李明娟选译

“Dad，” he said， “Theres a dinosaur living in the garage.”

“爸爸，”他说，“车库里有一只恐龙。”

“Is there really， Jake？” said his dad. “Thats interesting. Now go away and play. Daddys busy now.” Jakes dad went back to reading his newspaper.

“真的吗，杰克？”他父亲说。“那很有意思。现在走开自己去玩吧，爸爸现在很忙。”杰克的父亲又看起了报纸。

Jake thought that there was a dinosaur in the garage for some time. A few weeks ago， behind the old bicycle he used to ride when he was small， there was a big bag with the tent in it. They had only used it once on a camping holiday and his dad then said， “Forget this！Im never going camping again！Next year were staying in a hotel like other people！” Jake had found a big egg in the bag. At first， Jake thought that it was a broken football. But when he went to touch3 it， the thing was all hard， not like a football at all. It felt more like a kind of egg and he couldnt see a hole in it anywhere. No， Jake—being a clever boy—right now realised4 that it wasnt a football at all. It was an egg. He didnt tell anyone at the time， because he thought that his mum and dad would think that he was lying5 again. His mum and dad always thought that he was lying. “Telling stories” they called it.  And also because he didnt want anyone else to know about what he had found. Jake already knew that he had found a dinosaur egg. Right there. Right in his garage！

杰克懷疑车库里有恐龙有一段时间了。几周前，他小时候骑过的那辆旧自行车后面有一个装着帐篷的大袋子，他们在一个野营假期只用了一次，然后他父亲说：“算了！我再也不露营了！明年，我们就像其他人一样去住旅馆！”杰克在那个袋子里发现了一个巨大的蛋。起初，杰克认为那可能是另外一个破足球，当他触摸时，那东西很硬，一点也不像足球。它看起来更像是一种蛋，他在上面都看不到任何一个孔。不，杰克是个聪明的男孩，他立刻意识到那根本不是足球，这是一个蛋。他当时没有告诉任何人，因为他觉得爸爸妈妈会以为他又在撒谎。妈妈和爸爸总是认为他在撒谎。他们称之为“讲故事”。还因为他不想让别人知道他的发现。杰克已经知道自己找到的是个恐龙蛋。在那里，就在他家的车库里！

They had been studying dinosaurs at school. Their teacher had told them all about dinosaurs， and how dinosaurs came out of eggs， like birds do today， but that a dinosaur egg was as big as a football， or even bigger.

他们在学校学过恐龙，老师教了他们所有关于恐龙的知识，以及恐龙是如何从蛋中孵出来的，就像现在的鸟类一样，但是恐龙蛋却像足球那样大，甚至更大。

The next day he decided to tell his teacher. “Ive got a dinosaur living in my garage！” Jake said to his teacher. But the teacher didnt listen to him. He only pushed his glasses up his big nose and said， “Is that right Jake？ How interesting...”

第二天，他决定告诉老师。 “我的车库里住着一只恐龙！”杰克对老师说。但是老师不信他的话。他只是把眼镜往鼻梁上推了推，说道：“杰克，是吗？很有意思……”

For the next few days Jake decided6 not to tell anyone about his dinosaur， but kept his secret to himself. He started to feed the dinosaur at first by giving it some milk. Then he gave it some of their dogs food.

在接下来的几天里，杰克决定不向任何人透露恐龙的事，自己保密。起初，他用牛奶来喂它，然后给了它一些狗粮。