15 Don’t Let It Snow

CHAPTER FIFTEEN Don't Let It Snow Snow (noun). It starts in the clouds when the temperature is lower than 0°C, and then the water vapor turns into ice by going directly from a gas to a solid. Basically, it skips the whole liquid stage (as in rain). It's sort of like skipping ahead a grade in school. NOT ONLY WAS IT supposed to snow tomorrow, there was supposed to be a lot of it. I spun around the room, thinking of everything I knew about snow. First off, it needs to be cold. Check. It was going to be exactly freezing tomorrow. As in all day. That's 0°C or 32°F. And for snow to form, there has to be dirt. Not here on Earth's surface, but up there in the sky. I learned about that from Dr. Caroline. Basically, snow happens when ice crystals form around specks of dirt that are floating in the air. When all of these crystal dirt particles collide, they stick together. And then

第十五章别让天下雪下雪（名词） 它开始于温度低于0°C的云中，然后水蒸气直接从气体变成固体，变成冰。 基本上，它跳过了整个液体阶段（如雨）。 这有点像在学校跳过一个年级。 明天不仅会下雪，而且还会下很多雪。 我在房间里转来转去，想着我所知道的关于雪的一切。 首先，它必须是冷的。 检查。明天会很冷的。 就像整天一样。也就是0°C或32°F。 要形成雪，必须有泥土。 不是在地球表面，而是在天上。 这是我从Dr。 卡洛琳。基本上，当漂浮在空气中的尘埃周围形成冰晶时，就会下雪。 当所有这些晶体灰尘颗粒碰撞时，它们会粘在一起。 然后

they get bigger and bigger until—bam!—they get so heavy they plop down to Earth. And fall on your head. As snowflakes. And there wasn't anything that I could do to stop that from happening. Not unless I got a giant leaf blower or something and I could blow all of the little specks of dirt out of the sky. Then I remembered something else that I had learned from Dr. Caroline. How salt can lower the freezing point of water. So maybe if I sprinkled it on our sidewalk, driveway, and cul-de-sac, the snow would just melt. Mom had gone back to school after dinner, trying to clear out her work, so I raced over to my dad's workbench, which was in the basement. I sprinted down the stairs. "Dad! I've got to talk to you. It's an emergency." Dad told me to stand behind the black tape that marked off the safe zone. He put it down last year after Liam wandered too close to the table saw. Luckily, Dad was paying attention and no one got hurt, but we had to have a big family meeting to talk about safety. He handed me a pair of safety goggles and asked me about the emergency. I told him about how it was supposed to snow. And how it might be hard to get the car out of the driveway in order to go to school to

它们变得越来越大，直到——砰！-它们太重了，会扑通一声掉到地上。 然后头朝下摔下来。雪花。 我无法阻止这一切的发生。 除非我有一个巨大的吹叶机之类的东西我可以把所有的小尘埃都吹出天空。 然后，我想起了我从史密斯博士那里学到的另一件事。 卡洛琳。盐是如何降低水的冰点的。 所以如果我把它洒在人行道、车道和死胡同上，雪就会融化。 妈妈吃完晚饭回到学校，试图清理她的工作，所以我跑到爸爸在地下室的工作台前。 我飞快地跑下楼梯。 “爸爸!我得跟你谈谈。 这是紧急情况。”爸爸叫我站在安全区的黑胶带后面。 去年利亚姆走得离桌子太近他就把它放下了。 幸运的是，爸爸注意了，没有人受伤，但我们不得不召开一个大型家庭会议来讨论安全问题。 他递给我一副护目镜，问我紧急情况。 我告诉他应该会下雪。 还有，为了去上学，把车从车道上开出来是多么困难

meet the bus for the field trip. But then I told him about my salt plan. We live on a cul-de sac at the back of our neighborhood, and the plows don't get there sometimes until later. So even though school could be open, it could be challenging to get out of the neighborhood. "I like the way you're thinking, Kate," he said. "But first of all, the weather report doesn't say a hundred percent chance of snow. It's now only at fifty-five percent, so it could go either way. Second of all, we'd need many bags of rock salt to do the job. And I just have one bag in the garage. Even if we could borrow another bag from Elijah's family, two bags wouldn't cut it." He sighed deeply. "Third of all, the salt may prevent ice from forming, but it's not going to stop the snow from falling. We've got snow tires on our cars, though, so if school isn't canceled, we should still be able to get there." I thought about that. "True, and we could even walk to the school bus if we had to," I said. That's because there's a bus stop on Maple Avenue, which always gets plowed, about five blocks away.

等公共汽车去郊游。 但后来我告诉了他我的盐计划。 我们住在小区后面的一个死胡同里，有时犁要晚些时候才能到那儿。 因此，即使学校可能开放，离开社区也可能是一项挑战。 “我喜欢你的思考方式，凯特，”他说。 “但首先，天气预报没有说百分之百可能下雪。 现在只有55%，所以这两种情况都可能发生。 其次，我们需要很多袋岩盐来完成这项工作。 我只有一个包在车库里。 即使我们能从以利亚家里再借一个袋子，两个袋子也不够。” 他深深地叹了口气。“第三，盐可能会阻止冰的形成，但它不会阻止雪的下降。 不过，我们的车装了防滑胎，所以如果学校不取消的话，我们应该还能赶到那里。” 我想过这个。“没错，如果有必要的话，我们甚至可以走到校车那里。”我说。 那是因为枫树大道上有个公交车站，离这儿五个街区远，那里总是被犁过的。

"The only problem is that the morning school bus can only take kids as passengers." "Essh." That meant Elijah's mom, our much- needed chaperone, and my mom technically couldn't get on board. And even if my mom could pull some strings as principal, Elijah's mom couldn't, and we needed every single chaperone. "Well, there's no point in salting the street until after the plow has come through. But we can certainly shovel the sidewalk and the driveway, and then salt the ground to keep it from icing over. We have enough salt for that." That's when Liam raced down the stairs, into the basement. "Shoveling? Who's shoveling? I want to shovel!" "You can, Liam," said Dad. "Well," I said, looking outside at the fat milky- white clouds, "you'll have to wait until it snows first." "And since there's only a fifty-five percent chance," Dad added, "it might not." Liam looked at me. "I want to shovel. And I want it to snow. But I also want you to be able to go to the aquarium, Kate." "And don't forget Dad's conference," I said. "Yeah, that too." I looked outside once again, and at the forecast. "Looks like we'll just have to wait and see."

“唯一的问题是，早班校车只能搭载孩子。” “Essh。”这意味着以利亚的妈妈，我们急需的监护人，以及我妈妈严格来说都不能加入。 就算我妈作为校长能走后门，以利亚的妈妈也不行，我们需要每一个监护人。 “好吧，在犁头耕过之前，在街上撒盐是没有意义的。 但我们当然可以用铲子铲掉人行道和车道，然后在地上撒上盐，以防结冰。 我们有足够的盐。” 这时利亚姆跑下楼梯，跑进了地下室。 “铲吗?铲是谁? 我要铲！”“你可以的，利亚姆，”爸爸说。 “好吧，”我看着外面浓密的乳白色的云说，“你得等到下雪了再说。” “既然只有百分之五十五的机会，”爸爸补充说，“也许不会。” 利亚姆看着我。“我想铲。 我想下雪。但我也希望你能去水族馆，凯特。” “别忘了爸爸的会议，”我说。 “是啊，那也是。”我又看了看外面的天气预报。 “看来我们只能拭目以待了。”

There was just one little problem. Waiting is my least favorite activity.

只有一个小问题。 等待是我最不喜欢的活动。