Pat Snake had ten brothers, but he just wasn’t like others. They were nice and kind, but Pat was a problem boy. He crawled(*原形crawl,爬) like the figure eight. He liked to do everything, especially to scare(*嚇唬) the human beings(*人類).
Once he hid(*原形hide,躲藏) in Lily’s empty shoe and slept. When Lily wanted to go out and put it on, he woke(*原形wake, 醒來(lái)) up and hollered (*原形holler, 叫喊,我們還學(xué)過(guò)近義詞cry, shout, 都有叫喊的意思),“Boo?選” Lily cried immediately (*立即,詞組at once也表示立即的意思). But Pat thought it’s just a lark (*玩樂(lè)).
Pat and his brothers were all primary students. Pat wasn’t good at all his lessons. He didn’t like studying. When his brothers had lessons at school, Pat was often absent(*缺席。大家還記得我們學(xué)過(guò)的present一詞嗎?它是一個(gè)多義詞,還可以做為absent的反義詞,表達(dá)“到了”的意思). One afternoon, Pat crawled out of his classroom again and sneaked(*原形sneak, 偷偷地走) into Mrs Green’s kitchen. He saw Mrs Green’s little cat Fred talking with the other cat Jim. He chased (*原形chase,追趕,近義詞run after)the cats around the room. At that moment Mrs Green came in and saw him. She was so angry that she found a stick and wanted to hit him , but Pat had already slid out.
Everyone in town agreed that Pat was very bad. And the snake leader decided to tell Pat’s parents about all the things that Pat did. Perhaps his mom and dad would ask Pat not to do all those bad things again. But Pat’s dad wasn’t at home. He’s working on a small farm faraway. When Pat’s mother heard about all these things, she was sad. She came home quickly and asked Pat why he had done so many bad things. Pat just hissed (*原形hiss,發(fā)出嘶嘶聲).
“I had nothing to do with these things. It wasn’t me. I didn’t do it,” Pat denied all he did.
“I think you are an honest kid. But you, you aren’t,” Pat’s mother became sadder and sadder. She gave Pat a lesson.
From then on nobody paid any attention to him, including his mother and brothers. Pat was alone. He realized(*原形realize,認(rèn)識(shí)到) what he had done was wrong. He felt sorry for his mother and other people. He said to himself, “Don’t lie to my dear mother. I must win(*贏得) back her trust.” So he went to school every day. He tried his best to learn his lessons. He never played those tricks(*play tricks是一個(gè)詞組,意思是惡作劇。過(guò)萬(wàn)圣節(jié)孩子們?cè)诎ぜ乙菚r(shí)會(huì)說(shuō)trick-or-treat) on others again. Once he met a little tortoise(*烏龜). He was crying. He lost his way home and couldn’t find his mother. Pat helped the little tortoise find his mother. But Pat said, “That’s all right.” See, Pat became a lovely, silent snake.
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