《小屁孩日記》是一個美國中學生的日記，受孩子的影響，我也是《小屁孩日記》的成人鐵粉啦。這套書故事情節富於想象力，幽默，雖然是一本兒童讀物，但地道的英語表達是學習口語的好素材，讀著英文，看著笑話，快樂閱讀，快樂學習，啟程吧！
New Year's Eve
新年前夜
In case you're wondering what I'm doing in my room at 9:00 p.m on New Year's Eve, let me fill you in.
要是你納悶新年前夕我晚上9點就呆在自己房間裡幹嗎，就聽我仔細道來。
筆記：
fill in: 中間可以接物也可以接人
fill sb in: 向…提供最新消息
I think you'd better fill me in on what's been happening.
我想你還是最好告訴我發生了什麼。
fill sth in: 填寫文件表格等
Don't forget to fill in your boarding cards.
別忘了填寫你的登記卡。
Earlier today, me and Manny were horsing around in the basement. I found a tiny black ball of thread on the carpet, and I told Manny it was a spider.
今天早些時候，我和曼尼在地下室打打鬧鬧。地毯上有一個黑色小線團，還拖著線頭，我唬曼尼說那是蜘蛛。
筆記：
horsing around: 可不是馬的周圍哦，它是"胡鬧"的意思
Stop horsing around, you'll break something.
別胡鬧了，你會打破東西的。
Then I held it over him pretending like I was going to make him eat it.
接著我拈起線頭在曼尼眼睛前面盪來盪去，裝作要逼他吃掉。
筆記：
hold sth over sb: 以某事要挾某人
He knows I've been in prison and is holding it over me.
他知道我曾坐過牢，便以此來要挾我。
Right when I was about to let Manny go, he slapped my hand and made me drop the thread. And guess what? That fool swallowed it.
我正準備放過曼尼，他"啪"的一聲打到我的手。我的手一鬆，然後你猜怎麼樣？那笨蛋把線團吞下去了。
筆記：
let sb go: 放走某人；解僱某人（委婉說法）
The police had to let him go through lack of evidence.
由於缺乏證據，警方只得放他走。
I'm afraid we had to let several of our stuff go.
恐怕我們不得不解僱幾名員工。
Well Manny completely lost his mind. He ran upstairs to where Mom was, and I knew I was in big trouble.
這下好了，曼尼完全瘋掉了，他跑上樓去找老媽，我知道麻煩大了。
Many told Mom I made him eat a spider. I told her there was no spider, and that it was just a tiny ball of thread.
曼尼向老媽控訴我逼他吞蜘蛛，我跟她說，那不是蜘蛛，只是一個小線團，拖著一根線。
Mom brought Manny over to the kitchen table. Then she put a seed, a raisin, and a grape on a plate and told Manny to point to the thing that was the closest in size to the piece of thread he swallowed.
老媽把曼尼帶去廚房的桌子旁邊，她在桌子上放了一顆種子，一顆葡萄乾和一顆葡萄，讓曼尼說他吞下的東西和哪一樣的大小最接近。
筆記：
in size: 有多大
The apartment is roughly 160 square meters in size.
這套公寓大約有160平方米。
Many took a while to look over the things on the plate.
曼尼定睛看著碟子好一陣子。
Then he walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out an orange.
然後他走去冰箱那裡，拿出一個橙子。
So that's why I got sent to bed at 7:00 and I'm downstairs watching the New Year's Eve special on TV.
這就是為什麼我晚上7點就被攆去睡覺，沒機會下樓看年夜的電視特別節目。
And that's also why my only New Year's resolution is to never play with Manny again.
這也是為什麼我唯一的新年決心是以後再也不和曼尼玩。
January
Wednesday
I found a way to have some fun with the Big Wheel Rowley got me for Christmas. I came up with this game where one guy rides down the hill and the other guy tries to knock him off with a football.
我想到一個用羅利送我的"大輪子"來找樂子的辦法了。玩法是這樣的：一個人從山坡上汽車下來，另一個人千方百計用求砸中對方，讓他從車上摔下來。
Rowely was the first one down the hill, and I was the thrower.
羅利做下山的第一人，我做投球手。
It's a lot harder to hit a moving target than I thought. Plus, I didn't get a lot of practice. It took Rowley like ten minutes to walk the Big Wheel back up the hill after every trip down.
要擊中移動目標的難度比我想象中大得多。再說我也沒有怎麼練習，每次羅利衝下山以後，得花十分鐘推車上坡。
Rowley kept asking to switch places and have me be the one who rides the Big Wheel, but I'm no fool. That thing was hitting thirty-five miles an hour, and it didn't have any brakes.
羅利不斷吵著投球手要換人，讓我來做騎手，我可不笨，那玩意兒時速35英里，而且沒有剎車踏板。
Anyway, I never did knock Rowley off the Big Wheel today. But I guess I have something to work at over the rest of Christmas vacation.
不過怎樣，今天我一次也沒有砸中羅利，但我總得找點活兒幹，打發掉假期的尾巴。
筆記：
knock off sth: 停止（工作），下班
We usually knock off work at about five on Saturday.
星期六我們一般五點左右下班。
knock sth off: 減價，減少數量，（快速輕鬆地）做完某事
I'll knock off 10yuan.
我願意降10元。
Moving house will knock an hour off his journey to work.
搬家將使他的上班路程縮短一小時。
He makes a lot of money knocking off copies of famous paintings.
他靠快速仿製名畫賺大錢。
