11 Catching Time

CHAPTER ELEVEN CATCHING TIME FRIDAY AT SCHOOL, we painted nine Styrofoam balls to look like the planets of our solar system. But that was just our pretend project. Obviously, our real project was about fireflies. We just didn't know if it would work. So we did a fake project at school. We worked on the actual project at home. After dinner, just when it started to get dark,

第十一章赶时间星期五在学校，我们画了九个泡沫塑料球，看起来像我们太阳系的行星。 但那只是我们假装的项目。 显然，我们真正的项目是关于萤火虫的。 我们只是不知道能不能成功。 所以我们在学校做了一个假项目。 我们在家里做实际的项目。 晚饭后，天刚开始黑下来，

Simon and Rosie came to my house. We went out to my backyard. We caught as many fireflies as we could. You can collect a LOT of fireflies in a whole hour. And we got a ton. We each had a mason jar with a wet cotton ball inside. That's where we put the fireflies when we caught them. Simon collected the most. At 7:30, my mom called to us from the back door. It was time to go to the science fair. Simon, Rosie, and I climbed into the back seat of our car. Their parents were going to meet us at the school. "What do you have in your backpacks?" my dad asked us from the front seat.

西蒙和罗茜来到我家。 我们去了我家后院。 我们尽可能多地抓萤火虫。 你可以在一个小时内收集很多萤火虫。 我们有很多。我们每个人都有一个泥瓦匠罐子，里面有一个湿棉球。 我们抓到萤火虫就把它们放在那里。 西蒙收集的最多。七点半，妈妈从后门叫我们。 是时候去参加科学博览会了。 西蒙、罗西和我爬进了车的后座。 他们的父母要去学校接我们。 “你们的背包里有什么？”爸爸坐在前座问我们。

"Just some final supplies for our project," I answered quickly. Simon's backpack was stuffed with most of the clear soda bottle tubes. Mine was jammed with a couple of the tubes and three jars full of fireflies. And Rosie's backpack held the rest of the tubes and all the magnifying glasses. "You still don't want to tell us what it is?" Mom asked. "Not really," I said. "It's a surprise." "Okay," Dad said and smiled at me in the rearview mirror. "No problem."

“只是我们项目的最后一些用品。”我很快地回答。 西蒙的背包里塞满了大部分透明的汽水瓶管。 我的盒子里塞满了几根管子和三个装满萤火虫的罐子。 罗茜的背包里装着剩下的试管和所有的放大镜。 “你还是不想告诉我们是什么吗？”母亲问。 “不完全是，”我说。“这是个惊喜。” “好吧，”爸爸说，从后视镜里对我笑了笑。 “没问题。”

After we parked, Mom and Dad headed toward the school right away. But we didn't. "Aren't you guys coming?" Mom asked. "We have to, umm, go over our presentation one last time," I said. "Makes sense," responded Dad. "We'll meet you in your classroom." I nodded. And we waited for them to go inside. We got really lucky then because no other cars pulled into the parking lot. We sprinted across the playground, heading straight to the greenhouse. The glass door was unlocked—just as Rosie had left it. And we got to work. There was just enough light for us to see. A couple of fireflies escaped on the first few holes,

停车后，爸爸妈妈就直奔学校。 但我们没有。“你们不来吗？”母亲问。 “我们得，嗯，最后再看一遍我们的报告，”我说。 “有道理，”爸爸回答。 “我们在教室见。” 我点了点头。我们等着他们进去。 我们真的很幸运，因为没有别的车开进停车场。 我们飞快地穿过操场，直奔温室。 玻璃门没锁——就像罗茜离开时一样。 我们开始工作。光线刚好够我们看。 几只萤火虫从最初的几个洞里逃了出来，

but after that we got pretty good at it. "I don't know, you guys," Rosie said doubtfully when we were done. "I think this might have been a bad idea.

但在那之后我们就很擅长了。 “我不知道，伙计们，”罗西怀疑地说。 “我认为这可能是个坏主意。

1. I PUT ABOUT TEN FIREFLIES IN EACH HOLE. 2. ROSIE COVERED THE HOLES-AND THE FIREFLIES IN THE HOLES- REAL FAST WITH THE MAGNIFYING GLASSES. 3. SIMON STOOD A CLEAR TUBE ABOVE EACH HOLE.

1. 我在每个洞里放了大约十只萤火虫。 2. 罗茜用放大镜很快地把洞和洞里的萤火虫盖上。 3. 西蒙在每个洞的上方都放了一根透明的管子。