Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4 We had been working on our blueprint for almost an hour and had finally finished something that looked like a face. Well, it didn't look like a human face—more like a combination of a fish and a kangaroo, if you can imagine that. "Stanley's kind of ugly," Frankie commented. "But in an adorable kind of way," Ashley said. When we started to design the body, poor Stanley got even weirder. He had a long chest, and wheels for legs. The wheels turned out to be square because I used the ruler to draw

我们在蓝图上工作了将近一个小时，终于完成了一个像脸的东西。 嗯，它看起来不像人脸，更像鱼和袋鼠的结合，如果你能想象的话。 “斯坦利有点丑，”弗兰基评论道。 “不过是以一种可爱的方式，”阿什利说。 当我们开始设计身体时，可怜的斯坦利变得更奇怪了。 他的胸膛很长，腿像轮子。 轮子是方形的，因为我用尺子画的

them. I didn't think about the fact that rulers only go in straight lines, not in circles. Sometimes I don't plan ahead. My dad always says, "If you fail to plan, then you are planning to fail." He says that almost every night when it's bedtime and I still haven't finished my homework. Frankie and Ashley didn't mind the square wheels. "We know what you meant," Frankie said. "Everybody knows that in real life, wheels are round." Of course that's exactly when my know-it-all sister, Emily, walked into the dining room and shot a glance at our robot design. "I bet Hank drew those square wheels," she said. "He doesn't even know what a wheel is." "At least I don't have a scaly iguana with a mile-long tongue

他们。我没有想到尺子只能画直线，不能画圆。 有时我不提前计划。 我爸爸总是说：“如果你不做计划，那么你就是在计划失败。” 他说几乎每天晚上睡觉的时候我都还没做完作业。 弗兰基和阿什莉不介意这些方轮子。 “我们知道你的意思，”弗兰基说。 “每个人都知道，在现实生活中，轮子是圆的。” 当然，就在那时，我那无所不知的妹妹艾米丽走进餐厅，瞥了一眼我们的机器人设计。 “我敢打赌汉克画的那些方形轮子，”她说。 “他甚至不知道轮子是什么。” “至少我没有长着一英里长舌头的鳞鬣蜥

riding around on my shoulder," I shot back. Katherine looked me right in the eye and hissed. Then her little legs pushed off Emily's shirt, and she flew through the air, landing smack on top of our blueprint. "Hey, Emily," Frankie said. "Tell your lizard to move. We're doing serious work here. We've got a sock-picker-upper robot to build." "Katherine is very curious," Emily said. "I'm sure she just wants to get a good look at your robot plans." "Are you saying your lizard can read?" Ashley asked. "Who are we to know?" Emily said. "They're very intelligent creatures." "Well, your intelligent creature just pooped a pile of green stuff all over Stanley," I said. Emily broke into a big smile and reached out to pick up Katherine. "Good girl," she said. "You remembered to use the paper." Turning to us, she added, "I told

骑在我的肩膀上，”我回击道。 凯瑟琳直视着我的眼睛，发出嘘声。 然后，她的小双腿从艾米丽的衬衫上挣脱出来，飞到空中，正好落在我们的蓝图上。 “嘿，艾米丽，”弗兰基说。 “叫你的蜥蜴走开。 我们在做严肃的工作。 我们要造一个拣袜子的机器人。” “凯瑟琳很好奇，”艾米丽说。 “我敢肯定她只是想好好看看你的机器人计划。” “你是说你的蜥蜴识字吗？”阿什利问道。 “我们该认识谁呢？”艾米丽说。 “它们是非常聪明的生物。” “嗯，你那聪明的家伙刚刚在斯坦利身上撒了一堆绿色的东西，”我说。 艾米丽突然露出灿烂的笑容，伸手去抱凯瑟琳。 “好姑娘，”她说。“你记得用这张纸。” 她转向我们，补充道：“我告诉过你

you she is very intelligent." "Well, so much for our blueprint," I said. "I'm not getting anywhere near it now." "That's okay," Ashley said. "We all know what we have to do to build Stanley. Let's go find the parts." "We can start in the kitchen," I said. "There's lots of cool stuff there." As we got up from the table, Emily started to follow us. "Sorry," I said to her. "This is for humans only. So I guess that leaves both Katherine and you out." "Fine," Emily said. "We have better things to do, anyway. Katherine and I are going to the bathroom for our afternoon toothbrushing session." "Great. Maybe you can potty train her while you're there." "Maybe I will," Emily said. "Then she'll be ahead of you." That did it. We left and went into the kitchen. My dad was sitting at the table, with

