9 THE POISON TIDE

CHAPTER 9 THE POISON TIDE Towering above the island was a tall, rugged mountain. Waterfalls cascaded from its ledges. Clumps of wildflowers rustled in the breeze. In places, the mountainside had crumbled, leaving behind sheer cliffs. A vulture emerged from a hollow in the cliffs. She stretched her wide wings and glided off to search for carcasses. Floating on the wind, she rose higher and higher, until she spotted something unusual. To the north, it looked like the ocean was gently shimmering in the sunlight. But the sky was full of clouds. That shimmering water could only mean one thing. "The poison tide is here!" screeched the vulture. Animals began hurrying to the northern slopes to see the poison tide for themselves. Reader, you and I might not have noticed that patch of gently shimmering water. But the animals noticed. After all, animals are incredibly sensitive to their environment. They can sense a storm long before it appears, and the poison tide was like an underwater storm, sweeping through the sea.

第九章毒潮在小岛的上方耸立着一座高大而崎岖的山。 瀑布从岩架上倾泻而下。 一丛丛野花在微风中沙沙作响。 在一些地方，山腰已经坍塌，留下了陡峭的悬崖。 一只秃鹫从悬崖的凹处钻了出来。 她展开宽大的翅膀，滑翔着去寻找尸体。 她在风中飘得越来越高，直到她发现了一些不寻常的东西。 往北看，大海似乎在阳光下微微闪烁。 但是天空布满了云。 那闪闪发光的水只能说明一件事。 “毒潮来了！”秃鹰尖声叫道。 动物们纷纷跑到北坡去亲眼看看毒潮。 读者们，你和我可能都没有注意到那片微微闪烁的水面。 但是动物们注意到了。毕竟，动物对环境非常敏感。 他们能在风暴出现之前就察觉到，毒潮就像一场水下风暴，席卷着大海。

Below the northern slopes, Roz was still hard at work in the shallows. She had spent the whole night out there, trying to help every coastal creature get to safety. But she was running out of time. The robot plucked sea stars and sea urchins and sea snails from the water and dropped them into rock pools along the shore. Then she waded back into the shallows to search for more. Behind her, the crowd of island animals started shouting. "I can see the poison tide!" "Yes, there it is!"

在北坡下面，罗兹仍在浅滩上努力工作。 她整个晚上都在那里，试图帮助每一个海岸生物安全。 但她的时间不多了。 机器人从水里捞出海星、海胆和海螺，把它们扔进岸边的岩石池里。 然后她涉水回到浅滩去寻找更多的鱼。 在她身后，岛上的一群动物开始大喊大叫。 “我看到毒潮了！”“是的，在那儿！”

"It's gotten so close!" The robot's computer brain contained thousands of different programs, and the most important were her Survival Instincts. When a wave of poison tide came rolling to shore, her Survival Instincts blared in her head, urging her to get out of the water. But then she heard something else. Frightened squeaks. In all the confusion, an otter pup had climbed onto a small rock that stood up from the shallows. Now the pup was frozen with fear as the wave of poison tide tumbled toward him. Roz charged over to the young otter as fast as she could go, but beneath the surface the seabed was covered in slick stones, and she kept sliding and stumbling and slipping! Nervous voices hollered down from the hills. "The poison tide is right there!" "Hurry up, Roz!" "Go, Mama! Go!" Just before the wave reached the otter, Roz grabbed him and leaped away with all her strength. They arced up from the shallows, over a rocky cove, and landed on the shore. The otter pup ran to his parents. Everyone was happy to see the otter family reunited. But their happiness didn't last long. Because when the crowd turned back to the ocean, they saw that the poison tide was spreading through the water and slowly

“太接近了！”机器人的计算机大脑包含数千个不同的程序，最重要的是她的生存本能。 当一波毒潮涌向岸边时，她的生存本能在她的脑海里咆哮，催促她离开水。 但接着她又听到了别的声音。 惊恐的尖叫声。在一片混乱中，一只小水獭爬上了浅滩上的一块小岩石。 现在，这只小狗吓得僵住了，因为这一波毒潮向他涌来。 罗兹以最快的速度向小水獭冲过去，但在海面下，海床上覆盖着光滑的石头，她一直在滑，绊倒，滑倒！山上传来紧张的喊叫。 “毒潮就在那儿！”“快点，罗兹！”“去,妈妈!去吧!”就在波浪到达水獭之前，罗兹抓住他，用尽全身力气跳开了。 他们从浅滩上划起弧线，越过一个多岩石的海湾，降落在岸边。 小水獭跑向他的父母。 每个人都很高兴看到水獭家庭团聚。 但他们的幸福并没有持续多久。 因为当人群转回大海时，他们看到毒潮正在海水中慢慢蔓延

surrounding the island.

环绕着岛屿。