16 Plowing Through

CHAPTER SIXTEEN Plowing Through Freezing Point (noun). This is the temperature where a liquid becomes a solid. For water, the freezing point is 0°C or 32°F. But for gasoline it has to be a lot colder. At least -40°C. That's why it's possible to drive around in cold climates and not have the fuel tank in your car turn into an ice cube. Although an ice cube derby sounds like a lot of fun! THURSDAY NIGHT WAS the longest night ever. I barely got any sleep because I kept jolting awake thinking it was time for the field trip. At 2:00 a.m. it was definitely not time. Or at 3:00 a.m. when I was woken up by snowplows roaring in the distance. But at 4:30 a.m. it was time. Still early, but more "morning" than "middle of the night" at least. I jumped out of bed and looked out the window. It was dark outside, but I could still

第十六章穿越冰点（名词） 这是液体变成固体的温度。 水的冰点是0°C或32°F。 但对于汽油来说，温度要低得多。 至少-40°C。这就是为什么在寒冷的天气里开车而不让你的油箱变成冰块的原因。 虽然冰块德比听起来很有趣！星期四晚上是有史以来最长的夜晚。 我几乎没有睡觉，因为我一直醒着，以为是时候去实地考察了。 凌晨两点绝对不是时候。 或者凌晨三点，我被远处轰鸣的扫雪机吵醒。 但在凌晨4点半，时间到了。 时间还早，但至少更像“早晨”而不是“半夜”。 我跳下床，向窗外望去。 外面很黑，但我仍然能

see. That's because there was snow on the ground. A lot of it. But I could tell by looking at the streetlight that it had stopped coming down. Well, except for one or two stray snowflakes. That was a good sign. After getting dressed, I put on all my snow gear—snow pants, winter coat, scarf, hat, boots, two layers of gloves, and my face mask for really cold weather. Turning on the lights, I could see that my parents had left their cars in our driveway. Mom had the SUV, and Dad had his sedan. The SUV wouldn't have a problem backing out. But today, Dad was taking the SUV to Detroit and Mom was driving the sedan to school. There was no way she could back out without getting stuck. The snow was too deep. Unless we shoveled the entire driveway. And not only the driveway. The street. The snowplow would get to our part of the neighborhood eventually, but who knew when that would happen? We couldn't wait. Even if Mom could get out of our driveway, it would be hard for her to drive to Maple Avenue, which would be all nice and plowed. Normally, we could get a ride with Elijah's mom. Only we couldn't this morning. Their car was in the

看到的。那是因为地上有雪。 很多。但我看了看街灯，就知道它已经停了下来。 嗯，除了一两颗散落的雪花。 这是一个好迹象。穿好衣服后，我穿上了所有的雪地装备——雪地裤、冬衣、围巾、帽子、靴子、两层手套和口罩，以应对寒冷的天气。 打开灯，我看到父母把车停在了我家的车道上。 妈妈开着SUV，爸爸开着轿车。 那辆SUV倒车是没问题的。 但是今天，爸爸开着SUV去底特律，妈妈开着轿车去学校。 她不可能不被困住而退出。 雪太深了。除非我们把整个车道都铲了。 而且不只是车道。 街上。扫雪机最终会到达我们这片社区，但谁知道什么时候会发生呢？ 我们等不及了。即使妈妈能从我们家的车道上开出来，她也很难把车开到枫树大道，那里会很好，而且是犁过的。 通常，我们可以搭以利亚妈妈的车。 只是今天早上不行。 他们的车在

shop. And they were planning on getting a ride with us. So I got to work. After I had cleared the walkway leading up to the house, Mom and Dad trundled outside with Liam. "Great job shoveling the path," said Dad. "That's my girl." "Thanks, Dad." Then I asked Mom the question I didn't want to ask. "Do you think school is canceled?" She bit her bottom lip. "Well, actually, funny you should ask." "Good funny?" "Funny in that I just got a message. And school is on." "Yeah!" I shouted. Liam did too. "That means I'll be getting my octo—" "Shhh," I said. "That part's a surprise." I looked at our long driveway and tried not to panic. How were we going to get rid of all this snow? While I helped my mom start to shovel the driveway, Liam raced away and came back a few minutes later with a saltshaker. "Thanks, Liam," I said. "But remember how Dad said that we need to wait until the plow goes through before spreading the salt?"

商店。他们还打算搭我们的车呢。 所以我开始工作了。在我清理完通往房子的走道后，爸爸妈妈带着利亚姆慢悠悠地走了出去。 “铲小路干得好，”爸爸说。 “这才是我的女孩。”“谢谢,爸爸。” 然后我问了妈妈一个我不想问的问题。 “你觉得学校停课了吗？”她咬着下嘴唇。 “嗯，实际上，你问这个很有趣。” “好有趣?”“有趣的是，我刚刚收到了一条信息。 学校已经开学了。”“是啊!”我叫道。 利亚姆也是。“这意味着我要去拿我的章鱼了——”“嘘，”我说。 “这是一个惊喜。”我看着我们长长的车道，尽量不惊慌。 我们怎么才能把这些雪清除掉呢？ 当我帮妈妈开始铲车道时，利亚姆跑开了，几分钟后拿着一个盐瓶回来了。 “谢谢，利亚姆，”我说。“但是还记得爸爸说过的吗？我们要等犁犁犁完再撒盐。”

