萊曼·弗蘭克·鮑姆

Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies， with Uncle Henry， who was a farmer， and Aunt Em， who was the farmers wife. Their house was small， for the lumber to build it had to be carried by wagon many miles. There were four walls， a floor and a roof， which made one room; and this room contained a rusty looking cook stove， a cupboard for the dishes， a table， three or four chairs， and the beds. Uncle Henry and Aunt Em had a big bed in one corner， and Dorothy a little bed in another corner. There was no garret at all， and no cellar—except a small hole dug in the ground， called a cyclone cellar， where the family could go in case one of those great whirlwinds arose， mighty enough to crush any building in its path. It was reached by a trap door in the middle of the floor， from which a ladder led down into the small， dark hole.

When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around， she could see nothing but the great gray prairie on every side. Not a tree nor a house broke the broad sweep of flat country that reached to the edge of the sky in all directions. The sun had baked the plowed land into a gray mass， with little cracks running through it. Even the grass was not green， for the sun had burned the tops of the long blades until they were the same gray color to be seen everywhere. Once the house had been painted， but the sun blistered the paint and the rains washed it away， and now the house was as dull and gray as everything else.

多蘿茜和亨利叔叔、愛姆嬸嬸住在堪薩斯州大草原的中部。叔叔是個農(nóng)人，嬸嬸是他的妻子。因為蓋屋子的木材要從好幾英里路之外用貨車載運過來，很不容易，所以他們住的屋子只是一間小小的，由四垛板壁、一個屋頂和一堂地板構成的。屋子里有一個外面銹污了的燒飯用的爐灶，一個放盆碟的櫥，一張桌子，三四張椅子，還有兩張床。亨利叔叔和愛姆嬸嬸睡的大床放在角落里，多蘿茜睡的小床放在另外一個角落里。屋子里沒有閣樓，也沒有地下室——只有那么一個小洞，直掘到地面下，這洞叫作“旋風的地洞”。倘若大旋風刮來時，全家人可以躲進里面去，因為在旋風經(jīng)過的途中，不論什么屋子它都能夠吹倒。在地板的中央，裝著一扇活動的木門，那里有一座梯子，走下去就到了那又小又黑的地洞里。

當多蘿茜站在門口，向四周眺望時，除了四周都是灰色的大草原，什么也看不見。在那一片寬闊平坦的原野上沒有一棵樹，也沒有一間屋子。每一個方向，都一直伸展到天邊。那太陽烤炙著這片耕作過的田地，使它變成為一片灰色的有許多裂縫的荒土。即使是草也不綠了，因為太陽烤炙著它們的頂部長葉，使得不論從何處看起來，它們同樣都是灰色的。有一次，屋子被粉刷過了，但是太陽把油漆曬起了泡，雨水把它洗干凈了，如今這屋子也像其他東西一樣暗淡和灰暗了。

Vocabulary

wagon n. 貨車;四輪貨車

garret n. 閣樓;頂樓

whirlwind n. 旋風

prairie n. 大草原;牧場

blade n. 葉片;刀片