34 Chapter 34

Chapter 34 The library was extra packed with spectators for the fifth day of the Olympic games. Television cameras were everywhere. Word must've spread that unless one of the other medaled teams miraculously swept the final three competitions, the championship was down to two true contenders. "Welcome back, everybody!" said Mr. Lemoncello, addressing the contestants and the crowd from the second-floor balcony, where he was seated in a canvas director's chair. He was wearing a floppy beret and an ascot like movie

在奥运会举行的第五天，图书馆里格外挤满了观众。 到处都是电视摄像机。 一定有消息说，除非有另一支获得奖牌的队伍奇迹般地横扫最后三场比赛，否则冠军就只剩下两支真正的竞争者了。 “欢迎大家回来!”莱蒙切罗坐在二楼阳台的帆布导演椅上，对参赛者和观众说。 他戴着一顶松软的贝雷帽，戴着一条像围巾一样的领带

directors sometimes do—in cartoons. "I hope you're all having fun!" "Fun?" shouted Mrs. Chiltington, who was back, once again, with her pack of protestors. "Libraries should be about books, Mr. Lemoncello. Not fun!" Even from a distance, Kyle could see some kind of dark cloud shadow his hero's eyes. "Good to see you again, too, Archduchess Von Chiltington. And may I say, for the record, as well as the CD, I agree with thee." "Ha! Prove it." "My pleasure." He turned to address the assembled Library Olympians. "Today, for game number ten of the duodecimalthon, we'll do a little role-playing. You Olympians will play librarians, and I will play the patron who has come here seeking a very particular, very special book." He shot Mrs. Chiltington a toothy smile, then pivoted back to the players. "But I can't remember the title or the author or whether this book…"

导演有时会在动画片中这么做。 “我希望你们都玩得开心!”“好玩?”奇尔廷顿夫人喊道，她又带着一群抗议者回来了。 “图书馆应该是关于书的，莱蒙塞罗先生。 不好玩!”即使在远处，凯尔也能看到某种乌云笼罩着他的英雄的眼睛。 “我也很高兴再次见到你，冯·齐廷顿大公夫人。 我可以说，为了记录和CD，我同意你的观点。” “哈!证明这一点。”“我的荣幸。” 他转身向聚集在一起的图书馆奥林匹亚人讲话。 “今天，在十二位数马拉松的第十场比赛中，我们将做一个小小的角色扮演。 你们这些奥运选手将扮演图书管理员，而我将扮演一位来这里寻找一本非常非常特别的书的赞助人。” 他朝奇尔廷顿夫人咧嘴一笑，然后转向球员们。 “但我不记得书名和作者，也不记得这本书是否……”

Another smile for Mrs. Chiltington, who wasn't smiling back. "…is fiction or nonfiction. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find this one needle in our haystack of five million different titles." Mr. Lemoncello whipped off the beret and tugged on an Ohio State Buckeyes baseball cap. "I will now play the patron. Before I do, however, I'd like to express my sincere gratitude to my brilliant acting coach, the renowned thespian Sir Donald Thorne, for his assistance in helping me craft my portrayal of this role." Mr. Lemoncello cleared this throat and started speaking with a flat and friendly Ohio accent. "Excuse me, Ms. and/or Mr. Librarian, can you help me find a book? All I remember is that it's kind of white and brownish on the front. It might be about the opposite of wildlife mixed up with a James Joyce novel, but Joyce didn't write it, although I think a woman did. I also remember something about a fruit no one has ever heard of

奇廷顿夫人又笑了，她没有对她笑。 是小说还是非小说。 你的任务，如果你愿意接受的话，就是在我们五百万种不同的书的大海捞针中找到这一针。” 莱蒙切罗摘下贝雷帽，戴上俄亥俄州立大学七叶树队的棒球帽。 “现在我来扮演赞助人。 不过，在此之前，我想对我杰出的表演教练、著名演员唐纳德·索恩爵士表示衷心的感谢，感谢他帮助我塑造了这个角色。” 莱蒙切罗先生清了清嗓子，开始用平淡而友好的俄亥俄口音说话。 “打扰一下，图书管理员女士和/或先生，你能帮我找一本书吗?” 我只记得它的正面是白色和棕色的。 它可能是关于野生动物与詹姆斯·乔伊斯小说的对立面，但乔伊斯不是作者，尽管我认为是一个女人写的。 我还记得一种没人听说过的水果

before the year 2014. It's about yea thick. The book. Not the fruit. Can you please find it for me? Right away?" Mr. Lemoncello whipped off the baseball cap and put the director's beret back on. "The first team to locate the book and bring it to me wins our tenth medal, the Thank You medal. You will also, of course, win your patron's eternal gratitude. Okay, maybe not eternal, but he'll probably say 'thanks' when you hand him the book. Maybe. They do that, sometimes." The thirty-two players stood frozen, staring up at Mr. Lemoncello. Mr. Lemoncello didn't say anything else. "Is that it?" asked Stephanie Youngerman from Boise, Idaho. "Yes," said Dr. Zinchenko, stepping up to the railing on the second floor beside Mr. Lemoncello. Then she was silent, too. "Okay, you guys," Kyle whispered to his teammates. "Let's get busy." "What should we do first?" asked Sierra.

