奥风互动阅读-The Creature in the Bush（草从里的生物） (3/226)

       本文是一篇比较简单的英语故事，其不同之处在于文章后附加了几个问题，可以与读者进行互动，以达到培养、锻炼并促进学习者用英语思维的目的。读者可以直接将问题复制，然后在评论栏内进行解答，这也可以看作是利用博客学英语的一种新尝试吧。大家完成后可以在评论中将您的感想和反馈与答案同时留下。顺便提醒一下，虽然问题看起来比较简单，但要回答好也并不是那么容易。 最重要的是，它对促进英语理解能力、英语思维的培养极为有益，还等什么，快来一试身手吧！

           One afternoon, Taiwo went to the bush to hunt for palm nuts. But she was not alone, for Kehinde, her twin brother, went with her.

      They frisked through the bush as free as young goats, Taiwo this way, Kehinde that way, calling out to each other as they went. Each claimed boastfully to have found more nuts than the other. The bush was so shady and pleasantly cool.

      Suddenly Taiwo heard a loud rustling sound. Some big creature was pushing through the bush. It sounded very close.

      Taiwo stiffened. Still as a stone, she listened. What could it be? Goats and sheep did not wander so far from village. It sounded too big to be a rat or rabbit or bird.

      Then she heard a cry, a strange scolding cry, coming from the same direction as the rustling. Taiwo remembered the fearful tales she had heard about the bush.

     "Kehinde!" she called. "KEHINDE!"

    Hehinde was searching around a palm tree not far from Taiwo's. At the sound of Taiwo's cry, he ran quickly to see what the trouble could be.

    "Listen, Kehinde!" Taiwo's voice was all trembly. "Do you hear it?'

    Kehinde listened. He too heard the loud rustling. He too heard the scolding cry. But the cry did not sound strange to Kehinde. In fact, it sounded very familiar.

    "That is very odd," Kehinde answered, looking quite puzzled. "Surely it sounds exactly like the Bale's turkey. But how would the turkey come to be here in the bush?'

    Taiwo did not answer. If it was indeed a turkey, how silly Kehinde would think her if he knew how frightened she had been.

    Kehinde pushed through the bush toward the noise. "It is the turkey!" he shouted back. "It ahs broken its string again. Come, help me catch it!"

    Taiwo ran toward her brother's voice. And there indeed was the turky, flapping through the bush with the end of string of dangling behind it. Kehinde was thrashing and crashing after it.

    "Come!" he called again. "Help me catch it!"

    The twins chased and chased, but they wer no match for that turkey. Their crashing and thrashing frightened it and made it quite frantic. They could not get close, for when they did, the turkey rose from the ground and flapped away out of reach. Soon they were stinging with countless scratches and puffing for breath, and still no closer to catching the turky.

    "Wait! Let us stop a bit," Taiwo puffed. "I just can not run any more."

   "Oh, no," Kehinde protested. "If we stop, then he will run away!"

   Taiwo dropped to the ground. "Run away!" she exclaimed, leaning her back against a tree trunk and trying to catching her breath. "Run away! What is he doing now? Sleeping?" Taiwo shook her head. "We will have to think of a better way to catch him. We are just frightening him and tiring ourselves."

    Kehinde shrugged his shoulders and dropped down beside Taiwo. He was quite as breathless as she. It did feel good to sit back against the tree. It was so pleasant and quiet. Very quiet.

   Each of the twins realized the same thing at the same time. The turkey was not longer flapping about. When they had stoped chasing, he had stopped fleeing. He was probably as tired as they were. And hungry too. They could hear him scratching about in the bush nearby.

    Thinking of the turkey's hunger reminded Kehinde that he was hungry too. "I wish I were a turkey and could scratch for my food," he said. "How I would like something to eat now!"

    "My head is surely empty today," Taiwo said. "I brought some eko for us to eat and forgot all about it."

