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

