3 It All Heats Up

CHAPTER THREE IT ALL HEATS UP Exothermic Reaction (noun). It's as if the molecules are on the monkey bars, and they can't hang out for a long time, so they drop down to the sand and chill. When they move, heat is released. I GRABBED THE CUP FILLED with cornstarch and tossed it back into my mouth. The saliva was sucked from inside my cheeks. Cornstarch absorbs moisture. It's the first weird part of breathing fire. I had practiced nine times. With Ms. Daly in the room, of course. Since the first Friday after school started, we had carefully gone over each and every step of the demo. And I had also practiced spitting the cornstarch with a fake blowtorch at home all summer. Ms. Daly grabbed the propane torch to double-check its position. Lots of "whoas" and lots of "she's not serious" flew through the room.

放热反应（名词）。 这就好像分子在单杠上，它们不能在上面呆太长时间，所以它们就掉到沙子上，开始冷却。 当它们移动时，热量被释放。 我抓起装满玉米淀粉的杯子，把它扔回嘴里。 唾液从我的脸颊里被吸了出来。 玉米淀粉吸收水分。 这是喷火的第一个奇怪部分。 我已经练习了九次。 当然，戴利女士也在场。 从开学后的第一个星期五开始，我们就仔细地检查了演示的每一步。 整个夏天我都在家里练习用假喷灯吐玉米淀粉。 戴利抓住丙烷火炬，仔细检查了一下它的位置。 房间里到处都是“嗬”和“她不是认真的”的声音。

I wanted to yell, "You bet!" But then I would swallow cornstarch, and that wouldn't be fun. Because I could choke. Or maybe get sick. Ms. Daly clicked the torch to ignite the fire. With a loud hiss, the blowtorch blasted a jet of gas right next to my face. Holy jeans! This was fire. Okay, now I was shaking in my special birthday cowboy boots. Still, I had dreamed about this moment for so long. I snatched the reusable teal straw. This was the hardest part. I had to blow the cornstarch in my mouth through the straw toward the flame. It was like having a mouth full of peas and a pea shooter. It was harder though, because my mouth felt like cotton. Most fire blowers don't use straws. But Ms. Daly had decided a foot-long one would keep my head a safe distance from the blowtorch. Out of the corner of my eye, I spied my mom and little brother, Liam, peeking in from the back window. Everyone knew Liam was my brother because we had the exact same hair color. Light brown with bright gold highlights. Only mine was super long, and his was super short. And everyone recognized my mother. Especially since she just happened to

我真想大喊一声：“没错！”但之后我会吞下玉米淀粉，那就不好玩了。 因为我可能会窒息。或者生病。 戴利女士按了一下火炬点燃了火。 随着一声响亮的嘶嘶声，喷灯在我的脸旁边喷出一股气体。 神圣的牛仔裤!这是火。 好吧，现在我穿着特制的生日牛仔靴发抖了。 尽管如此，这一刻我还是梦想了很久。 我抓起可重复使用的蓝绿色吸管。 这是最难的部分。 我不得不用吸管把嘴里的玉米淀粉吹向火焰。 就像嘴里塞满了豌豆和豌豆枪。 不过更难，因为我的嘴摸起来像棉花。 大多数吹火机不使用吸管。 但戴利认为，一英尺长的护具可以让我的头与喷灯保持安全距离。 从眼角余光，我看到妈妈和弟弟利亚姆正从后窗往里偷看。 大家都知道利亚姆是我哥哥因为我们发色一样。 浅棕色带亮金色。 只是我的超长，他的超短。 每个人都认出了我妈妈。 尤其是她刚刚碰巧

be the principal of Rosalind Franklin Elementary. But I knew she didn't want to distract me. It made me feel better seeing her. But also a tiny bit more nervous, too. "Don't step past this line." Ms. Daly pointed to the red duct tape on the floor, which she'd put there so I wouldn't get too close to the flames. Lunging forward, I stopped in front of the red line. From my gut—with everything I had—I blew out the cornstarch through the straw. Like after the ref blew a whistle at the start of a soccer game, I was in the zone. A giant fireball whooshed out of the straw. It was a serious blast. Longer and bigger and brighter than in any practice run. I heard gasps of disbelief and awe. The red-hot ball of sizzling fuel punched out like a fist. Oh no! It was going to incinerate Ms. Daly's cactus on the windowsill. Kids screamed, "Fire!" The cactus's needles started to singe. "It's going to explode!" Avery shouted. She raced to the front of the room, grabbed the bowl of

