfect prehistoric pterodactyl." Mr. Lemoncello flung open his arms toward the wide screen filling the back wall. "This room was recently equipped with my Imagination Factory's brand-new, revolutionary Gesticulatron Gameware. Motion sensors in that hugerific video wall can read a gamer's body language and use human gestures to control the actions of your avatar inside the video game. Yes, with the Lemoncello Gesticulatron Motion

他解开某种安全带，从马鞍上跳了下来。 “谢谢你，勃朗蒂，”他对大迷惑龙说。 “顺便说一句，我爱你的妹妹夏洛特。 现在，请用牙线。”这个巨大的生物愉快地咆哮着，把游戏室里所有空白的电视屏幕都震得嘎嘎作响，然后又消失在地板上，地板像一圈坍塌的瓷砖一样把它围了起来。 “既然今天都是关于奇特的飞行和奇特的飞行，我们的下一个比赛就是看看你们中谁能做出古生物学上完美的史前翼手龙。” 莱蒙切罗对着满是后墙的大屏幕张开双臂。 “这个房间最近配备了我的想象力工厂全新的，革命性的手势游戏软件。 巨大的视频墙上的运动传感器可以读取玩家的肢体语言，并使用人类手势来控制你在视频游戏中的角色的动作。 是的，用柠檬大提琴的手势动作

Detector, you can fly through the sky like Harriet the Spy, if Harriet the Spy could fly." Marjory Muldauer sighed very audibly and, once again, shot her arm into the air. "I see from my own internal gesticulation sensors that we have a question," said Mr. Lemoncello. "Either that or Ms. Muldauer is attempting to hail a taxi indoors." All the other kids (including Marjory's teammates) chuckled. Marjory ignored them. "Yes, Ms. Muldauer?" said Mr. Lemoncello. "What does flying like a dinosaur have to do with libraries?" "Actually," said Mr. Lemoncello, "pterodactyls were not dinosaurs but rather flying reptiles that existed from the Late Triassic through the Jurassic and most of the Cretaceous eras. They missed, however, the disco era, for which they were extremely grateful. All of this information I first learned, years ago, at my local library. Now we can learn even more by bringing these extinct

探测器，你可以像间谍哈丽特一样在天空中飞翔，如果哈丽特会飞的话。” 玛乔丽·穆尔道尔大声叹了口气，又一次把胳膊举到空中。 “从我自己体内的手势传感器来看，我们有问题了，”莱蒙切罗说。 “要么是这样，要么就是穆尔道尔女士想在室内叫一辆出租车。” 所有其他的孩子(包括玛乔丽的队友)都咯咯地笑了起来。 玛乔丽不理他们。“是的,女士。 穆道尔?”莱蒙切罗说。 “像恐龙一样飞行和图书馆有什么关系?”“实际上，”莱蒙切罗先生说，“翼手龙不是恐龙，而是会飞的爬行动物，它们存在于晚三叠纪到侏罗纪以及白垩纪的大部分时期。 然而，他们错过了迪斯科时代，他们对此非常感激。 所有这些信息都是我多年前在当地图书馆第一次了解到的。 现在我们可以通过灭绝这些动物来了解更多

creatures back to virtual yet historically accurate life. This is how the library of the future can present the facts of the past. Dr. Zinchenko? Kindly explain how this next game will be played." He tugged at his fringed leggings. "I'll be monitoring this fourth contest from my private suite down the hall. I need to change out of my chaps before I chafe." Spurs jingling, Mr. Lemoncello moseyed out of the Electronic Learning Center. "For our next competition," announced Dr. Zinchenko, "each team will choose one player who will report back here in two hours. Your chosen flier will, with arm gestures and body movements, control the flight of a single pterodactyl. The player to reach the finish line of our airborne obstacle course first will be today's second medalist. Launch time is four p.m. Until then, all of the library's vast resources are available to you. Including, of course, all the games here in the Electronic Learning Center." The blackened video screens on all the game consoles filling the room sprang to life. Dings,

生物回到虚拟但历史上准确的生活。 未来的图书馆就是这样呈现过去的事实的。 Zinchenko博士吗?请解释下一个游戏将如何进行。” 他拉了拉他的流苏打底裤。 “我将在大厅那头我的私人套间里监视第四场比赛。 我需要在我被磨破之前把我的小裤裤换掉。” 马刺叮当作响，莱蒙切罗先生走出了电子学习中心。 “为了我们的下一场比赛。” 津琴科说:“每队选出一名队员，两小时后回来报到。 你选择的飞行者将通过手臂手势和身体动作来控制一只翼手龙的飞行。 第一个到达空中障碍赛终点的选手将是今天的第二名奖牌获得者。 发射时间是下午4点。在那之前，你可以使用图书馆的所有资源。 当然，包括电子学习中心的所有游戏。” 房间里所有游戏机上黑乎乎的屏幕都亮了起来。 丁氏,

pings, bells, whoops, and techno music filled the air. "Awesome," said a kid from the Southeast team when the Mars rover simulator whirred awake. "Who wants to race around the rings of Saturn with me?" Kyle was tempted. In fact, he was practically drooling. Then Akimi tapped him on the shoulder. "You're flying our pterodactyl, correct?" "Sure. If you guys think I should." "Yo," said Miguel. "It's a video game. You're our gamer." "The only flying I've ever done," said Sierra, "was with Max, Fang, Iggy, and Nudge in James Patterson's Maximum Ride books." Kyle stared at all the kids blasting through outer space, flinging catapults of fire at castle walls, or scuba diving with dolphins on the glowing game screens surrounding him. "So," he said, sighing, "where do I learn about dinosaurs?"

空气中充满了撞击声、铃声、喊叫声和电子音乐。 “太棒了，”当火星漫游者模拟器嗡嗡作响醒来时，东南团队的一个孩子说。 “谁想和我一起绕着土星环赛跑?”凯尔受到了诱惑。 事实上，他几乎是在流口水。 然后Akimi拍了拍他的肩膀。 “你在驾驶我们的翼龙，对吗?”“当然。 如果你们觉得我应该。” “哟，”米格尔说。“这是一款电子游戏。 你是我们的玩家。”“我只飞过一次，”西拉说，“是和詹姆斯·帕特森的《极致之旅》里的麦克斯、牙牙、伊基和轻推一起飞的。” 凯尔盯着所有的孩子在外太空爆炸，向城堡的墙壁投掷火焰，或者在他周围发光的游戏屏幕上与海豚一起潜水。 “那么，”他叹了口气说，“我在哪里了解恐龙呢?”