6 IVYBEANOSAUR

IVYBEANOSAUR They dug for half an hour without finding any more bones. Bean was on the edge of giving up. She figured that one bone was a lot more than most people found. But then she thought of Mary Anning chip, chip, chipping for a year. She didn't want to be wimpier than Mary Anning. Or Ivy. So she dug and dug. Ivy's nose was running, and she had mud all over her. Also, her feet had gone to sleep from being kneeled on. But she didn't give up either. She combed through each new load of dirt with her fingers, feeling for bones. She found a lot of rocks. She found a marble. She found a piece of blue plastic. Then her fingers, burrowing into the mud like worms, plucked out another bone. This one was shorter and thicker, but it was

他们挖了半个小时，没有发现任何骨头。 比恩几乎要放弃了。 她认为一根骨头比大多数人发现的要多得多。 但她又想起了玛丽·安宁，一分一分地过了一年。 她不想比玛丽·安宁更懦弱。 或者常春藤。于是她挖啊挖。 艾薇流着鼻涕，浑身都是泥。 而且，她的脚也因为被跪着而麻木了。 但她也没有放弃。 她用手指梳理着每一堆新的泥土，寻找骨头。 她发现了很多石头。她发现了一个弹珠。 她发现了一块蓝色的塑料。 然后她的手指像蠕虫一样在泥里挖洞，又拔出了一根骨头。 这条更短更厚，但它确实是

definitely a bone. "I got another one!" she called. Bean dropped down beside her and looked at the gray brown lump. "We rock" she said., "No. We fossil," giggled Ivy. She dusted the bone carefully and put it next to the first one. "We can put them together later," she said. "How do you put them together if you don't know which dinosaur it is?" asked Bean. "It's like a puzzle, I think. You look for pieces that fit together," said Ivy. "We can look in dinosaur books, too, so it's a lot easier for us than for Mary Anning. She didn't have any pictures to look at. But," she remembered, "Mary Anning found the whole ichthyosaur, so she didn't need to put it together." "It's sort of cheating to find the whole thing," said Bean. "Oh man! Here's a big

绝对是骨头。“我又有一个！”她叫道。 比恩在她身边坐下，看着那个灰褐色的肿块。 “我们摇滚”她说。:“没有。我们是化石，”艾薇咯咯笑着说。 她小心地掸去骨头上的灰尘，把它放在第一块骨头旁边。 “我们稍后可以把它们放在一起，”她说。 “如果你不知道是哪只恐龙，你怎么把它们放在一起？”比恩问。 “我觉得这就像一个谜题。 你要寻找能组合在一起的部分，”艾薇说。 “我们也可以看恐龙的书，所以对我们来说比玛丽·安宁容易得多。 她没有任何照片可以看。 但是，”她回忆道，“玛丽·安宁发现了整个鱼龙，所以她不需要把它拼在一起。” 比恩说：“找到所有的东西有点像作弊。” “哦!这是一个大的

one!" She fished around in the dirt and pulled out a thick, heavy bone. It was a very serious-looking bone. Bean held it up. It reached from her hand to her elbow. She whistled. "This is no little, cute dinosaur. This is a big, scary dinosaur." "What if that's just its little finger?" said Ivy dreamily. "Monsterosaur!" said Bean. "IvyBeanosaur!" said Ivy. "You're supposed to name them after the person who discovered them."

一个!”她在泥土里捞了一圈，捞出一根又粗又重的骨头。 这是一块看起来很严肃的骨头。 比恩把它举起来。它从她的手一直延伸到她的肘部。 她吹口哨。“这可不是可爱的小恐龙。 这是一只又大又吓人的恐龙。” “如果那只是它的小指呢？”艾薇如梦似地说。 “怪物龙！”比恩说。 “艾薇豆龙！”艾薇说。“你应该以发现它们的人的名字来命名。”

Bean giggled. Then her shovel hit something hard. Another bone appeared, this one smooth and rounded. "Whoa, Nellie!" cried Bean. "I think I got a piece of its skull!" A few minutes later, Bean found another small bone. Ivy found two more—one big, the other medium. There was no doubt about it: The backyard had been swarming with dinosaurs. "You know," Ivy said, holding up her ninth bone. (They didn't even call out when they found them now.) "Mary Anning was twelve when she found her ichthyosaur. We're only seven. We're probably the youngest paleontologists in the world." Bean stopped digging and leaned on her shovel. The youngest paleontologists in the world? "Ivy, you know what that means?" "Huh?"

豆咯咯笑了。然后她的铲子碰到了什么硬物。 另一块骨头出现了，这块骨头光滑而圆润。 “哇，内莉！”比恩叫道。 “我想我找到了一块它的头骨！”几分钟后，比恩发现了另一根小骨头。 艾薇又找到了两棵——一棵大的，一棵中号的。 这是毫无疑问的：后院到处都是恐龙。 “你知道，”艾薇说，举起她的第九根骨头。 （现在他们找到他们的时候甚至都不叫一声。）玛丽·安宁12岁时发现了她的鱼龙。 我们只有七个人。我们可能是世界上最年轻的古生物学家。” 比恩停止了挖掘，倚在她的铲子上。 世界上最年轻的古生物学家？ “艾薇，你知道这意味着什么吗？”“嗯?”

"It means we're record breakers!" Ivy stopped rubbing dirt. She and Bean grinned at each other. "Youngest paleontologists in the world," said Ivy. "That's way better than spoons." By the time Ivy had to go home, the girls had found 17 bones. They were all different sizes, but they were clearly from the same dinosaur because they were all the same shade of grayish brown.

“这意味着我们要打破记录了！”艾薇不再擦土了。 她和比恩相视而笑。 “世界上最年轻的古生物学家，”艾薇说。 “这比勺子好多了。” 当艾薇不得不回家时，女孩们已经找到了17块骨头。 它们的大小不同，但很明显它们来自同一只恐龙，因为它们都是同样深浅的灰褐色。

Bean's father called her in for dinner. Bean washed off most of the dirt and sat down at the dining room table. She smiled, thinking about the dinosaur skeleton she and Ivy were going to build. They were totally awesome. They would probably be on TV. Her parents would have to let her watch TV if she was on it. Bean noticed that Nancy was sneering at her. She was still mad about the octopus. "If I ever catch you looking atone of my glass animals again, you'll be sorry," Nancy hissed while their father served up their pasta. "What am I supposed to do—put a blindfold on when I go into your room?" "You're not supposed to go into my room," said Nancy. "Because it's my room. Daddy, can I get a lock on my door?"

比恩的父亲叫她来吃晚饭。 比恩洗掉了大部分的污垢，坐在餐桌旁。 她笑了，想着她和艾薇要做的恐龙骨架。 他们太棒了。 他们可能会出现在电视上。 如果她在看电视，她父母就得让她看。 比恩注意到南希在嘲笑她。 她还在为章鱼的事生气。 “如果我再看到你看我的玻璃动物，你会后悔的，”南希低声说，这时他们的父亲端上了他们的意大利面。 “我该怎么做——进你房间的时候戴上眼罩？”“你不应该进我的房间，”南希说。 “因为这是我的房间。爸爸，能给我的门上一把锁吗？”