"Besides, I don't think you have enough," said Mom. "Oh, man," said Liam. "What are you going to do?" I glanced at the spot where our outdoor water spigot was buried in snow. And I suddenly came up with a plan. "Hey! Where are you going?" Liam called after me as I glided away on the ice. "You'll see," I said. First thing I did was grab a coiled-up garden hose from our shed. Then I carried it into the garage and plopped in front of the utility sink. Then I turned on the faucet until the water got nice and hot. When you have warm water, the molecules zip around super quick. I wanted to get the water molecules on our driveway moving as fast as possible so that the snow would melt into liquid water. I turned off the water for a minute while I attached the hose to the spigot and stretched the hose out the side door. Then I pushed down on the spray

“此外，我认为你的钱不够，”妈妈说。 “哦，伙计，”利亚姆说。“你打算怎么办？”我瞥了一眼我们户外水龙头被雪埋的地方。 我突然想到了一个计划。 “嘿!你要去哪儿？”我在冰上滑行时，利亚姆在我身后喊道。 “你等着瞧吧，”我说。我做的第一件事是从我们的棚子里拿了一根卷曲的花园软管。 然后我把它带进车库，扑通一声放在公用水槽前。 然后我打开水龙头，直到水变得又热又好。 当你有温水时，分子会快速移动。 我想让车道上的水分子尽可能快地移动，这样雪就会融化成液态水。 我把水关了一会儿，把软管接到龙头上，然后把软管从侧门伸出来。 然后我按下喷雾器

nozzle and aimed the stream of water onto the driveway. Yes, those molecules must really have been zipping along, because the snow got lumpier and lumpier until it melted. My family watched in wonder. "That's so cool!" shouted Liam. "I wish I had thought of it years ago," said Mom. "And we're lucky it's not too cold out," added Dad. My hand hurt from squeezing so hard, but I was grinning. You could see most of the asphalt. And Dad was right about it not being that cold. Because if the ground was still frozen, then the hot water would soon become cold water and just freeze up. Luckily, the temperature was hovering just above freezing, so hopefully we would be okay. I crossed my fingers just in case. "I could always drop you guys off in the SUV," said Dad as he climbed into the driver's seat. Mom shook her head. "You need to leave now, honey, if you want to make it to Detroit in time. And we still have stuff to get ready for the field trip." Dad looked reluctant as he backed his way out the driveway. The SUV slowly made its way down our street onto the wider avenue. Once Dad was out of sight, we turned our attention back to the driveway. There were still a few

用喷嘴把水流到车道上。 是的，这些分子一定是在快速移动，因为雪变得越来越块状，直到融化。 我的家人惊奇地看着。 “太酷了！”利亚姆喊道。 “我希望我几年前就能想到这一点，”妈妈说。 “我们很幸运，外面不是太冷，”爸爸补充说。 我的手因用力挤压而疼痛，但我还是笑了。 你可以看到大部分的沥青。 爸爸说得对，没那么冷。 因为如果地面仍然是冰冻的，那么热水很快就会变成冷水，然后冻结起来。 幸运的是，气温在零度以上徘徊，所以希望我们不会有事。 我交叉着手指，以防万一。 “我可以把你们送到越野车里，”爸爸一边说一边爬上驾驶座。 妈妈摇了摇头。“亲爱的，如果你想及时赶到底特律，你现在就得走了。 我们还需要为这次实地考察准备一些东西。” 爸爸倒出车道时显得很不情愿。 那辆越野车慢慢地沿着我们这条街开到更宽阔的大街上。 爸爸一走远，我们就把注意力转回到车道上。 还有一些

patches of thick ice, so I found a bag of leftover sand from Liam's old sandbox and spread that around. The sand would add traction. Plus, it also prevents ice from forming. That's because the movement of the grains of sand messes with the ability of water molecules to cling together and make ice. And we definitely did not need any more ice. After thirty minutes of carrying sand back and forth from the garage, we had finally created a path for Mom's car to get out of the long driveway. But there was just one problem. What about navigating the unplowed street? The sedan didn't have the traction of the SUV, and we were completely out of sand. Back inside the house, I got ready for school, and then out the window the most amazing thing happened—I could see a snowplow clearing the street. We would be able to get to school! Making sure to tuck my money into the safest pocket of my backpack, I did Tala's happy dance. We were going to the aquarium, and I was going to meet sea lions and rockhopper penguins. This was going to be the best field trip ever!

一块块厚厚的冰，所以我从利亚姆的旧沙箱里找到了一袋剩下的沙子，撒了一遍。 沙子会增加牵引力。 此外，它还可以防止冰的形成。 这是因为沙粒的运动扰乱了水分子粘在一起形成冰的能力。 我们也不需要更多的冰了。 在把沙子从车库搬来搬去30分钟后，我们终于为妈妈的车开出了一条长长的车道。 但只有一个问题。 在未开垦的街道上穿行呢？ 轿车没有SUV的牵引力，我们的沙子也完全用光了。 回到屋里，我准备去上学，然后窗外发生了最神奇的事情——我可以看到一辆扫雪机正在清理街道。 我们就能去学校了！我把钱塞进背包最安全的口袋里，跳起了塔拉的快乐舞。 我们要去水族馆，我要去看海狮和跳岩企鹅。 这将是有史以来最棒的实地考察！