“If I’m defective in one respect,” he said to himself, “I should try and develop myself along other lines.”

in one respect 和 along other lines 可以說是對應的，前者表示 “在某一個方面”，后者表示“多線發展，或者發展其他方面”

Louis liked company, and he already had many friends on the lakes.

company - 陪伴，伴侶；別一看到就覺得是“公司”

He liked to compete with other cygnets to see who could swim underwater the greatest distance and stay down the longest.

compete with - 和...競爭（比賽），

這里的 swim underwater 可以理解成我們游泳時候說的“扎猛子”，看誰在水底下游的遠，待的久。

When Louis had fully made up his mind about learning to read and write, he decided to visit Sam Beaver and get help from him.

make up ones mind = decide to do ...都是表示決定做某事

Next morning, when his parents were not looking, Louis took off into the air.

when his parents were not looking 這里可以理解成：當老爸老媽不注意的時候

Instead, he took to the air and circled around, flying low and looking carefully at every boy in sight.

take to the air - 飛上天

circle around - 盤旋

flying low - 低空飛行

looking carefully at - 仔細尋找

in sight - 視線以內 （every boy in sight - 視線中出現的每個小男孩）

After about ten minutes, he saw a ranch house where a boy was splitting wood near the kitchen door.

split wood - 劈柴火；在國外很多人家都是獨棟的房子，這些房子里一般會有個小壁爐，必然需要木頭。所以，想要點燃壁爐烤火，就要劈木頭。

這個2月在美國住的房子

在給大家看一個split wood的視頻，其實還真是不簡單：

當天我們就劈柴，然后在壁爐旁烤火

It’s just a question of getting my father’s permission.

get one's permission - 獲得某人的許可

In a few minutes Mr. Beaver rode into the yard on a cow pony.

大家還記得 cow pony這個詞嗎？這里我得向大家小小的道個歉，上次在我們沒有搞清楚之前就給了大家一個錯誤的答案。cow pony - a small, fast, agile horse trained for use by cowhands in herding cattle 所以，它其實還是馬，只是個頭不大，但是很壯碩也敏捷的一種用來放牧時候用的馬。

所以，大家遇到生單詞，不懂得，一定要查一查！！！

I think it’s against the law tohold one of these wild birds in captivity.

against the law- 違法

hold something/ someone in captivity -逮捕，關押或者監禁

But I’ll phone the game warden and see what he says.

game warden 大家來看兩張圖

其實就是一種警察，類似森林警察，漁牧巡警等一種職位

哈哈，我猜這一段是老爸編的：

The warden said he wouldn’t let just anybody have a young swan, but he’d let you have one because you understand about birds, and he trusts you. That’s quite a compliment, son.

警察說一般他們不會讓人養天鵝，但是像你這么喜愛鳥并且了解鳥的小朋友，他們就破例讓你養啦。真是了不起呀，孩子。

compliment - 贊揚，表揚，贊許

老爸做好人，老媽做壞人！媽媽就是不讓天鵝住在房間：

He’ll mess up the room. He’s no canary; he’s enormous. Put the bird out in the barn. He can sleep in one of the empty stalls; the horses won’t mind.

mess up -搞臟，搞亂

he's no canary, he is enormous - 他又不是小小的金絲雀，他長得也太大了

the empty stall - stall 在這里表示馬廄或者牛棚，其實stall還可以表示路邊的小攤位，當然，我們平時說的停車位，也可以叫做 parking stall

接下來我們看一下Sam是怎么說服老師收留小天鵝上課的：

I have watched birds and animals a great deal.

我觀察過大量的動物和鳥類。

a great deal 大量的

All birds and animals talk to one another—they really have to, in order to get along.

所有的鳥呀，動物呀都要說話的，這樣才可以更好的和彼此相處呀。

Mothers have to talk to their young.

媽媽們要跟孩子說話。

Males have to talk to females, particularly in the spring of the year when they

are in love.

雄性要和雌性說話，尤其是在春天這樣一個戀愛的季節呀。

Sam說話的口氣，讓我想到了我們在學習Charlotte's Web時候Fern對自己媽媽說動物會講話那一章。也許，這就是小孩子的世界吧，單純，富有想象力。

He was hatched last spring in Canada and now lives in the Red Rock Lakes, but he can’t say ko-hoh the way the other swans can, and this puts him at a terrible disadvantage.

put someone in a terribel disadvantage - 將某人至于非常不利的狀態下

If you wanted to say ko-hoh and couldn’t make a single solitary sound, wouldn’t you feel worried?

這里的single 和 solitary意思類似，意思是：連一個聲音都發布出來...

“Great Caesar’s ghost!”

這個短語就是相當于：Oh, my gosh.

但是這背后有比較多的文化背景：以前呢，有個羅馬帝國，當時的皇帝是凱撒大帝，這個大家應該都知道。那么由于凱撒大帝的專斷獨裁，很多人不爽他。于是呢，在公元前50年左右（也就是中國的西漢時期），發生了一場政變，有人謀殺了凱撒大帝，其中有一個人叫做布魯圖（Brutus)。凱撒大帝生前對這個布魯圖非常的看中，所以他怎么也不明白為什么布魯圖要參與到刺殺他的這群人中。在莎士比亞的一部話劇中呢，凱撒大帝的鬼魂（ghost）就跑回來找布魯圖...看到鬼魂嘛一般都會被驚嚇，所以就有了Great Caesar's Ghost. 另外，但是并沒有說 "Oh my God"的原因是，如果說God會有對神不尊敬的意味，所以大家就沒有說。

記住：帶著好奇心學英語。不知道一定要去查查！

下面來看看老師如何解釋這個生單詞：catastrophe

”But does anyone know what it means? What is a catastrophe?”

“An earthquake,” said one of the girls.

“Correct!” replied the teacher. “What else?”

“War is a catastrophe,” said Charlie Nelson.

“Correct!” replied Mrs. Hammerbotham. “What else is?”

A very small, redheaded girl named Jennie raised her hand.

“Yes, Jennie? What is a catastrophe?”

In a very small, high voice, Jennie said, “When you get ready to go on a picnic with your father and mother and you make peanut-butter sandwiches and jelly rolls and

put them in a thermos box with bananas and an apple and some raisin cookies and paper napkins and some bottles of pop and a few hard-boiled eggs and then you put

the thermos box in your car and just as you are starting out it starts to rain and your parents say there is no point in having a picnic in the rain, that’s a catastrophe.

老師問了一個問題，學生運用自己的想象和例子，來解釋，而老師總是細心的鼓勵，引導。最后，大家終于知道這個catastrophe的意思啦！

野餐所要帶的一些東西：自己查，還不知道就用圖片查詞法!

peanut-butter sandwiches

jelly rolls and

a thermos box

bananas

an apple

some raisin cookies

paper napkins

some bottles of pop

a few hard-boiled eggs

But when a picnic gets called on account of rain, it is a catastrophe for a child, I guess.

gets called - 這里可以理解成 取消 的意思

on account of 由于.../因為...

I’ll get my picture in Life magazine. I’ll be famous.

這個老師說：要是我能教出一個會寫 catastrophe的小天鵝，我就會出名了，我的照片會被刊登在生活雜志上。

我們隨隨便便看下有什么人登上過生活雜志的封面：

奧黛麗赫本

美國總統肯尼迪

Louis picked up a fresh piece of chalk in his bill.

a fresh piece of chalk - 一根沒用過的粉筆

I’ll just copy one letter at a time, and pretty soon it will be finished.

copy - 抄寫 （我知道你肯定會說：一個字一個字的復制！請注意詞語的靈活轉換！）

one letter at a time - 一次一個字母

pretty soon -很快

小天鵝還是很聰明的嗎！

When he got to the last letter, the pupils clapped and stamped their feet and banged on their desks, and one boy quickly made a paper airplane and zoomed it into the air.

小天鵝一寫完，這些孩子就沸騰了。

clapped- 鼓掌

stamped their feet -跺腳

banged on the desks- 敲桌子

made a paper airplane - 做紙飛機

zoomed into the air - 飛紙飛機

Mrs. Hammerbotham rapped for order.

rapped for order 其實就是在維持秩序，但是作者中這個rap用的很好，它有大聲叫喊的意思，老師不大聲，學生根本聽不到呀，哈哈。這些熊孩子們已經瘋了。

Back in his own room, Sam sat down at his desk, feeling very happy about the way things had turned out.

turn out -這個短語我們講過了，一般指出現什么結果，且結果多為出人意料的

The fifth-graders were having a lesson in arithmetic, and their teacher, Miss Annie Snug, greeted Sam with a question.

the fifth-graders 五年級學生，那么三年級呢？四年級呢？一年級呢？

arithmetic - 算術

algebra -代數

geometry - 幾何

在Sam的課堂上，老師問了兩個問題：

1. Sam, if a man can walk three miles in one hour, how many miles can he walk in four hours?（如果一個人一小時可以走3英里，那么他4個小時可以走多少英里？）

Sam的回答是：It would depend on how tired he got after the first hour.(得看他走完前一公里有多累。）

2. If you are feeding a baby from a bottle, and you give the baby eight ounces of milk in one feeding, how many ounces of milk would the baby drink in two feedings?（如果你正在給小baby喂牛奶，每一次喂8盎司，請問喂兩次的話，小baby可以吃多少？）

學生的回答是：“About fifteen ounces, because he spills a little each time,” said Linda. “It runs out of the corners of his mouth and gets on his mother’s apron. (16盎司！因為小baby每喝一口都要灑掉一點！）

我很感興趣的在學生回答兩個問題之后老師的反應！不知道大家有沒有注意。在這里我只提出兩點供思考：

1. 孩子有孩子的思維方式，他們具有無窮的想象力

2. 作為一個老師，應該如何引導，鼓勵，激發孩子的學習興趣和其豐富的想象力？

歡迎大家就以上兩點在群里進行討論，分享！

最后一句總結的話：

By this time the class was howling so loudly the arithmetic lesson had to be abandoned.

到此為止，課要上不下去了。

But everyone had learned how careful you have to be when dealing with figures.

但是每個人都學會了在對待數字這件事兒上，要嚴謹！！

我想告訴大家，不僅名詞可以用圖片查詞法，動詞和短語也可以喲：

He may drag his feet.