5. International Day

5 International Day "Happy International Day!" Mrs. Barr said when I came to class the next morning. She was wearing the mask I made. "What's International Day?" I asked. "Each of you is going to choose a country," said Mrs. Barr. "Any country in the world. You'll spend the morning

“国际日快乐！”第二天早上我来上课时，巴尔夫人说。 她戴着我做的面具。 “什么是国际日？”我问。 “你们每个人都要选择一个国家，”巴尔说。 “世界上任何一个国家。 你会花一上午的时间

learning about your country online. Then you'll give a short presentation to the class, as if you were the leader of that country. Doesn't that sound like fun?" "Yes!" said all the girls. "No!" said all the boys. "I think it's a great idea!" said Mr. Cooper. "The kids will learn a lot, plus they can practice their research and public-speaking skills." It sounded like a horrible idea to me. Learning? Research? Public speaking? I thought I was gonna die. Andrea was so excited, she could barely stay in her seat. "My country is going to be—" But Andrea didn't have the chance to finish her sentence. "Shhhhhh!" said Mrs. Barr. "Don't tell us the name of your country until it's time for your presentation. Let's make it a surprise."

在网上了解你的国家。 然后你要给全班做一个简短的演讲，就好像你是那个国家的领导人。 听起来是不是很有趣？”“是的！”所有的女孩都说。 “不！”所有的男孩都说。“我觉得这是个好主意！”库珀先生说。 “孩子们会学到很多东西，而且他们可以锻炼自己的研究和公开演讲技巧。” 我觉得这主意太糟糕了。 学习吗?研究呢?公众演讲吗? 我以为我要死了。 安德里亚太兴奋了，她几乎不能呆在座位上。 “我的国家将成为——”但是安德里亚没有机会把话说完。 “嘘！”巴尔太太说。 “不要告诉我们你的国家的名字，直到你做报告的时候。 让我们制造一个惊喜吧。”

"I love surprises!" said Andrea. "Me too!" said Emily. We walked a million hundred miles to the computer lab, where there was a computer set up for each of us. Mrs. Barr passed out pads and pencils so we could take notes about our country. Andrea got permission to use her smartphone, because she has to be a big show-off all the time. "What should we look up?" asked Ryan. "Search for interesting facts about your country," said Mrs. Barr. "Where is it located? What do the people wear? What do they eat? What language to they speak? Things like that." Everybody started looking stuff up. Well, everybody but me. I couldn't think of a country I wanted to learn about. Ryan was sitting next to me. I leaned over to see what country he chose.

“我喜欢惊喜！”安德烈说。 “我也是！”爱米丽说。我们走了一百多万英里来到计算机实验室，那里为我们每个人都准备了一台电脑。 巴尔夫人分发了便笺簿和铅笔，以便我们记关于我们国家的笔记。 安德里亚获准使用她的智能手机，因为她必须一直炫耀自己。 “我们应该查什么？”瑞恩问。 “搜索关于你的国家的有趣事实，”巴尔夫人说。 “它在哪里？”人们穿什么？ 他们吃什么？他们说什么语言？ 诸如此类的事情。”大家都开始查资料。 嗯，除了我，所有人都喜欢。我想不出一个我想了解的国家。 瑞安坐在我旁边。 我俯身想看看他选择了哪个国家。

"No peeking at other people's computers," said Mrs. Barr. "We want it to be a surprise when you give your presentation." I was bored. I looked up a bunch of stuff about football. Did you know that a guy with only half a foot once kicked a sixty-three-yard field goal? It's true! Go ahead, look it up if you don't believe me. "Isn't this wonderful?" Mrs. Barr said as we were all looking up stuff. "Maybe someday all the nations of the world will work together like this so people can live in peace and harmony." Everybody worked hard all the way to lunchtime. Well, everybody except me. But I learned a lot about football. After lunch, we went back to Mr. Cooper's class.

“不许偷看别人的电脑，”巴尔夫人说。 “我们希望你做报告的时候能给人一个惊喜。” 我很无聊。我查了很多关于足球的资料。 你知道吗，一个只有半只脚的家伙曾经踢出了63码的射门？ 这是真的!如果你不相信我，可以去查一下。 “这不是很奇妙吗？”巴尔太太说，我们都在找东西。 “也许有一天，世界上所有的国家都能像这样共同努力，这样人们就能生活在和平与和谐中。” 大家一直努力工作到午餐时间。 嗯，除了我，所有人都喜欢。 但是我学到了很多关于足球的知识。 午饭后，我们回到库珀先生的教室。

"Okay, who wants to give the first International Day presentation?" asked Mrs. Barr. "I do!" shouted Andrea, of course. "Go ahead, Andrea."

“好吧，谁想做第一个国际日的演讲？”巴尔夫人问。 “我知道！”安德烈当然喊道。 “说吧，安德里亚。”

Andrea rushed up to the front of the room with her notes. She couldn't wait to show how smart she was. "I am the queen of Norway," Andrea said. "My country is in northern Europe. It's a little bigger than New Mexico. We are one of the largest seafood producers in the world." Why is everybody always talking about fish? "More than five million people live in my country," Andrea continued. "We speak Norwegian and we have twenty-nine letters in our alphabet. Our capital city is Oslo. Our national animal is the moose, and blah blah blah blah...." What a snoozefest. They shouldn't call that country Norway. They should call it Boreway! Andrea went on for a million hundred minutes. I wasn't really listening. I just wanted Andrea to keep talking until dismissal so I wouldn't have

安德里亚拿着笔记冲到教室前面。 她迫不及待地想展示她有多聪明。 “我是挪威女王，”安德里亚说。 “我的国家在北欧。 比新墨西哥州大一点。 我们是世界上最大的海鲜生产商之一。” 为什么每个人都在谈论鱼？ “我的国家有五百多万人，”安德里亚继续说道。 “我们说挪威语，我们的字母表中有29个字母。 我们的首都是奥斯陆。我们的国兽是驼鹿，等等等等....” 真是个懒虫。他们不应该称那个国家为挪威。 他们应该叫它Boreway！安德里亚滔滔不绝地讲了一百多分钟。 我根本没在听。 我只是想让安德里亚一直说到下课，这样我就不会