1 Mr. Willow Bites His Finger

CHAPTER ONE MR. WILLOW BITES HIS FINGER WE HAD ONLY been in our seats for a couple of minutes on Monday morning when Mr. Willow called from the front of the classroom, "Table 5!" "What did we do?" Simon whispered to Rosie and me. "We just got here." "We didn't do anything," Rosie said quietly back. She giggled a little. "I love how you're already assuming that we're in trouble." Simon shrugged and said, "It's in my nature." Since those two were whispering back and forth, I figured I better answer our teacher. "Yes, Mr. Willow?" I called back. "Molly, will you three come up here?" he said and

星期一早上，我们刚在座位上坐了几分钟，威罗先生就从教室前面喊道：“5号桌！”“我们做了什么？”西蒙低声对罗西和我说。 “我们刚到这里。”“我们什么也没做，”罗茜平静地回答。 她咯咯地笑了一下。“我喜欢你已经假设我们有麻烦了。” 西蒙耸耸肩说：“这是我的天性。” 既然那两个人在小声说话，我想我最好回答老师的问题。 “什么事，威罗先生？”我回了电话。 “莫丽，你们三个上来好吗？”他说

opened a manila folder. He took out a stack of papers. "You can help me pass out these math quizzes." While our classmates quietly complained, Rosie, Simon, and I headed toward Mr. Willow. "That's enough moaning and groaning," Mr. Willow said to everyone as he divided the stack of paper into thirds. "You know, when I was your age, I had to take my math quizzes out in the snow in my bare feet." "For real?" Simon asked. "Yes, Simon. For reeeaaal," Mr. Willow said and handed him a short stack of papers. "And we didn't have paper. We had to use tree bark to write on. And we didn't have pens or pencils either."

打开马尼拉文件夹。他拿出一叠文件。 “你可以帮我发这些数学测验。” 当我们的同学安静地抱怨时，罗西、西蒙和我走向威罗先生。 “唉声叹气够了，”威洛先生一边把那摞纸分成三份，一边对大家说。 “你知道，我在你这么大的时候，我不得不光着脚在雪地里做数学测试。” “真的吗?”西蒙问。“是的,西蒙。 威洛先生说着递给他一小叠文件。 “我们没有纸。 我们不得不用树皮写字。 我们也没有钢笔和铅笔。”

"What did you do?" asked Simon, taking his share of the quizzes. I wasn't quite sure if Simon believed Mr. Willow or just wanted him to continue with the joke.

“你做了什么？”西蒙问，接过了他那份小测验。 我不太确定西蒙是相信威洛先生的话，还是想让他继续开这个玩笑。

"We bit off the tips of our index fingers," Mr. Willow answered, opening his eyes wide and pulling his left index finger close to his mouth. "We'd write the answers with our own blood!" Everybody thought this was funny. Whenever we complained about something, Mr. Willow liked to exaggerate and make stuff up about how tough it was back in the old days. We were used to it. There were nine tables in our class with three kids at each table. Rosie passed out the quizzes to the back row of three tables. I handled the middle row. And Simon took care of the front row closest to Mr. Willow's desk. It only took a minute.

“我们咬掉了我们的食指尖，”威洛先生回答说，睁大眼睛，把左手食指拉到嘴边。 “我们会用自己的鲜血写下答案！”每个人都觉得这很有趣。 每当我们抱怨什么事情时，威罗先生就喜欢夸大其词，编造一些过去生活有多艰难的故事。 我们已经习惯了。我们班有九张桌子，每张桌子上有三个孩子。 罗茜把试卷发给了排在后排的三张桌子。 我负责中间一排。西蒙负责前排离威罗先生桌子最近的座位。 只花了一分钟。

Well, it only took me and Rosie a minute. When we were done, Rosie said, "Molly." I turned my head toward her. She pointed at Simon. And that's when the trouble started.

我和罗西只用了一分钟。 当我们结束时，罗西说，“莫莉。” 我把头转向她。 她指着西蒙。就在那时，麻烦开始了。