Space Travel for Mike’s Football 麦克的足球旅游太空

“Mum, I’ve finished my homework now; can I go and play football with Peter for half an hour, please?” Mike asked.
“All right, but don’t be late for dinner.”
“OK, Mum, be back soon,” Mike put his football in a knapsack and jumped on his bike.

“ 妈，现在我已经做完我的家庭作业了﹔我能去跟彼得玩半小时足球吗?”麦克问。
“好的，可是别太晚回来吃晚餐喔。”
“好的，妈，很快就回来，”麦克把他的足球放进背包就跳上他的脚踏车。

Mike’s best friend, Peter, lived in a farm house. Peter’s father owned a farm and a small forest; there was a field between the house and the forest where the cows grazed. Mike and Peter liked to play football on the field when the cows weren’t there, because the field was flat.

麦克最好的朋友，彼得，住在一个农庄。彼得的父亲拥有一个农场和一座小森林﹔在农场和森林之间有一片牛群吃草的田地。 当牛群不在那儿时麦克和彼得喜欢在那田地上玩足球，因为田地就会平平坦坦的。

“Here Mike!” Peter kicked the ball hard, but it flew over Mike’s head into the forest. Mike ran quickly after the ball. Suddenly,
“Ahhhhhhh!” Mike slid down the bank towards the river near the back of the forest.
“Peterrrrrrrr …..” Mike’s voice faded into the distance.
Peter rushed after Mike,
“Mike? Mike! Where are you?” Peter called, as he looked around in the forest.
“Down here, Peter!” Mike’s voice came from a small hole at the base of a gigantic tree near the riverbank.
“Where?”
“Under the big tree, come down here, Peter, there’s something weird in here.”
“What do you mean weird?” Peter stepped forwards, and lost his footing,
“Ahhhhhhh!”

“ 这儿麦克!” 彼得用力踢球，但球却飞过麦克的头上方飞进了森林里去。 麦克很快地跟着球跑。 突然地，
“啊……!” 麦克往靠近森林后面的河岸边滑溜下去。
“彼得……” 麦克的声音消失在远处。
彼得在麦克后面追着。
“麦克? 麦克! 你在哪儿?” 彼得喊着，他在森林里到处找。
“在下面这儿! 彼得!” 麦克的声音来自靠近河岸边一棵庞大的树底下的一个小洞。
“哪里?”
“在大树底下，下来这儿，彼得， 这儿有些奇怪的事。”
“你是说什么奇怪的事啊?” 彼得向前踩一步，一脚没踏稳，
“啊……… !”

Peter landed on some bales of straw. It looked like they were in a long, dark underground tunnel.
“How did these bales ….?” Peter was puzzled.
“Shhh!” Mike stopped him, “look!”
There was faint light at the far end of the tunnel.
“Shall we go and have a look?” asked Mike, holding the football.
“All right.”
As they walked quietly towards the end of the tunnel, the faint light became brighter. They came to a small opening that looked like a round glass window.
Both of them peeped through the window.
“What’s …?” They looked at each other with their eyes wide open, amazed by what they saw.

彼得跌落在几梱稻草上。 看起来好像他们是在一条又长又暗的地下隧道里。
“这几梱怎么会….?”彼得有点迷惑。
“嘘!” 麦克阻止他，“看!”
在隧道远处的另一端有昏暗的光。
“我们去看看好吗?” 麦克问，抱着足球。
“好啊。”
当他们静静地走向隧道的终端，那昏暗的光变亮了。 他们来到一个看起来好像一个圆玻璃窗的小出口。
他们两个从窗子窥视着。
“什么……?” 他们睁大眼睛看着对方，惊讶于他们所看到的情景。

On the other side of the small window was the inside of a huge control room similar to the ones in the spaceships they had seen in science-fiction films. It was full of machines with many buttons, and everything was sparkling under the bright light. There were many objects about two feet long, that looked like metallic logs, here and there.
“What do you think this is?” Peter whispered.
“It might be a secret government lab,” Mike whispered.
“Why aren’t there any scientists then? I think it is an alien spaceship.” Peter was excited. “Look at this window, it doesn’t look like glass,” he poked a finger at the window, “it feels like jelly.”
As soon as Peter’s finger touched the window, they saw the logs spring into life, some of them whizzing around in the air and in less than a second several of them flew through the window and surrounded Mike and Peter.

在小窗子的另一边是个巨大的控制室的内部与他们在科幻影片所看到的太空船中的控制室相似的。 里面满是有很多按钮的机器，而在那强烈的灯光下所有的东西都很耀眼。 有很多件大约两呎长、看起来像金属木块的东西、到处放着。
“你看这是什么?”彼得小声说。
“这可能是政府的秘密实验室，”麦克小声说。
“可是怎么连个科学家也没看到呢? 我想这是外星人的太空船。”彼得很兴奋。 “看这窗子，看起来不像玻璃，”他用一只手指头对着窗子戳进去， “觉得像胶冻似的。”
当彼得的手指头一碰到窗子时， 他们看到那些木块物突然像有生命似的动了起来，有几个在空中嗖嗖地绕着转、在一秒内它们中有几个飞穿过那窗子来把麦克和彼得围起来。

“What do we do now?” Peter whispered in a scared voice.
“I don’t know,” Mike replied, clutching the football tightly.
“Shall we run?” Peter asked.
“Okay, count to three.”
But before Mike started to count, the logs began to whiz around Peter and Mike and the football so fast that they became almost invisible, then Peter and Mike were lifted from the ground, and floating in the air they were flown through the window into the huge room and put down on the floor gently.

“现在我们怎么办?” 彼得以害怕的声音小声地说。
“我不知道，” 麦克回答，紧紧地抓着足球。
“我们跑吧?” 彼得问。
“好，数到三。”
可是在麦克开始数之前， 那些木块物开始围着彼得和麦克和足球嗖嗖地快速转了起来、 快得使它们变得几乎看不见了，然后彼得和麦克从地上被抬了起来， 在空中浮着被抬着飞穿过窗子进入那个大房间小心地在地板上放下来。

Mike and Peter were too frightened to move or talk, they could hear different high-pitched buzzing noise coming from the logs, some of them hovered over Peter and Mike, and then emitted beams of different coloured light to the machines; Mike and Peter saw the machines were flashing with lights at very high speed. Suddenly the football was taken away from Mike by some kind of force, then once again, Mike and Peter were lifted and flown through the window and put on the ground.
“Run now!” Mike shouted.

麦克和彼得怕得连动也不敢动或说话，他们听到高音的唧唧唧的声音来自那些木块物，有几个盘旋在彼得和麦克的上方，然后对着机器发射出一道道不同颜色的光﹔ 麦克和彼得看到机器非常快速地闪着光。 突然地那足球从麦克那儿被某种力量给拿走了，然后又一次， 麦克和彼得被抬了起来抬着飞穿过窗子给放在地上。
“快跑啊!” 麦克喊着。

Mike and Peter ran as fast as their legs could carry them to the other end of the tunnel. They used the bales of straw to climb out of the hole at the base of the tree, and then ran all the way back to Peter’s house. They told Peter’s father about their discovery.
“Oh you found a tunnel under the big tree! That could be a foxes’ den! We had a few hens missing for the last couple of weeks, I must take a look soon,” Peter’s father said.
“No, Dad, there’s an alien spaceship in the tunnel.”
“Alien spaceship? You boys watch too much TV,” Peter’s father laughed.
“I’ll tell my dad, he is a scientist, perhaps he’ll believe us,” Mike said.

麦克和彼得尽他们所能很快地跑到隧道的另一端。 他们用那几梱稻草爬出那树底的洞，然后不停地跑到彼得的家。 他们把所发现的境遇告诉彼得的父亲。
“喔你们发现大树底有个隧道啊! 那可能是狐狸藏身的洞穴! 这几周来我们有几只母鸡不见 了，我得快去看个究竟，” 彼得的父亲说。
“不好，爸， 隧道里有个外星人的太空船耶。”
“外星人的太空船? 你们这些男孩看太多电视啦，”彼得的父亲笑着。
“我告诉我爸，他是个科学家，也许他会相信我们，” 麦克说。

On the following Saturday, Mike and Peter found that Peter’s father had been checking the tunnel, and there was no foxes, alien spaceship or Mike’s football. They went to the big tree again, but to their surprise, when they reached the far end of the tunnel, the jelly-like window had disappeared, and there was no trace of the bright control room or the metallic logs, instead the tunnel led to a big hole on the ground near the riverbank.
“Strange! Where’s everything? Is this the same tunnel you think?” Peter scratched his head.
“I’m sure this is the one, see these bits of straws, your dad must have taken the straw away.”
“Where’s your football then?”
“I think it went space travelling with the logs!”

接下来的那个星期六，麦克和彼得发现彼得的父亲已经去查过那个隧道了， 却没看到有狐狸、外星人的太空船或麦克的足球。 他们又去那棵大树那儿，可是当他们到了隧道远处那端，他们吃了一惊， 那个像胶冻的窗子已经消失了，而且连那明亮的控制室或那些金属木块物也无影无踪， 而隧道却通到靠近河岸边地上的一个大洞。
“奇怪! 所有的东西都到哪儿去了呢? 你看这是同一个隧道吗?” 彼得搔着他的头。 “我确定这就是，看那些稻草屑， 你爸爸一定已经把那些稻草拿走了。”
“那你的足球在哪儿呢?”
“我想它跟那些木块物太空旅游去啦!”