Mr. Popper’s Penguins ( Ⅷ )波普先生的企鹅（八）

Richard and Florence Atwater

格雷塔也来到了波普先生家，慢慢地，波普先生家居然有了十二只企鹅！这究竟是怎么回事呢？

It was a good thing that Mr. Popper got the penguins moved when hedid， because Mrs. Popper had been right about the eggs. The rookery had1）scarcely been moved to the 2）basement when Greta laid the first egg.Three days later the second one appeared.

Since Mr. Popper knew that penguins lay only two eggs a season， hewas astonished when， a little later， the third egg was found under Greta.Whether the change in climate had changed the penguins’ breeding habits，Mr. Popper never knew， but every third day a new one would appear untilthere were ten in all.

Now penguin eggs are so large that the mother can sit on only two ata time， and this created quite a problem. Mr. Popper solved it， however， by3）distributing the extra eggs under hot water bottles and electric heatingpads，kept just at penguin body heat.

The penguin chicks， when they began to 4）hatch， were not sohandsomely marked as their mother and father. They were fuzzy， 5）droll littlecreatures who grew at a tremendous rate. Captain Cook and Greta werekept very busy bringing food to them， though， ofcourse the Poppers all helped， too.

1） scarcely adv. 幾乎不

2） basement n. 地下室

3） distribute v. 分配

4） hatch v. 孵出

5） droll adj. 滑稽古怪的

Mr. Popper， who had always been such a greatreader， had no difficulty in thinking of names for thepenguin children. They were Nelson， Columbus，Louisa， Jenny， Scott， Magellan， Adelina， Isabella， Ferdinand， and Victoria.Still， he was rather relieved that there were no more than ten to name.

波普先生把企鹅的窝搬到楼下是明智的，因为波普太太猜对了关于企鹅下蛋的事。他们的窝一搬进地下室，格雷塔就下了第一个蛋，三天后，又下了第二个。

波普先生知道企鹅每季只下两个蛋，但是几天后，当他发现格雷塔身下又有了第三个蛋时他还挺惊奇的。是不是因为气候的改变导致企鹅下蛋的习惯也发生了变化，波普先生不知道。但是从此每过三天，就会出现一个新的蛋，最后格雷塔居然下了十个蛋。

现在，企鹅蛋已经太多了，而企鹅妈妈每次只能坐在两个蛋上面，如何把蛋都孵出来，还真是个不小的问题。但波普先生解决了这个问题。他把剩余的蛋放在热水瓶和电热毯下面，让温度跟企鹅的体温一样。

小企鹅刚孵出来的时候，没有他们的爸爸妈妈那样漂亮。他们长得毛茸茸的、怪怪的，但长得特别快。库克船长和格雷塔天天忙着喂他们，波普一家当然也帮了大忙。

波普先生本来就是个特别爱读书的人，所以给企鹅宝宝们取名字时也毫不费力。波普先生分别给他们取了名字，叫尼尔森、哥伦布、路易莎、珍妮、斯科特、麦格伦、阿狄妮娜、伊莎贝拉、费迪南德和维多利亚。不过，还好只有十只企鹅，不用起更多的名字，波普先生还是松了一口气。