41 THE SUMMER

CHAPTER 41 THE SUMMER On clear summer days, Roz and Brightbill and Chitchat liked to go exploring. They investigated the island's sandy southern point. They marveled at the rainbows that curved up from the waterfall. They surveyed the forest from the branches of tall trees. They met new friendly creatures, and sometimes they met new unfriendly creatures. But the only creatures they had to worry about were the bears. One time, they came upon a bear fishing in the river, and Roz whispered, "You know what to do." Brightbill flew up and away, Chitchat scurried home through the treetops, and Roz melted into the landscape as only she could. Later, they met back at the Nest and told the neighbors all about their brush with danger. On dreary summer days, they would stay inside. Roz asked Brightbill and Chitchat about dreaming and about flying and about eating and about all the

第四十一章夏天在晴朗的夏天，罗兹、布莱特比尔和奇查特喜欢去探险。 他们调查了该岛南部多沙的地方。 他们惊叹于瀑布上弯弯曲曲的彩虹。 他们从高大的树枝上俯瞰森林。 他们遇到了新的友好的生物，有时也遇到了新的不友好的生物。 但他们唯一需要担心的动物是熊。 有一次，他们遇到一只熊在河里钓鱼，罗兹低声说：“你知道该怎么做。” 布莱特比尔飞起来飞走了，闲聊穿过树梢急匆匆地赶回家，罗兹也像她一样融入了这片风景。 后来，他们回到“巢”，把他们与危险擦肩而过的事告诉了邻居们。 在沉闷的夏天，他们会呆在家里。 罗兹问布莱特比尔和奇查特关于做梦、飞行、吃饭和所有的事情

things they could do that she could not. But the youngsters had too much energy to sit still for very long. They spent one drizzly afternoon kicking acorns around the Nest. Chitchat piled them up, and then Brightbill swung his big foot and the acorns went flying. The little friends chased the acorns as they bounced and rolled and spun across the floor. Then they made a new pile and kicked them again. Sometimes an acorn would bounce off Roz's body—clang!—and everyone would laugh and giggle together. Even Roz laughed. "Ha ha haaa!" said the robot, trying to act natural. On clear summer evenings, they would sit outside and watch fireflies twinkling around the pond. Then they'd lie back and gaze up at the darkening sky. "That big circle is the moon," said Chitchat. "And those little lights are called stars and one time I tried to count them all but I can only count to ten so I just kept counting to ten over and over and I have no idea how many stars there are but I know it's more than ten." "They are not all stars," said Roz. "Some of them are planets." "What's a planet?" said Chitchat.

他们能做的事，她做不到。 但是这些年轻人精力充沛，不可能静坐太久。 他们花了一个下着毛毛雨的下午在鸟巢周围踢橡子。 闲聊把橡子堆了起来，然后布莱特比尔一挥他的大脚，橡子就飞了起来。 当橡子在地板上弹跳、翻滚、旋转时，小朋友们追逐着它们。 然后他们又堆了一堆，又踢了一脚。 有时一颗橡子会被罗兹的身体弹开！每个人都会一起笑，一起傻笑。 就连罗兹也笑了。“哈哈哈！”机器人说，试图表现得自然一些。 在晴朗的夏夜，他们会坐在外面，看萤火虫在池塘周围闪烁。 然后他们躺下来，凝视着逐渐变暗的天空。 “那个大圆圈是月亮，”闲聊说。 “那些小光被称为星星，有一次我试着把它们都数出来，但我只能数到十，所以我就一遍又一遍地数到十，我不知道有多少颗星星，但我知道不止十颗。” “他们并不都是明星，”罗兹说。 “其中一些是行星。” “什么是行星？”闲聊说。

"A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star." "What does 'celestial' mean?" "Celestial means something that is in outer space." "What's outer space?" "Outer space is the universe outside the atmosphere of our planet." "What's the universe?" "The universe is everything and everywhere." "Oh, so the universe is our island?" None of them would ever really understand the universe, including Roz. Her computer brain knew only so much. She could talk about the earth and the sun and the moon and the planets, and a few stars, and not much else. The night sky was full of streaking, shimmering, and blinking lights that she simply couldn't identify. Clearly, Roz was not designed to be an astronomer. On dreary summer evenings, Roz and Brightbill would curl up together, just the two of them, and listen to the rain pattering on the roof of the Nest. The robot would tell stories of annoying pinecones and terrible storms and camouflaged insects. But the sound of rain always made Brightbill sleepy, and he'd be out before his mother could ever finish a story.

行星是围绕恒星运行的天体。 “‘天上的’是什么意思？”“Celestial的意思是外太空的东西。” “什么是外太空？”“外太空是地球大气层之外的宇宙。” “宇宙是什么？”“宇宙就是一切，无处不在。” “哦，那么宇宙就是我们的岛了？”没有人能真正理解宇宙，包括罗兹。 她的电脑大脑只知道这么多。 她能讲地球、太阳、月亮和行星，还有几颗星星，别的就不多了。 夜空中到处都是她根本无法辨认的条纹、闪烁和闪烁的灯光。 很明显，Roz不是设计来做天文学家的。 在沉闷的夏日夜晚，罗兹和比尔会蜷缩在一起，就他们两个人，听着雨点打在鸟巢屋顶上的声音。 这个机器人会讲述恼人的松果、可怕的风暴和伪装的昆虫的故事。 但是雨声总是让布莱特比尔犯困，妈妈还没讲完故事，他就出去了。