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，卡羅琳都和媽媽、爸爸以及哥哥格雷厄姆一起吃晚飯。當他們坐在桌旁時，每個人都會講述他們這一天工作或上學的事。然后他們每個人還會講自己當天學到的一些新東西。這些事有時很嚴肅，有時很有趣。

一天晚上，卡羅琳打算講一個她從老師那里聽來的笑話。她把叉子放在盤子里，這樣的話當講到最精彩的部分時，她就可以學老師用手做同樣滑稽好笑的動作。當卡羅琳把叉子放在盤子上時，響起了咯咯的聲音。

但是接著奇怪的事情發(fā)生了。叉子不停地咯咯作響，它獨自晃動著，把盤子磕得叮當作響。

卡羅琳抬起頭，桌子上所有的玻璃杯也在搖晃，里面的牛奶在蕩漾，就像在湖邊格雷厄姆把鵝卵石扔進水里時那樣。

然后卡羅琳覺得她的椅子也在格格作響?！皨寢?？”她問。她有點害怕。

但是就像它開始時那樣快，所有奇怪的聲音和感覺都一下子結束了。房子里突然變得非常安靜。

格雷厄姆突然哭了起來?！澳鞘鞘裁?？”他哭了，跑過去坐在爸爸的腿上。

媽媽看向爸爸?！拔矣X得是地震。”她說。

卡羅琳在學校讀過關于地震的書。舊金山曾經發(fā)生過一次非常大的地震，許多房子都倒塌了。他們家的房子也會倒塌嗎？

爸爸從口袋里拿出手機，開始滑動手機屏幕?！翱磥礞?zhèn)上的每個人都有同樣的感受?！彼f，“真的是地震。”

“我們的房子會是完好的嗎？”卡羅琳問道。她沒有講她那個笑話，而是給大家講了她看過的關于地震的書。它們聽起來很嚇人。

“一切都很好?！眿寢屨f，“地震無時無刻不在發(fā)生，而且大多數都很小，你甚至不會注意到。這次甚至沒有東西從架子上掉下來，所以我們家的房子比那場小地震更堅固?！?/p>

卡羅琳一聽到這里就開始放松了。她不喜歡每天都有地震，但在現實生活中感受地震是挺刺激的。她很高興她家里和鎮(zhèn)上的每個人都平安無事。第二天，在學校她很興奮地和她的朋友們談論這件事。誰能想到晚餐會有這樣的冒險經歷呢？

▏Notes

1. shake 搖動；抖動

2. serious 認真的；嚴肅的

3. silly 嬉笑滑稽的

4. motion 手勢；動作

5. rattle 使……咯咯作響

6. clink 發(fā)出叮當聲

7. ripple 聲音、蕩漾，發(fā)出……聲

8. pebble 鵝卵石；礫石

9. lap 人坐下時大腿面；膝上

10. earthquake 地震；大動蕩

11. pocket 衣袋；口袋

12. scroll 滾屏；滾動

13. shelf 擱板；架子

14. adventure 冒險；經歷；奇遇