The Day the Earth Shool 地震的那天

Every night， Caroline ate dinnerwith her mom， dad， and older brotherGraham. When they sat at the table，they each told a story about their dayat work or school. Then they eachtold about something new they hadlearned that day. Sometimes thestories were serious2， and other timesthey were fun.

One night， Caroline was aboutto tell a joke she had learned fromher teacher. She put her fork downon her plate， so she could use herhands to make the same silly3motions4 her teacher did when hegot to the best part. When Carolineset her fork down on the plate， itmade a rattling5 sound.

But then something strangehappened. The fork didn’t stop rattling.It shook and clinked6 against theplate， all by itself.

Caroline looked up. All theglasses on the table were shaking， too.The milk inside was rippling7， justlike it did at the lake when Grahamthrewpebbles8 into thewater.

Then Caroline felt like herchair was rattling， too. “Mom？”she asked. She felt scared.

But as quickly as it began， allthe strange sounds and feelingended. It was suddenly very quiet inthe house.

Graham started to cry.“Whatwas that？”he cried. He ran over tosit in Dad’s lap9.

Mom looked at Dad.“I think itwas an earthquake10，”she said.

Caroline had read aboutearthquakes at school. Once therewas a very big earthquake in SanFrancisco， and many houses felldown. Would their house falldown， too？

Dad took his phone out of hispocket11 and began scrolling12.“Looks like everyone in town feltthe same thing，”he said. “It reallywas an earthquake.”

“Is our house going to beokay？”Caroline asked. She didn’ttell her joke， but told everyone about the book she read aboutearthquakes. They sounded very scary.

“Everything is fine，” said Mom.“Earthquakes happen all the time， andmost are so small you don’t evennotice. Nothing even fell off a shelf13，so the house is stronger than that littleearthquake.”

Once Caroline heard that， shebegan to relax. She wouldn’t like tohave an earthquake every day， but itwas exciting to feel one in real life. Shewas glad that everyone in her houseand her town were safe. And she wasexcited to talk about it with her friendsat school the next day. Who knewdinner would be such an adventure14？

每天晚上，卡罗琳都和妈妈、爸爸以及哥哥格雷厄姆一起吃晚饭。当他们坐在桌旁时，每个人都会讲述他们这一天工作或上学的事。然后他们每个人还会讲自己当天学到的一些新东西。这些事有时很严肃，有时很有趣。

一天晚上，卡罗琳打算讲一个她从老师那里听来的笑话。她把叉子放在盘子里，这样的话当讲到最精彩的部分时，她就可以学老师用手做同样滑稽好笑的动作。当卡罗琳把叉子放在盘子上时，响起了咯咯的声音。

但是接着奇怪的事情发生了。叉子不停地咯咯作响，它独自晃动着，把盘子磕得叮当作响。

卡罗琳抬起头，桌子上所有的玻璃杯也在摇晃，里面的牛奶在荡漾，就像在湖边格雷厄姆把鹅卵石扔进水里时那样。

然后卡罗琳觉得她的椅子也在格格作响。“妈妈？”她问。她有点害怕。

但是就像它开始时那样快，所有奇怪的声音和感觉都一下子结束了。房子里突然变得非常安静。

格雷厄姆突然哭了起来。“那是什么？”他哭了，跑过去坐在爸爸的腿上。

妈妈看向爸爸。“我觉得是地震。”她说。

卡罗琳在学校读过关于地震的书。旧金山曾经发生过一次非常大的地震，许多房子都倒塌了。他们家的房子也会倒塌吗？

爸爸从口袋里拿出手机，开始滑动手机屏幕。“看来镇上的每个人都有同样的感受。”他说，“真的是地震。”

“我们的房子会是完好的吗？”卡罗琳问道。她没有讲她那个笑话，而是给大家讲了她看过的关于地震的书。它们听起来很吓人。

“一切都很好。”妈妈说，“地震无时无刻不在发生，而且大多数都很小，你甚至不会注意到。这次甚至没有东西从架子上掉下来，所以我们家的房子比那场小地震更坚固。”

卡罗琳一听到这里就开始放松了。她不喜欢每天都有地震，但在现实生活中感受地震是挺刺激的。她很高兴她家里和镇上的每个人都平安无事。第二天，在学校她很兴奋地和她的朋友们谈论这件事。谁能想到晚餐会有这样的冒险经历呢？

▏Notes

1. shake 摇动；抖动

2. serious 认真的；严肃的

3. silly 嬉笑滑稽的

4. motion 手势；动作

5. rattle 使……咯咯作响

6. clink 发出叮当声

7. ripple 声音、荡漾，发出……声

8. pebble 鹅卵石；砾石

9. lap 人坐下时大腿面；膝上

10. earthquake 地震；大动荡

11. pocket 衣袋；口袋

12. scroll 滚屏；滚动

13. shelf 搁板；架子

14. adventure 冒险；经历；奇遇