Английский язык с Дж. Уэбстер. Длинноногий Папочка

clamour ['klxmq], intoxicating [In'tOksIkeItIN], exhilarating [Ig'zIlqreItIN], squashy ['skwOSI], confetti [kqn'fetI]

Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,

There is a March wind blowing, and the sky is filled with heavy, black moving clouds. The crows in the pine trees are making such a clamour! It's an intoxicating, exhilarating, calling noise. You want to close your books and be off over the hills to race with the wind.

We had a paper chase last Saturday over five miles of squashy 'cross country. The fox (composed of three girls and a bushel or so of confetti) started half an hour before the twenty-seven hunters.

I was one of the twenty-seven (я была одной из двадцати семи); eight dropped by the wayside (восемь упали у обочины дороги); we ended nineteen (мы завершили /преследование/ /в количестве/ девятнадцать /девушек/). The trail led over a hill (след вел на холм), through a cornfield (через кукурузное поле), and into a swamp where we had to leap lightly from hummock to hummock (и в болото, где нам пришлось проворно перепрыгивать с бугорка на бугорок). Of course half of us went in ankle deep (конечно, половина из нас проваливались по щиколотку; deep — глубь, глубина; ankle-deep — до щиколотки, по лодыжку). We kept losing the trail (мы продолжали терять след), and we wasted twenty-five minutes over that swamp (и мы потеряли двадцать пять минут с этим болотом). Then up a hill through some woods (затем вверх по холму, через небольшой лесок) and in at a barn window (и внутрь амбара, через окно)! The barn doors were all locked (все двери амбара были заперты) and the window was up high and pretty small (а окно было высоко и довольно маленькое). I don't call that fair, do you (я считаю, что так нечестно, вы согласны; to call — звать; считать, рассматривать)?

But we didn't go through (но мы не пошли через амбар; to go through — пройти насквозь); we circumnavigated the barn (мы обошли: «проплыли» вокруг амбара; to circumnavigate — плавать вокруг) and picked up the trail (и взяли след) where it issued by way of a low shed roof (где он начинался от низкой односкатной крыши; to issue — выпускать, издавать; выходить, вытекать; shed — навес, сарай; shed roof — шедовая крыша, односкатная крыша) on to the top of a fence (/и шел/ вверх, к верхней части забора). The fox thought he had us there (лис думал, что здесь он нас обманул; to have — иметь; обмануть, обойти, перехитрить), but we fooled him (но мы обвели его за нос; to fool — дурачиться, баловаться; обманывать, водить за нос).

swamp [swOmp], circumnavigate ["sq:kqm'nxvIgeIt], issue ['ISu:, 'Isju:]

I was one of the twenty-seven; eight dropped by the wayside; we ended nineteen. The trail led over a hill, through a cornfield, and into a swamp where we had to leap lightly from hummock to hummock. of course half of us went in ankle deep. We kept losing the trail, and we wasted twenty-five minutes over that swamp. Then up a hill through some woods and in at a barn window! The barn doors were all locked and the window was up high and pretty small. I don't call that fair, do you?

But we didn't go through; we circumnavigated the barn and picked up the trail where it issued by way of a low shed roof on to the top of a fence. The fox thought he had us there, but we fooled him.