3 Pedal Power

Chapter 3 Pedal Power After the assembly Mr. Granite led us to our new classroom. There were posters all over the walls with pictures of rocket ships and stars and planets. It was cool. But the weird thing was, instead of desks, the room was filled with exercise bicycles! "Why are there bikes in here?" asked this annoying girl named Emily, who is Andrea's crybaby friend. "It's part of my new P.A.L. program," said Mr. Granite. "Pedal And Learn. Instead of burning coal or oil to get electricity to run our school, we're going to pedal these exercise bikes. So we'll learn new things, save energy, and get exercise all at the same time. It's a win-win!"

集会结束后，格拉尼特先生把我们带到我们的新教室。 墙上贴满了海报，上面画着火箭飞船、星星和行星。 很酷。但奇怪的是，房间里摆满了健身自行车，而不是桌子！“为什么这里有自行车？”一个叫艾米丽的讨厌女孩问，她是安德里亚爱哭的朋友。 “这是我新pal的一部分 格拉尼特先生说。 “脚踏实地学习。我们不用烧煤或石油来发电来运营我们的学校，而是要骑这些健身自行车。 因此，我们将学习新的东西，节省能源，并得到锻炼都在同一时间。 这是双赢！”

We get to ride bikes in school? Cool! Bikes are fun. I have a trick bike at home. I hopped on a bike between Michael and Ryan. "In third grade we're going to learn a lot about space," Mr. Granite told us. "So start pedaling, P.A.L.s!" "I know a poem about space," I said as I started to pedal my bike. Mr. Granite said I could recite it. It goes like this: Boys go to Mars to get candy bars. Girls go to Jupiter to get more stupider. "That's not nice, Arlo!" said Andrea. "Neither is your face." As we pedaled our bikes, Mr. Granite told us lots of stuff about the planets and stars. Did you know that Venus is the hottest planet? It can get up to nine hundred

我们可以在学校骑自行车吗？ 太酷了!自行车很有趣。我家里有一辆特技自行车。 我跳上了迈克尔和瑞恩之间的自行车。 “在三年级，我们将学习很多关于太空的知识，”格拉尼特先生告诉我们。 “所以开始踩踏板吧，p.a.l. !”“我知道一首关于太空的诗，”我边说边开始骑自行车。 格拉尼特先生说我可以背诵。 故事是这样的：男孩们去火星买糖果。 女孩们去木星是为了变得更蠢。 “这可不好，阿乐！”安德烈说。 “你的脸也不是。”在我们骑自行车的时候，格拉尼特先生给我们讲了很多关于行星和恒星的事情。 你知道金星是最热的行星吗？ 它可以达到900

degrees there! I hope they have a lot of swimming pools on Venus. Because when I get really hot, I want to jump in a pool.

度!我希望金星上有很多游泳池。 因为当我觉得很热的时候，我想跳进游泳池。

Did you know that a day on Jupiter is less than ten hours long? Did you know that astronauts are a little taller in space because there's no gravity to push their bones together? Did you know that the ancient Greeks called our galaxy the Milky Way because they thought it was made of drops of milk? Those Greeks were weird. "It takes eight minutes for the sun's light

你知道木星上的一天不到十个小时吗？ 你知道吗，宇航员在太空中会高一点，因为没有重力把他们的骨头挤在一起。 你知道吗，古希腊人把我们的星系叫做银河系，因为他们认为它是由牛奶滴成的。 那些希腊人很奇怪。“太阳光需要8分钟

to reach Earth," Mr. Granite told us. "So if the sun exploded right now, we would still have eight minutes to live." Emily jumped off her bike and started freaking out. "Eight minutes to live?" she yelled. "We've got to do something!" Then she went running out of the room. Emily is weird. "At night," Mr. Granite told us, "you can see over a thousand stars with your naked eye."* Everybody started giggling because Mr. Granite said the word "naked." Any time anybody says "naked," you have to giggle. That's the first rule of being a kid. "Now," Mr. Granite said, "let's learn about Uranus…." Everybody giggled again. It's hard to learn stuff when your teacher keeps saying

到达地球，”格拉尼特先生告诉我们。 “所以如果太阳现在爆炸，我们还能活8分钟。” 艾米丽从自行车上跳下来，开始抓狂。 “还有八分钟可活？”她喊道。 “我们必须做点什么！”然后她跑出了房间。 艾米丽很奇怪。“在晚上，”格拉尼特先生告诉我们，“你可以用肉眼看到一千多颗星星。”*大家开始咯咯笑，因为格拉尼特先生说了“裸体”这个词。 只要有人说“裸体”你就得傻笑。 这是当孩子的第一准则。 “现在，”格拉尼特先生说，“让我们来了解一下天王星....。” 大家又咯咯地笑了起来。当你的老师一直在说的时候，你很难学到东西

words like "naked" and "Uranus." After a while my legs started to feel tired. Riding a bike isn't nearly as much fun when you're just staying in one place and learning stuff. I started to pedal slower. That's when something weird happened. The lights went out. Suddenly, the class was dark. "EEEEEEEEKKKK!" screamed all the girls, as if they'd never been in the dark before. "Who turned out the lights?" Michael asked. "YOU did!" said Mr. Granite. "You need to pedal faster!" We all started pedaling faster, and the lights went back on. "Keep pedaling!" shouted Mr. Granite. I thought I was gonna die!

比如“裸体”和“天王星” 过了一会儿，我的腿开始觉得累了。 当你只是呆在一个地方学习东西时，骑自行车就没有那么有趣了。 我开始放慢脚步。 就在这时，奇怪的事情发生了。 灯灭了。突然间，教室里一片漆黑。 “吱——吱——吱！”所有的女孩都尖叫起来，好像她们从来没有在黑暗中待过一样。 “谁把灯关了？”迈克尔问道。 “是你！”格拉尼特先生说。 “你得踩快点！”我们都开始加速蹬车，灯又亮了。 “继续踩！”格拉尼特先生喊道。 我以为我要死了！