2014年之前。大约有一英尺厚。 这本书。不是水果。你能帮我找一下吗? 马上?”莱蒙塞罗先生摘下棒球帽，戴上导演的贝雷帽。 “第一个找到这本书并把它带给我的团队将赢得我们的第十枚奖牌——感谢奖章。 当然，你也会赢得你的赞助人永远的感激。 好吧，也许不是永远，但当你把书递给他时，他可能会说“谢谢”。 也许吧。他们有时会这么做。” 32名球员僵立在那里，抬头盯着莱蒙切罗先生。 莱蒙塞罗没有说别的。 “就这样吗?”来自爱达荷州博伊西的斯蒂芬妮·扬格曼问道。 “是的，”津琴科说着，走到二楼莱蒙切罗旁边的栏杆前。 然后她也沉默了。“好了，伙计们，”凯尔低声对队友们说。 “让我们开始行动吧。”“我们应该先做什么?”塞拉问。

"Weep," said Akimi. "That's the lamest clue I've ever heard." "Nuh-uh," said Miguel. "I have a few ideas." Kyle and his teammates headed to a desk in the outer ring so they could converse privately. Marjory Muldauer led her team to a desk on the opposite side of the circle. Pretty soon, all the teams were grabbing desks and firing up the tablet computers built into the furniture so they could explore the library's online card catalog. "So what fruit was first discovered in 2014?" asked Akimi, zeroing in on that part of the clue. "Craisins?" "Hold up," said Miguel. "You're being too literal." "Miguel's right," said Kyle. "Mr. Lemoncello is way too wacky to mean exactly what he said." "So what are we looking for?" asked Sierra. "A new apple? A new banana? A new strawberry?" "Bingo!" said Miguel. "That's it!" He started tapping the built-in tablet computer's screen.

“哭吧，”明美说。“这是我听过的最蹩脚的线索。” “不——不，”米格尔说。“我有一些想法。” 凯尔和他的队友走向外圈的一张桌子，这样他们就可以私下交谈了。 马乔里·穆尔道尔(Marjory Muldauer)带领她的团队来到圆圈对面的一张桌子前。 很快，所有的小组都抓起桌子，打开家具里的平板电脑，开始浏览图书馆的在线卡片目录。 “那么2014年首次发现的是什么水果呢?”Akimi问道，把注意力集中在这部分线索上。 “Craisins ?”“等等，”米格尔说。 “你太字面化了。” “米格尔说得对，”凯尔说。 “莱蒙切罗先生太古怪了，他说的不是那个意思。” “那我们在找什么呢?”西拉问。 “一个新苹果?”一根新的香蕉? 一个新的草莓?”“答对了!”米格尔说。 “就是这样!”他开始轻敲内置平板电脑的屏幕。

Sierra was stunned. "Really? What'd I say?" " 'New strawberry,' " said Akimi. "Which, I'm sorry, but I don't really think is a 'bingo' kind of answer." "Because," said Miguel, as quietly as he could, "we don't need a new strawberry. We need a different kind of 'new berry.' " "Which one?" said Kyle. "Blueberry? Raspberry?" Akimi snapped her fingers. "Huckleberry! Because this is a library and Huckleberry Finn is in here." "No, you guys." Miguel found a stubby pencil and a slip of scrap paper. "The 2014 Newbery Medal winner. Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo." Akimi's eyes lit up. " 'Flora,' meaning 'vegetation,' is the opposite of 'fauna,' meaning 'wildlife.' " "And," added Sierra, "James Joyce, the great Irish novelist, wrote a book called Ulysses."

塞拉惊呆了。“真的吗? 我说什么来着?”“‘新草莓’，”明美说。 “我很抱歉，但我真的不认为这是‘宾果游戏’式的答案。” “因为，”米格尔尽量平静地说，“我们不需要新的草莓。 我们需要一种不同的“新浆果”。“哪一个?”凯尔问。 “蓝莓吗?覆盆子吗?”明美打了个响指。 “哈克贝利!因为这是图书馆，《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》在这里。” “不，伙计们。”米格尔找到了一支粗铅笔和一张废纸。 2014年纽伯瑞奖得主。 《弗洛拉与尤利西斯》凯特·迪卡米洛著 明美的眼睛亮了起来。“‘Flora’的意思是‘植被’，而‘fauna’的意思是‘野生动物’。’”“还有，”西拉补充说，“詹姆斯·乔伊斯，伟大的爱尔兰小说家，写了一本叫《尤利西斯》的书。”