Chapter 2

2 "Glad to see you all having fun," said Mr. Eng. The trio looked up. Their teacher stood above them with a smile on his face and a pencil behind his ear. He was holding a stack of black papers. "I wish the sun would hurry up and set," said Pablo. Mr. Eng laughed. "Don't worry. Just a few more moments and we should be able to see the meteor shower."

“很高兴看到你们都玩得开心，”英先生说。 三人抬起头来。他们的老师站在他们上面，脸上带着微笑，耳后夹着一支铅笔。 他手里拿着一叠黑纸。 “我希望太阳快点落下，”巴勃罗说。 伍启芳笑了。“别担心。 再过一会儿，我们就能看到流星雨了。”

"What are those, Mr. Eng?" Violet pointed to the papers he was holding. "These are worksheets about the different objects that exist in our solar system," he replied. "Like planets!" said Deepak. "And comets!" added Pablo. "Exactly," replied Mr. Eng. "But we won't be able to read those in the dark!" said Violet. Mr. Eng smiled again and took the stack of papers from under his arm. Green letters glimmered on each sheet. "Whoa!" said Pablo, Violet, and Deepak. "I wish all my homework glowed in the dark!" said Pablo, holding the paper up close to his face. "I'm going to hand the rest of them out to the other students and families." Mr. Eng turned and walked toward a group of parents. Pablo, Violet, and Deepak read aloud together:

“那些是什么，英格先生？”维奥莱特指着他手里的文件。 “这些是关于我们太阳系中存在的不同物体的工作表，”他回答说。 “像行星一样！” “还有彗星！”巴勃罗补充道。 “没错，”伍启芳回答。 “可是我们在黑暗中看不清啊！”维奥莱特说。 伍启芳又笑了笑，从腋下拿起那叠文件。 每张纸上都闪烁着绿色的字母。 “哇！”巴勃罗、维奥莱特和迪帕克说。 “我希望我所有的作业都能在黑暗中发光！”巴勃罗说着，把作业凑近脸。 “我要把剩下的发给其他学生和家庭。” 伍启芳转身走向一群家长。 巴勃罗、维奥莱特和迪帕克一起大声朗读：

A Space Case: Name That Object Our solar system is made up of the sun and everything that travels around it. But what exactly is in our solar system? The sun is in the center. It's the biggest object you'll find! Planets are the next largest object in our solar system. They usually have at least one moon. Asteroids are small chunks of metal and rock. A comet is a chunk of dust and ice. There are billions of comets in our solar system. A meteoroid is a small piece of comet or asteroid. We call it a meteor when it gets close enough to Earth to burn up. If a meteor lands on Earth, it's called a meteorite. Violet bit her lip. "Dust and ice…" She re-read the sentence. "That sounds like a dirty snowball." Pablo and Deepak laughed. "I didn't know meteors came from asteroids," said Pablo.

我们的太阳系是由太阳和围绕它运行的一切组成的。 但太阳系里到底有什么呢？ 太阳在中心。这是你能找到的最大的物体！行星是太阳系中第二大的物体。 它们通常至少有一个月亮。 小行星是金属和岩石的小块。 彗星是一大块尘埃和冰。 太阳系中有数十亿颗彗星。 流星体是彗星或小行星的一小块。 当它靠近地球燃烧时，我们称之为流星。 如果一颗流星落在地球上，它就被称为陨石。 维奥莱特咬着嘴唇。“灰尘和冰……”她又读了一遍。 “听起来像一个脏雪球。” 巴勃罗和迪帕克笑了。“我不知道流星来自小行星，”巴勃罗说。

"Really?" asked Deepak. He tugged his ear. "I knew that." Pablo scratched his cheek. "Well, I mean…," he began. His face turned a little pink. He had been reading about meteors all week. How did I forget that? he wondered. Out of nowhere, a gust of wind blew through the meadow. The trio gripped their worksheets. As the wind settled, they could see a stray black sheet of paper flipping through the air. It landed in the grass.

“真的吗？”迪帕克问。他拽了拽耳朵。 “我知道。”巴勃罗挠了挠脸颊。 “嗯，我是说……”他开始说。 他的脸有点发红。 他整个星期都在看关于流星的书。 我怎么会忘了呢？他想知道。 不知从哪里刮来一阵风，吹过了草地。 三个人紧紧抓住他们的作业单。 风停了下来，他们看到一张黑色的纸片在空中翻动。 它落在草地上。

"I better go get that," said Pablo, standing up. He hurried over toward the piece of paper. But it wasn't a worksheet. Pablo held the black paper with glowing green words. "It's a riddle!" Violet and Deepak ran over. "Does this mean we get to go back to the Maker Maze?" Deepak said, staring at the shimmering sheet. "Oh yeah," said Violet with a wide smile. The light from the riddle made her kinky hair glow like a crown in the dark. The Maker Maze was a magical laboratory that Pablo, Violet, and Deepak discovered earlier in the school year. It had everything from robots and lasers to microscopes and zero gravity chambers. And to get there, they needed to solve a riddle like this one. The trio wiggled with excitement as they read carefully:

“我最好去拿，”巴勃罗说着站了起来。 他急忙向那张纸走去。 但它不是一个工作表。 巴勃罗拿着那张写着绿色发光字的黑纸。 “这是个谜语！”维奥莱特和迪帕克跑了过来。 “这是否意味着我们可以回到创客迷宫？”迪帕克盯着闪闪发光的床单说。 “哦，是的。”维奥莱特笑着说。 谜语发出的光使她卷曲的头发在黑暗中像皇冠一样发光。 创客迷宫是巴勃罗、维奥莱特和迪帕克在本学年早些时候发现的一个神奇实验室。 从机器人、激光到显微镜和零重力室，它应有尽有。 为了到达那里，他们需要解开一个像这样的谜题。 三人仔细地读着，兴奋地扭动着身体：

M M ONE, TWO, TWO AND A HALF, THREE! HOW MANY SPACE OBUECTS CAN YOU SEE? LOOK, OVER THERE! SEE THAT TRAIL OF ICE AND DUST? THAT MEANS A JUST PASSED BY; OH YES, IT DOES! AND LOOK AT THAT ROUND RED WITH ITS TINY LITTLE MOONS. I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED IF ASTRONAUTS LAND ON IT SOON. OH JEEZ! WATCH OUT! HURRY AND DUCK! OTHERWISE, YOU'LL BE IN FOR A SHOCK. A HUGE- IS COMING, AND IT'S MADE OF METAL AND ROCK! SOLVE THIS RIDDLE TO ENTER THE MAKER MAZE. "The first one has to be comet," said Violet. "And the next one is definitely planet. It's probably Mars!" added Deepak. "Which means the last one is meteoroid!" shouted Pablo.

一，二，二又半，三！你能看到多少太空物体？ 看，那边！看到那冰和灰尘的痕迹了吗？ 那意味着刚刚经过；哦，是的，确实如此！看那个红色的圆月亮。 如果宇航员很快登陆火星，我不会感到惊讶。 噢,天哪!小心!快躲！否则，你会大吃一惊的。 一个巨大的——来了，它是由金属和岩石组成的！解开这个谜题，进入创客迷宫。 “第一颗必须是彗星，”维奥莱特说。 “下一个肯定是行星。 可能是火星！”迪帕克补充道。 “这意味着最后一个是流星体！”巴勃罗喊道。