    Taiwo pulled the leaf-wrapped packets from their hiding place in her wrapper. Kehinde reached eagerly for his. Already he could taste the smmoth corn porridge sliding over his tongue and into his empty stomach.

    But, just as Taiwo was handing the packet of eko to Kehinde, the idea came to her. Of course! This was the way! In Taiwo's excitement, the words came sputtering out.

   "Listen, Kehinde! We must not eat it! We must not eat the eko! We can use it for bait. For turky bait. I have a plan that..."

    "Not eat it!" Kehinde protested, the tempting green packet practically in his hands. "Turky bait? Whatever are you raving about?"

    "It is such a good plan. Just listen. You will see."

    Kehinde looked very doubtful, but he listened nonetheless.

    Taiwo explained her pland carefully. "When we ran after the turky and made much noise, he just got frightened and ran away. But if we go slowly and quietly, perhaps we can make him come after us instead of us going after him. This is what we must do..."

    The more Kehinde listened, the less doubtful he looked, It did sound like a very good plan.

    Kehinde stayed where he was, crouched very still near the trunk of the tree.

    Taiwo crept quietly toward the turkey. She moverd slowly and cautiously, careful not to let twigs snap or braches slap. At last only a small shrub was between her and the great black bird. She could almost reach out and touch him.

    Her fingers broke off a small bit of the pasty corn porridge. Slowly, careful not to rustle the bush by her movement, she threw the small ball of corn pooridge toward the bird. The eko landed near the turkey's head.

    Peck! Peck! With a pick and a peck and a shake of his head, the turkey gobbled up the eko. Then he scratched eagerly about, turning his head this way and that, seacrching for more of this treat.

    Quickly Taiwo broke off another piece of eko and threw it to the turkey. Again the gobbler gobbled it up and hunted about for more. Taiwo threw the thired piece, but so gently that it landed quite close to her feet. The bird pushed eagerly through the brush to get it.

    Taiwo moved slowly away from him, back toward the tree where her brother was crouching. Every few steps she dropped a small piece of eko to the ground.

    The turkey followed the trail of eko. He came nearer and nearer to Taiwo. The string dangled from his leg so temptingly! Taiwo could have bent down and grabbled it so easily! But she knew that thi would not do. The turkey would only pull away.

   The first of eko was almost finished. Thank goodness! Here was the tree where Kehinde waited. Taiwo stopped. She crumbled the last of the eko and dropped the crumbs in a small heap near the base of the tree.

    Such a feast! The great bird pecked and swalloed, pecked and swallowed. Here a crumb, there a crumb, everywhere crumbs. The turkey paid no attention to Taiwo, standing there so still. He did not notice Kehinde reach out quietly from behind the tree and take hold of the eand of the dangling string.

    Now it was Kehinde's turn to move quietly and cautiously. He pulled the string gently toward him--very gently. He must be sure not to tug on it or he would alarm the bird. Now! He had hold of enough string. Quickly Kehinde wrapped the string around the trunk of a small sturdy sapling that grew beside the big tree. Once around. Twice around. Quickly he tied the string with the tightest knots he could. At last! The turky was their prisoner.

     Some villagers, out searching for the turkey, helped the twins return it to the Bale, the chief of the village. He was so pleased, he rewarded Taiwo and Kehinde for their good work.

-----Letta Schatz

Questions for you:

1. How well do you think the twins get along with one another? Which sentences in the story make you think so?

Your answer:

2. Why do you suppose the twins bothered to catch the turkey instead of letting it go? How would you think the bird got into the bush in the first place?

My answer:

3. When Taiwo said, "My head is surely empty today," what do you think she meant? Think of other ways to express the same idea.

My answer:

4. What does eko look like? What is it made of? How do you think eko would taste? Try to describe it with the help of the above three questions.

My answer:

5. "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." How does this saying apply to the twins? What could have been wrong with their first plan? Why did they finally succeed?

My answer:

6. What words, phrases or sentences in the article do you think are most helpful to you? List and memorize them.

My answer: