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Sophie Amundsen was on her way home from school.

苏菲放学回家了。

She had walked the first part of the way with Joanna.

有一段路她和乔安同行，

They had been discussing robots.

她们谈着有关机器人的问题。

Joanna thought the human brain was like an advanced computer.

乔安认为人的脑子就像一部很先进的电脑，

Sophie was not certain she agreed.

这点苏菲并不太赞同。

Surely a person was more than a piece of hardware?

她想：人应该不只是一台机器吧？

When they got to the supermarket they went their separate ways.

她们走到超市那儿就分手了。

Sophie lived on the outskirts of a sprawling suburb and had almost twice as far to school as Joanna.

苏菲住在市郊，那一带面积辽阔，花木扶疏。苏菲家位于外围，走到学校的距离是乔安家的一倍，

There were no other houses beyond her garden, which made it seem as if her house lay at the end of the world.

附近除了她家的园子之外，没有其他住家，因此看起来她们仿佛住在世界尽头似的。

This was where the woods began.

再过去，就是森林了。

She turned the corner into Clover Close.

苏菲转了个弯，走到苜蓿巷路上。

At the end of the road there was a sharp bend, known as Captain's Bend.

路尽头有一个急转弯，人们称之为“船长弯”。

People seldom went that way except on the weekend.

除了周六、周日的时候，人们很少打这儿经过。

It was early May.

正是五月初的时节。

In some of the gardens the fruit trees were encircled with dense clusters of daffodils.

有些人家的园子里，水仙花已经一丛丛开满了果树的四周，

The birches were already in pale green leaf.

赤杨树也已经长出了嫩绿的叶子。

It was extraordinary how everything burst forth at this time of year!

每年到这个时节，万物总是充满了生机。这岂不是一件奇妙的事吗？

What made this great mass of green vegetation come welling up from the dead earth as soon as it got warm and the last traces of snow disappeared?

当天气变暖，积雪融尽时，千千万万的花草树木便陡地自荒枯的大地上生长起来了。这是什么力量造成的呢？

As Sophie opened her garden gate, she looked in the mailbox.

苏菲打开花园的门时，看了看信箱。

There was usually a lot of junk mail and a few big envelopes for her mother,

里面通常有许多垃圾邮件和一些写给她妈妈的大信封。

a pile to dump on the kitchen table before she went up to her room to start her homework.

她总是把它们堆在厨房的桌子上，然后走上楼到房间做功课。

From time to time there would be a few letters from the bank for her father, but then he was not a normal father.

偶尔，也会有一些银行寄给她爸爸的信。不过，苏菲的爸爸跟别人不太一样。

Sophie's father was the captain of a big oil tanker, and was away for most of the year.

他是一艘大油轮的船长，几乎一年到头都在外面。

During the few weeks at a time when he was at home, he would shuffle around the house making it nice and cozy for Sophie and her mother.

难得有几个星期在家时，他会上上下下细心打点，为苏菲母女俩把房子整理得漂亮舒适。

But when he was at sea he could seem very distant.

不过，当他出海后却显得离她们遥远无比。

There was only one letter in the mailbox--and it was for Sophie.

今天，信箱里却只有一封信，而且是写给苏菲的。

The white envelope read: "Sophie Amundsen, 3 Clover Close."

信封上写着：“苜蓿路三号，苏菲收”。

That was all; it did not say who it was from.

只此而已，没有写寄信人的名字，

There was no stamp on it either.

也没贴邮票。

As soon as Sophie had closed the gate behind her she opened the envelope.

苏菲随手把门带上后，便拆开了信封。

It contained only a slip of paper no bigger than the envelope.

里面只有一小张约莫跟信封一样大小的纸，

It read: Who are you?

上面写着：你是谁？

Nothing else, only the three words, written by hand, and followed by a large question mark.

除此之外，什么也没有。没有问候的话，也没有回信地址，只有这三个手写的字，后面是一个大大的问号。

She looked at the envelope again.

苏菲再看看信封。

The letter was definitely for her.

没错，信是写给她的。

Who could have dropped it in the mailbox?

但又是谁把它放在信箱里的呢？

Sophie let herself quickly into the red house.

苏菲快步走进她家那栋漆成红色的房子里。

As always, her cat Sherekan managed to slink out of the bushes, jump onto the front step, and slip in through the door before she closed it behind her.

当她正要把房门带上时，她的猫咪雪儿一如往常般悄悄自树丛中走出，跳到门前的台阶上，一溜烟就钻了进来。

Whenever Sophie's mother was in a bad mood, she would call the house they lived in a menagerie. (A menagerie was a collection of animals. )

苏菲的妈妈心情不好时，总是把他们家称为“动物园”。

Sophie certainly had one and was quite happy with it.

事实上，苏菲也的确养了许多心爱的动物。

It had begun with the three goldfish, Goldtop, Red Ridinghood, and Black Jack.

一开始时是三只金鱼：金冠、小红帽和黑水手。

Next she got two budgerigars called Smitt and Smule, then Govinda the tortoise, and finally the marmalade cat Sherekan.

然后她又养了两只鹦哥，名叫史密特和史穆尔，然后是名叫葛文的乌龟，最后则是猫咪雪儿。

They had all been given to her to make up for the fact that her mother never got home from work until late in the afternoon and her father was away so much, sailing all over the world.

这些都是爸妈买给她作伴的。因为妈妈总是很晚才下班回家，而爸爸又常航行四海。

Sophie slung her schoolbag on the floor and put a bowl of cat food out for Sherekan.

苏菲把书包丢在地板上，为雪儿盛了一碗猫食。

Then she sat down on a kitchen stool with the mysterious letter in her hand.

然后她便坐在厨房的高脚椅上，手中仍拿着那封神秘的信。

Who are you?

你是 

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