38 Rockwell's Brilliant Idea

38 Rockwell's Brilliant Idea Peanut and Little-Bit stood at the edge of the ravine looking down at the remains of the bridge hanging next to the cliff face. "So what do we do now?" asked Little-Bit. "I'm not sure, LB. All I know is that Mrs M said that we've got to be at the lake before it gets dark." "So, about that door said Rockwell from behind them. He was still sitting in the snow. "Have either of you got any bright ideas as to how we can get down to the lake?" asked Peanut, peering over the edge. "Well, you could always just jump off the cliff," suggested Little-Bit cheerily. "Very funny."

38 罗克韦尔的绝妙点子 花生和小不点站在峡谷边，低头看着悬在崖壁上的断桥残迹。 “那我们现在怎么办呀？”小不点问道。 “我也没主意，小不点。 我只知道M夫人说，我们得在天黑前赶到湖边。” “对了，刚才说到那扇门——”罗克韦尔在她们身后开口说道。 他那会儿还坐在雪地上呢。 “你们俩有没有什么好点子，想想我们怎么才能下到湖边去？”花生趴在崖边边看边问。 “唔，你大可以直接跳悬崖呀。”小不点乐呵呵地出主意。 “真好笑啊你。”

Actually... that might just work," said Rockwell. There was a look of intense concentration on his face. Peanut frowned. "Well, there's no doubt that we'd get there quickly if we did that. It's just that we would be a bit too, y'know, dead. "Not necessarily." Rockwell stood up, strolled towards the sisters and looked over the edge. Then he licked his finger and looked up into the sky. He nodded. "Interesting. "What are you doing?" asked Peanut. I'm coming up with a brilliant idea," he said drily. "You could jump off of the cliff if you had the right equipment. "What. equipment? A parachute?" said Little-Bit. "There's not enough height for a parachute. Some sort of simple wing design would work, though. With something to hold on to suspended underneath it. "I don't understand," said Peanut. "Funnily enough, I was reading about thermodynamics last night and, apparently, if you are high up on a cliff edge, for example, holding an aerofoil, or a wing, above your head, and you run at about fifteen miles per hour, you'll get enough air moving over the upper surface of the wing to make the pressure above it drop considerably. This will generate the lift that will enable you to... take off. "You mean that you would fly?" "Well, you would glide, certainly. Once you were over the

“其实……这个办法说不定真能行。”罗克韦尔说。 他脸上露出了全神贯注的神情。 花生皱起了眉头。 “唔，要是我们真跳，倒是肯定能很快下去。 只不过啊，我们多半就，你懂的，没命了。” “那可不一定。” 罗克韦尔站起身，慢悠悠走到姐妹俩身边，朝崖下望去。 接着他舔了舔手指，又抬头看了看天。 他点了点头。 “有意思。 “你在做什么呀？”花生问。 “我正在想绝妙的点子呀。”他淡定地说。 “要是有合适的装备，就能从悬崖跳下去。 “什……什么装备？ 降落伞吗？”小不点说。 “这儿高度不够，降落伞用不了。 不过做个简单的机翼造型应该就能用。 机翼下面再拴个能抓握的地方站人。” “我听不懂哎。”花生说。 “说起来巧了，我昨晚刚读了热力学的书，书上说哦，如果你站在高高的悬崖边，头顶举着一个翼型也就是机翼，再以每小时十五英里的速度奔跑，就会有足够的气流从机翼上表面流过，让上方的气压大幅下降。 这样就能产生升力，让你……飞起来。 “你的意思是我们能飞？” “唔，至少肯定能滑翔啦。 等你越过

edge of the cliff and in the air, gravity would slowly pull you back to earth, but at the same time you would be propelled forward." He looked down at the lake. "In theory, you should be able to jump off the edge and steer yourself down. Peanut handed Rockwell the pencil. "Sounds brilliant. Show me what this wing looks like." But, I can't draw! I'm rubbish at art!" "Nonsense. Just imagine that you're drawing a diagram in your physics exercise book and that you're really trying to impress old Death Breath. Rockwell started drawing a shape in front of him. The line, as always, seemed to flow from the tip and hang, suspended in the air. "Whoa! This is so cool," he said. Peanut smiled. A few minutes later, Rockwell's diagram was finished. "There. What do you think?"

悬崖边缘飞到空中之后，重力会慢慢把你拉向地面，但同时你也会向前滑行。” 他低头看向湖面。 “理论上来说，你跳出悬崖后，就能操控着滑翔到下面。 花生把铅笔递给罗克韦尔。 “听起来太棒了。 给我画出来这个机翼长什么样吧。” 可是，我不会画画呀！ 我画画烂透了！” “瞎说什么。 你就当是在物理练习本上画示意图，要想办法让那个死神老讲师对你刮目相看就好了。 罗克韦尔开始在面前画起图形来。 线条一如既往地从笔尖流畅画出，轮廓就像悬在空中一样清晰。 “哇哦！ 这画得太酷啦！”他说。 花生笑了。 几分钟之后，罗克韦尔就画好示意图了。 “画好啦。 你觉得怎么样？”

"Not bad, for someone who can't draw. Not bad at all, said Peanut. "This one will be just perfect for me and Little-Bit. Now you need to draw another one for you and Doodle." "Me and Doodle? No way. I told you, I still want to go home. Oh, come on, Rockwell, we need you. I can't carry Doodle as well as LB. And anyway, don't you want to find out if your brilliant idea works?" "Yeah, come on, Rockwell. Don't be such a baby," said Little-Bit. Doodle wound himself in a figure of eight around Rockwell's legs. Rockwell shook his head. He knew when he was beaten. "Well, I guess I could stay a little longer. It would be kind of cool to test out my idea in a real-world environment. But just so you know, I still want to go home as soon as I can. OK?" "Whatever," said Peanut happily. "You draw, I'll get colouring.

“对于不会画画的人来说，不算差了。 真的一点都不差。”花生说。 “这一个给我和小不点用刚刚好。 现在你再给你和杜多画一个吧。” “我和杜多？ 不可能。 我跟你们说了，我还是想回家。 好啦好啦，罗克韦尔，我们需要你呀。 我没法一边带着小不点一边还扛杜多呀。 再说了，你难道不想看看你的好点子到底管不管用吗？” “对呀，快来吧，罗克韦尔。 别这么孩子气啦。”小不点说。 杜多扭成八字形缠在了罗克韦尔的腿上。 罗克韦尔摇了摇头。 他知道自己拗不过她们了。 “好吧，那我就再留一会儿。 在真实环境里测试我的点子，好像还挺酷的。 不过话说在前头，我还是想尽快回家的。 行吗？” “行啦行啦。”花生开心地说。 你画画，我来涂颜色。