3 THE SPECIAL EXPERIMENT

THE SPECIAL EXPERIMENT

特殊实验

"What do you want?" Bean said to her mother. "Excuse me?" said her mother. That meant that Bean had been rude and she'd better shape up quick. "Sorry. What?" "Well!" Her mother smiled brightly. "Today we're going to try a special experiment, and I want you to be on your best behavior." Best behavior? It was Saturday! Bean looked carefully at her mother. She was wearing lipstick. "Where are you going?" Bean asked. "Daddy and I are going to a play—" "Can I come?" Bean always asked that, even if she didn't really want to go. "No. It's for grown-ups," said her mom. "Is Leona babysitting?" Bean liked Leona. She had long black hair, and she could draw perfect horses.

“你想要什么？”豆子对妈妈说。 “你说什么？”她妈妈说。 这意味着比恩无礼了，她最好赶快改正。 “对不起。什么?”“好吧!”她妈妈灿烂地笑了。 “今天我们要做一个特殊的实验，我希望你们表现得最好。” 最好的行为吗?那是星期六！比恩仔细地看着她的妈妈。 她涂了口红。“你要去哪儿？”豆问道。 “爸爸和我要去看戏——”“我能去吗？”比恩总是问这个问题，即使她不是真的想去。 “没有。这是给成年人看的，”她妈妈说。 “利昂娜在照看孩子吗？”比恩喜欢利昂娜。 她有一头长长的黑发，能画出完美的马。

"No." Bean's mom sighed. "Leona has poison oak. That's the reason for the special experiment." Bean wasn't liking the sound of this. Grownups used the word special when they really meant weird. "Did you know that I was eleven years old when I started babysitting?" her mom asked. "No." Uh-oh. Was she about to get a new babysitter? "Well, I was," her mother went on. "And now that Nancy's eleven, we've decided to let her take care of you for the afternoon." "What?!" yelped Bean. Nancy was her new babysitter?

“没有。”比恩的妈妈叹了口气。“利昂娜得了毒橡树病。 这就是我们做这个特殊实验的原因。” 比恩不喜欢听这个。 大人们用“特别”这个词其实是想表达“奇怪”。 “你知道我11岁就开始当保姆了吗？”妈妈问。 “没有。”哦。她要找新保姆了吗？ “嗯，是的，”她母亲接着说。 “现在南希十一岁了，我们决定让她今天下午照顾你。” “什么？！”比恩大叫。南希是她的新保姆？

"And you'll behave just like you'd behave for any other babysitter," said her father, popping into the room. His hair was wet. "Which means nicely," said her mother. "Calmly." "You're going to let Nancy babysit me?" yelled Bean. "She'll kill me!" "She won't kill you." "She'll tie me up and stuff me in the attic!" hollered Bean. "She's not going to tie you up and stuff you in the attic," said her father.

“你的表现就像对待其他保姆一样，”她父亲突然走进房间说。 他的头发是湿的。“这意味着很好，”她的母亲说。 “平静”。“你要让南希照顾我？”比恩喊道。 “她会杀了我的！”“她不会杀你的。” “她会把我绑起来塞进阁楼的！”比恩吼道。 “她不会把你绑起来塞进阁楼的，”她父亲说。

"We don't have an attic," said her mother. "We have a crawl space." "She won't give me anything to eat! I'll starve!" Bean couldn't stop yelling. "We're only going to be gone a few hours. We'll be home for dinner. You won't starve," said her father. Bean looked from her mom to her dad. They looked back at her. They had already decided, and they weren't going to change their minds. They

“我们没有阁楼，”她妈妈说。 “我们有一个爬行空间。”“她不给我吃的！”我要饿死了。”比恩无法停止叫喊。 “我们只离开几个小时。 我们会回家吃晚饭。你不会饿死的，”她父亲说。 比恩看看妈妈，又看看爸爸。 他们回头看着她。他们已经决定了，他们不会改变主意。 他们

were really going to leave her with Nancy. Bean had no choice. "Can I go back to Sophie's, at least?" she asked. "No," said her mom. "That's the other thing, honey. We want you to stay at home this afternoon. Inside the house, where Nancy can keep an eye on you. Just to be on the safe side." This was getting worse and worse. Bean pressed her hands against her cheeks and rolled her eyes back in her head. She opened her mouth as wide as it would go. "Bean! Stop that!" said her mother. Bean stopped it. "Mom," she said, trying to sound calm and nice. "Do you realize that we built a volcano in Sophie W.'s yard? Do you realize that everybody in the whole entire world is down there except me? And it's erupting? And it was my idea?" "You can call Ivy and ask her to come over if you want," said her mother. "No, I can't, because she's playing at Sophie's," said Bean grumpily. "Along with everybody else in the whole entire world."

我们真的要把她留给南希。 比恩别无选择。“至少我能回索菲家去吗？”她问。 “不，”她妈妈说。“这是另一件事，亲爱的。 我们希望你今天下午呆在家里。 在房子里，南希可以看着你。 为了安全起见。” 情况越来越糟。 比恩用双手捂住脸颊，把眼睛转到脑后。 她把嘴张得大大的。 “豆!别这样！”她妈妈说。 比恩阻止了它。“妈妈，”她说，努力让自己听起来平静而友善。 “你知道我们在苏菲？ W ？的院子吗? 你知不知道除了我，全世界的人都在下面？ 它正在喷发？这是我的主意吗？”“如果你愿意的话，你可以打电话给艾薇，叫她过来，”她妈妈说。 “不行，我不能去，因为她在苏菲家玩。”比恩生气地说。 “和世界上所有的人一起。”