Space Travel for Mike’s Football 麥克的足球旅遊太空

“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.
“媽，現在我已經做完我的家庭作業了﹔我能去跟彼得玩半小時足球嗎?” 麥克問。
“好的，可是別太晚回來吃晚餐喔。”
“好的，媽，很快就回來，”麥克把他的足球放進背包就跳上他的腳踏車。

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.
麥克最好的朋友，彼得，住在一個農莊。彼得的父親擁有一個農場和一座小森林﹔在農場和森林之間有一片牛群吃草的田地。當牛群不在那兒時麥克和彼得喜歡在那田地上玩足球，因為田地就會平平坦坦的。

“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!”
“這兒麥克!” 彼得用力踢球，但球卻飛過麥克的頭上方飛進了森林裡去。麥克很快地跟著球跑。突然地，
“啊……!” 麥克往靠近森林後面的河岸邊滑溜下去。
“彼得……” 麥克的聲音消失在遠處。
彼得在麥克後面追著。
“麥克? 麥克! 你在哪兒?” 彼得喊著，他在森林裡到處找。
“在下面這兒! 彼得!” 麥克的聲音來自靠近河岸邊一棵龐大的樹底下的一個小洞。
“哪裡?”
“在大樹底下，下來這兒，彼得，這兒有些奇怪的事。”
“你是說什麼奇怪的事啊?” 彼得向前踩一步，一腳沒踏穩，
“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.
彼得跌落在幾梱稻草上。看起來好像他們是在一條又長又暗的地下隧道裡。
“這幾梱怎麼會….?”彼得有點迷惑。
“噓!” 麥克阻止他，“看!”
在隧道遠處的另一端有昏暗的光。
“我們去看看好嗎?” 麥克問，抱著足球。
“好啊。”
當他們靜靜地走向隧道的終端，那昏暗的光變亮了。他們來到一個看起來好像一個圓玻璃窗的小出口。
他們兩個從窗子窺視著。
“什麼……?” 他們睜大眼睛看著對方，驚訝於他們所看到的情景。

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.
在小窗子的另一邊是個巨大的控制室的內部與他們在科幻影片所看到的太空船中的控制室相似的。裡面滿是有很多按鈕的機器，而在那強烈的燈光下所有的東西都很耀眼。有很多件大約兩呎長、看起來像金屬木塊的東西、到處放著。
“你看這是什麼?”彼得小聲說。
“這可能是政府的秘密實驗室，”麥克小聲說。
“可是怎麼連個科學家也沒看到呢? 我想這是外星人的太空船。”彼得很興奮。
“看這窗子，看起來不像玻璃，”他用一隻手指頭對著窗子戳進去，“覺得像膠凍似的。”
當彼得的手指頭一碰到窗子時，他們看到那些木塊物突然像有生命似的動了起來，有幾個在空中嗖嗖地繞著轉、在一秒內它們中有幾個飛穿過那窗子來把麥克和彼得圍起來。

“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.
“現在我們怎麼辦?” 彼得以害怕的聲音小聲地說。
“我不知道，” 麥克回答，緊緊地抓著足球。
“我們跑吧?” 彼得問。
“好，數到三。”
可是在麥克開始數之前，那些木塊物開始圍著彼得和麥克和足球嗖嗖地快速轉了起來、快得使它們變得幾乎看不見了，然後彼得和麥克從地上被抬了起來，在空中浮著被抬著飛穿過窗子進入那個大房間小心地在地板上放下來。

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.
麥克和彼得是怕得連動也不敢動或說話，他們聽到高音的唧唧唧的聲音來自那些木塊物，有幾個盤旋在彼得和麥克的上方，然後對著機器發射出一道道不同顏色的光﹔麥克和彼得看到機器非常快速地閃著光。突然地那足球從麥克那兒被某種力量給拿走了，然後又一次，麥克和彼得被抬了起來抬著飛穿過窗子給放在地上。
“快跑啊!” 麥克喊著。

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.
麥克和彼得盡他們所能很快地跑到隧道的另一端。他們用那幾梱稻草爬出那樹底的洞，然後不停地跑到彼得的家。他們把所發現的境遇告訴彼得的父親。
“喔你們發現大樹底有個隧道啊! 那可能是狐狸藏身的洞穴! 這幾週來我們有幾隻母雞不見了，我得快去看個究竟，”彼得的父親說。
“不好，爸，隧道裡有個外星人的太空船耶。”
“外星人的太空船? 你們這些男孩看太多電視啦，” 彼得的父親笑著。
“我告訴我爸，他是個科學家，也許他會相信我們，” 麥克說。

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!”
接下來的那個星期六，麥克和彼得發現彼得的父親已經去查過那個隧道了，卻沒看到有狐狸、外星人的太空船或麥克的足球。 他們又去那棵大樹那兒，可是當他們到了隧道遠處那端，他們吃了一驚，那個像膠凍的窗子已經消失了，而且連那明亮的控制室或那些金屬木塊物也無影無蹤，而隧道卻通到靠近河岸邊地上的一個大洞。
“奇怪! 所有的東西都到哪兒去了呢? 你看這是同一個隧道嗎?” 彼得搔著他的頭。
“我確定這就是，看那些稻草屑，你爸爸一定已經把那些稻草拿走了。”
“那你的足球在哪兒呢?”
“我想它跟那些木塊物太空旅遊去啦!”