地心游记|Journey to the Center of the Earth经典英文绘本

地心游记|Journey to the Center of the Earth

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每天五分钟听经典英文故事,读绘本,磨耳朵。一个少年跟随教授从火山口进入地心,经历了一场惊心动魄的地下冒险。

Professor Lidenbrock burst into the study and Axel knew his uncle had gone mad again

He clutched an old parchment full of strange symbols from a twelfth-century Icelandic book

Axel tried to slip away but the professor grabbed him

Sit down the professor said this is Saknussemm's secret code

The two of them worked on that parchment all night long

Axel's head spun from hunger his fingers traced the symbols by chance

Then he froze

Read backwards it was a single message

Go down from the crater shadow of Sneffels and you'll reach the center of the earth I did it Arne Saknussemm

The professor decided to leave right away

Not tomorrow not next week right now

Axel was terrified

Going down into a volcano all the way to the earth's center how was that different from jumping into a furnace

But the professor was his only family in the world

He had no choice he had to follow

They reached Iceland

Endless lava fields stretched before them Sneffels volcano sat like a silent beast

A man named Hans became their guide

He barely spoke three words a day but he was strong as an ox

His only demand was three silver coins a week

On the last morning of June they stood at the crater's edge

A long rope went down into the darkness

Axel took one last look at the sun then crawled into the dark

Underground there was no day and no night

The passages were so tight they had to squeeze through sideways

Some places were wide as a great cathedral

After days of walking Axel found himself alone

He called out for his uncle no answer

He called for Hans only the echo of rocks replied

He ran stones fell into endless cracks

His lamp was almost out and his water was completely gone

He lay down in the darkness sure he was about to die

A rough hand grabbed his collar in the dark

It was Hans

The silent Icelander had tracked him by tiny marks on the rocks

When Axel woke up he heard his uncle's voice

Drink he said pushing the last of their water toward him

Then they went deeper

The walls began to sweat hot water

The rock turned from black to reddish-brown

Hans struck the wall with his pickax and a hot fountain burst out

The three men laughed together in the steam

They stepped out of the tunnel into an incredible sight

An underground sea stretched before them waves crashed on black sand

Above them a sky of giant stalactites glowed with dim green light

The beach was covered in giant mushrooms taller than a man

Golden spores floated in the air like shining mist

Axel stood at the shoreline and for the first time he understood why Saknussemm kept going

If no one had ever been here before this sea these mushrooms this glowing sky would belong only to the dark forever

They built a raft and sailed out onto the sea

On the second day the water exploded around them

Two monsters rose from the depths an ichthyosaur and a plesiosaur

They tore at each other in a violent fight blood turned the sea red

Axel lay flat on the raft watching one beast's dead eyes glance their way

Then it disappeared back into the deep

In this place he thought humans were too small to even be prey

Then the storm came

Lightning hit the giant stalactites sending sparks like waterfalls into the sea

Their raft spun in the waves for three days and three nights

Finally it crashed onto an unknown shore

They crawled out of the wreckage

Hans pointed to a rock with three letters carved into it

A S

Saknussemm's mark

They pushed on deeper into the cave

In a giant underground cavern Axel saw something moving on a far slope

A herd of huge mastodons

And walking beside them a human figure three times normal size

Leaning on a tree trunk as a staff

Axel grabbed his uncle and they ran back the way they'd come

They didn't stop until the figure disappeared behind the ridge

The professor caught his breath his eyes shining with excitement

There are people at the earth's center

Saknussemm was right

They hit a dead end

Saknussemm had left his mark but no passage through

The professor decided to blast the wall with gunpowder

Hans lit the fuse and they hid in a crack in the rocks

The explosion was much bigger than they'd expected

The whole wall collapsed and the sea disappeared

The blast had broken through the bottom of the cavern

Seawater poured into the abyss pulling their raft along with it

They tumbled through the dark waterway

Axel's ears filled with the roar of water tearing through rock

The water grew hotter and hotter around them

He realized they weren't sinking anymore they were rising

Deep underground water had turned to steam making the passage a giant cannon

Then everything went silent

The world became a cloud of white steam

Axel woke up to a blue sky above him

They lay on the slopes of Mount Stromboli covered in volcanic ash

Sicilian children gathered around them thinking they were devils

Hans sat up said something in Icelandic and went back to eating his dried fish

Later the professor wrote a book becoming the most famous geologist in Europe

Grauben waited at the Hamburg train station

When Axel stepped off the train she stood on her toes and hugged his neck

Hans didn't stay

He put his wages in his pocket and sailed back to Iceland

The professor asked if he'd like to go on another adventure

Hans thought about it for a moment then slowly shook his head

Three silver coins a week once is enough