你，她很聪明。” “好吧，我们的蓝图到此为止了。”我说。 “我现在一点也不接近它。” “没关系，"艾希礼说。 “我们都知道我们必须做些什么来建设斯坦利。 我们去找零件吧。”“我们可以从厨房开始，”我说。 “那里有很多很酷的东西。” 当我们从桌边站起来时，艾米丽开始跟着我们。 “对不起，”我对她说。“这只适用于人类。 所以我想凯瑟琳和你都被排除在外了。” “很好，”艾米丽说。“反正我们有更重要的事情要做。 凯瑟琳和我要去洗手间，准备下午刷牙。” “好了。也许你在那儿的时候可以教她如厕。” “也许我会的，”艾米丽说。 “那她就在你前面了。” 这就对了。我们离开，走进厨房。 我爸爸坐在桌子旁，带着

two ice-cream sandwich wrappers next to his computer. "How are the plans coming?" he asked. "Katherine had an accident on them," Frankie explained. "So we're moving right into the next stage: building Stanley." My dad raised his eyebrows and chuckled. "It's nice that you named your robot after me." A big smile broke out across his face. I wondered if this was a good time to ask him if we could move my bedtime a half hour later. But there wasn't time, because Frankie and Ashley already had all the kitchen drawers open. "I think we should use spoons for Stanley's arms," Frankie said. "Yes," Ashley agreed. "Spoons will be good for picking up socks." "Don't use our good silverware," Dad said. "Your mother will be very upset if two spoons are missing."

两个冰淇淋三明治的包装纸放在他的电脑旁边。 “计划进展如何？”他问。 “凯瑟琳在那上面出了意外，”弗兰基解释说。 “所以我们正进入下一个阶段：打造斯坦利。” 爸爸扬起眉毛，轻声笑了起来。 “很高兴你用我的名字给你的机器人命名。” 他脸上绽放出灿烂的笑容。 我在想现在是不是问他能不能把我的就寝时间推迟半小时的好时机。 但没时间了，因为弗兰基和阿什莉已经把厨房里所有的抽屉都打开了。 “我想我们应该用勺子来代替斯坦利的胳膊，”弗兰基说。 “是的，"艾希礼同意了。“勺子可以用来夹袜子。” “不要用我们家好的银器，”爸爸说。 “如果少了两个勺子，你妈妈会很生气的。”

I searched around in the drawer, and at the very back found a baby spoon with a pink polka-dot handle in the shape of a kitten. "I remember this," I said. "It was Emily's kitty cat spoon. She couldn't say spoon, so she called it her 'oon. That was when she was still cute." "Let's use it," Ashley said. "We want Stanley to be colorful and cute." "Well, he won't be so cute if he only has one arm," Frankie said. "And it looks like you Zipzers are out of baby spoons." I opened the drawer my mom calls the "one of everything drawer." It's where she puts stuff that doesn't have a place anywhere else. There's one battery, one hammer, one chopstick, one rubber band, and one instruction book on how to use the icemaker. Luckily, there was also a baggie filled with plastic forks that came with our takeout Chinese food.

我在抽屉里找了一遍，在最后面找到了一个婴儿勺子，勺子上有一只小猫形状的粉红色圆点把手。 “我记得，”我说。 “那是艾米丽的小猫勺子。 她不会说勺子，所以她叫它“oon”。 那时候她还很可爱。” “我们用它吧，"艾希礼说。 “我们希望斯坦利五彩缤纷，可爱可爱。” “嗯，如果他只有一只胳膊，他就不会这么可爱了，”弗兰基说。 “而且你们齐泽尔家的婴儿勺子好像没了。” 我打开了那个被妈妈称为“万能抽屉”的抽屉。 她把别的地方放不下的东西都放在这里。 有一个电池，一个锤子，一根筷子，一根橡皮筋，还有一本如何使用制冰机的说明书。 幸运的是，还有一个装满塑料叉子的袋子，里面是我们外卖的中餐。