成为罗莎琳德·富兰克林小学的校长 但我知道她不想让我分心。 看到她让我感觉好多了。 但也有点紧张。 “不要越过这条线。” 戴利指着地板上的红色管道胶带，她把它贴在那里，这样我就不会太靠近火焰了。 我向前冲，停在了红线前面。 从我的直觉——连同我所有的东西——我用吸管吹出了玉米淀粉。 就像足球比赛开始时裁判吹响哨子后，我进入了禁区。 一个巨大的火球从稻草里嗖地蹿了出来。 这是一次严重的爆炸。比任何一次练习都更长，更大，更亮。 我听到了难以置信和敬畏的喘息声。 炙热的燃料球发出嘶嘶声，像拳头一样冲了出来。 噢,不!它会烧成灰烬。 窗台上戴利的仙人掌。 孩子们尖叫着：“着火了！”仙人掌的针开始烧焦了。 “它要爆炸了！”艾弗里喊道。 她跑到房间前面，抓起那碗

water, and tossed it on the burning cactus. Only it missed the cactus and drenched me instead. Elijah pulled out the pin on the fire extinguisher and pushed down on the trigger. A spray of foam whooshed out of the tank. Sweeping back and forth, he blasted out the flames. Soon white extinguisher goop covered the cactus. It was saved! Water dripped down my chin, but I didn't mind. Everyone clapped wildly, and I high-fived Elijah, who was grinning from ear to ear. "Thank you," I wanted to say, but yucky cornstarch clogged my mouth. Immediately, I spat out the cornstarch into the bucket and took a big swig of water. You definitely didn't want to eat that stuff. Trust me, it was chalky not tasty. "Do it again!" kids shouted. They meant breathe fire, not spew cornstarch. "But don't burn any plants," said Avery. "Good plan," said Ms. Daly. "But it's a prickly pear. Hopefully, it will resprout." "It looked like fire spit right out of her mouth," said someone in the very back. My heart pounded louder than Elijah's drums in his garage. I did it. Oh yeah! I gave Elijah

水，扔在燃烧的仙人掌上。 只是雨没打到仙人掌，反而把我淋透了。 以利亚拔出灭火器上的插销，按下扳机。 一股泡沫喷涌而出。 他前后扫视，把火焰吹灭。 很快，白色的灭火器黏液覆盖了仙人掌。 它得救了！水顺着我的下巴滴下来，但我并不介意。 每个人都疯狂地鼓掌，我和以利亚击掌，他笑得合不拢嘴。 “谢谢你。”我想说，但令人作呕的玉米淀粉堵住了我的嘴。 我立刻把玉米淀粉吐到桶里，喝了一大口水。 你肯定不想吃那东西。 相信我，它很白，一点也不好吃。 “再来一次！”孩子们喊道。 他们的意思是喷火，而不是喷玉米淀粉。 “但是不要烧任何植物，”埃弗里说。 “好计划，”戴利说。 “但这是一个多刺的梨。希望它能重新发芽。” “看起来就像从她嘴里吐出来的火。”坐在最后面的人说。 我的心跳得比以利亚在车库里敲的鼓还要响。 我做到了。噢,是的!我给了以利亚

another high five. I gave Ms. Daly a high five just as Mom and Liam rushed into the science lab. "I'm so happy the fire is out," said Mom in her principal voice. "That was cool," exclaimed Liam. I bounced up and down like the cement floor was a trampoline. I was so happy, I could spring to the ceiling. I happily and drippily bounced through some of Ms. Daly's explanations. Like how cornstarch was the fuel. And that it worked really well because it had carbon in it. The more carbon, the bigger the fire. It had definitely been a big wow! A fourth grader in a basketball shirt raised his hand. "I want to breathe fire." And then a fifth grader with a shiny ponytail that spurted out of the top of her head yelled, "Me too!" Her name was Julia Yoon, and she was president of the student council. She liked to be in charge, just like me. "Can we try it now?" she asked. "Please?" Ms. Daly smiled tightly. "Not right now," she said. And I could hear Avery whispering, "So unfair." The basketball shirt kid rolled his eyes. "Kate worked hard to understand how fire breathing worked," continued Ms. Daly, "and practiced a lot. With adult supervision. However,

再击掌。我给了。 当妈妈和利亚姆冲进科学实验室时，戴利击掌庆祝。 “火灭了，我真高兴，”妈妈用她主要的声音说。 “太酷了，”利亚姆叫道。 我上蹦下跳，就像水泥地板是蹦床一样。 我高兴得跳上了天花板。 我愉快地、湿淋淋地在一些女士的房间里蹦蹦跳跳。 戴利的解释。比如玉米淀粉是如何成为燃料的。 这很有效，因为它含有碳。 碳越多，火越大。 这绝对是一个巨大的惊喜！一个穿篮球衫的四年级学生举起了手。 “我想喷火。”然后，一个五年级的学生，闪亮的马尾辫从头顶伸出来，喊道：“我也是！”她叫茱莉亚·尹，是学生会主席。 她喜欢做主，就像我一样。 “我们现在可以试试吗？”她问。 “好吗?”戴利紧紧地笑了。 “现在不行，”她说。 我能听见艾弗里低声说：“太不公平了。” 穿篮球衫的男孩翻了个白眼。 凯特努力理解喷火是如何工作的。 并进行了大量的练习。 在大人的监督下。然而,

I'd love for you all to start thinking about your own science projects. You could enter them in our upcoming science fair." Then Ms. Daly went on to explain that what I did was called an exothermic reaction. How things went from high energy to low energy. I was definitely not feeling low energy. I couldn't stop grinning. Oh yeah, chemistry was cool!

我希望你们都能开始思考自己的科学项目。 你可以让它们参加我们即将举行的科学博览会。” 然后戴利女士继续解释说，我所做的被称为放热反应。 物质是如何从高能量变成低能的。 我一点也不觉得精力不足。 我忍不住笑了。哦，是的，化学很酷！