The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System
The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System It was trip day again in Ms. Frizzle's class. Everyone was excited. We were going to the planetarium to see a sky show about the solar system. Class, an orbit is the path of a planet or other object around the sun. I knew that. I get all A's in school. What a show-off. Arnold's cousin Janet was visiting our class for the day. "I know all of you will be nice to our guest," said the Friz. I have f
登录后可以听外教原声朗读。
The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System
The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System
It was trip day again in Ms. Frizzle's class. Everyone was excited.
We were going to the planetarium to see a sky show about the solar system.
Class, an orbit is the path of a planet or other object around the sun.
I knew that. I get all A's in school. What a show-off.
Arnold's cousin Janet was visiting our class for the day.
"I know all of you will be nice to our guest," said the Friz.I have five computers. Thanks for inviting your cousin, Arnold.
My class went to the planetarium last year.
She's actually nice when you get to know her.
We tried to be nice to Janet. We really did.
As we got on the school bus, we told her that Ms. Frizzle is the weirdest teacher in school.
But Janet wasn't interested. She wanted to tell us about herself.
My school is taller than your school. Our swings are better than your swings.
My teacher is weirder than your teacher. Who wants a tall school?
As usual, it took a while to get the old bus started. But finally we were on our way.
As we were driving, Ms. Frizzle told us all abouthow the Earth spins like a top as it moves in its orbit.
It was just a short drive to the planetarium, but Ms. Frizzle talked fast.
This bus is a wreck. At least it started this time.
We have new school buses at our school.
When the earth spins we say it rotates.The earth makes one rotation - turn - every day.
When we got to the planetarium, it was closed for repairs."Class, this means we'll have to return to school," said the Friz. We were so disappointed!
Back to school? I'm so depressed! My planetarium is always open.
On the way back, as we were waiting at a red light, something amazing happened.
The bus started tilting back, and we heard the roar of rockets.
"Oh, dear," said Ms. Frizzle. "We seem to be blasting off!"Here we go again. Not another crazy trip!
Children, we are going through the atmosphere - the layers of air around the earth.
I guess we'll be seeing the solar system after all.
My bus has bigger rockets than your bus. Yeah right, Janet.
When the roar of the rockets stopped, we looked around.
Everything had changed. The bus had turned into a spaceship.
We were all dressed in space suits, and we were lighter than feathers. We floated above our seats!
I'm flying! I'm flying higher than you are!
Look! It's A U. F. B. A what? An unidentified flying banana.
Far behind, in the black sky, we saw the planet Earth getting smaller and smaller.We were traveling in space! We had become astronauts!
Look how small the earth seems from here!
Class, notice earth's blue oceans, white clouds and brown land.
It's beautiful! I think I have to go to the bathroom.
The Friz said our first stop would be the Moon.
We got off the bus and looked around. There was no air, no water, no sign of life.
All we saw were dust and rock and lots and lots of craters.
Ms. Frizzle said the craters were formed billions of years ago when the Moon was hit by meteorites.
Meteorites are falling chunks of rock and metal.
We are so light on the moon! That's because the moon has less gravity than the earth.
Look how high we can jump! I was in a national jump-rope contest. I won, of course.
Is there a national bragging contest?
It was fun on the Moon. We wanted to play, but Ms. Frizzle said it was time to go.
So we got back on the bus."We'll start with the Sun, the center of the solar system," said the Friz, and we blasted off.
We zoomed toward the Sun, the biggest, brightest, and hottest object in the solar system.
Jets of super-hot gases shot out at us from the surface.Thank goodness Ms. Frizzle didn't get too close!
You should never look directly at the sun children. It can damage your eyes!
You should never drive a bus directly into the sun either!
She steered around to the other side and pulled away.
"We'll be seeing all the planets in order class," explained Frizzie.
"Mercury is the first planet, the closest to the Sun."
My school is heated with solar energy. I have a sun deck.
I have ten pairs of sunglasses. Give us a break, Janet.
Mercury was a dead, sun-baked planet.
"This planet is a lot like our Moon. There is no water and hardly any air," said the Friz.
"Notice the craters on its surface as we pass by."
The sun looks twice as big here as it does from earth.
That's because mercury is so close. Too close! Let's go!
Before long, we felt ourselves being pulled in by the gravity of Venus - the second planet from the Sun.
Venus was completely covered by a thick layer of yellowish clouds.
"We will now explore the surface of Venus," said Ms. Frizzle.
We're gaining weight, and we haven't even had lunch.
We will be heavier here than on the moon or mercury because Venus has more gravity.
Below the clouds, Venus was as dry as a desert.
The ground was covered with rocks. And it was HOT!
It was about 460 degrees Celsius! That's much hotter than an oven baking cookies!There's no life on Venus, class. It's too hot! It's too dry! There's too much acid! Let's leave!
The air was so heavy we could feel it pressing down on us!
Ms. Frizzle said there might be active volcanoes around, too. We said, "Let's get out of here!"
"Our next stop is Mars, the red planet, fourth from the Sun," announced the Friz.
"On our way, we'll be passing through the orbit of Earth, the third planet."The bus lifted off with a roar.
I've been to mars lots of times. Just ignore her.
As we came close to Mars, we passed its two moons, which are called Phobos and Deimos.
Compared to our Moon, they were tiny. And they weren't even round!Those are moons? They look like potatoes with craters.
Long ago, there was water in those channels.
But today Mars's water is frozen in the polar ice caps and in the channels.
Looking down, we saw a huge canyon. Ms. Frizzle said it was as long as the United States.
There was a volcano three times taller than the tallest volcano on Earth.
And all around, there were channels that looked like dried-up river beds.
Ice can be found under the soil. Earth is the best planet for life.That's why I live there. Janet likes to be the best. We noticed.
We landed and started walking around. Suddenly a huge dust storm blew up.
Ms. Frizzle said dust storms on Mars can last for months. They may cover the whole planet.
Are there any aliens here? I don't see any. Don't be too sure.We scrambled back on the bus and headed out!
"Mars is the last of what we call the inner planets!"
Ms. Frizzle shouted above the roar of the rockets.
"We will now be going through the asteroid belt to the outer planets!"
Isn't space travel exciting, Arnold? I really prefer video games.
Thousands of asteroids were spinning all around us.
All at once, we heard the tinkling of broken glass.
One of our taillights had been hit by an asteroid.
Ms. Frizzle put the bus on autopilot and went out to take a look.
She kept on talking about asteroids over the bus radio.
The largest asteroid is only one third the size of our moon.Most asteroids are the size of houses or smaller. I wish she'd come inside.
Suddenly there was a snap. Ms. Frizzle's tether line had broken!
Without warning, the rockets fired up, and the bus zoomed away!The autopilot was malfunctioning.
On the radio, Ms. Frizzle's voice grew fainter and fainter.Kids, I'll meet you later ... Later ... Later. Come in, Ms. Frizzle. Do you read me?
Then she was gone. We were on our own! We were lost in the solar system!
Most of us were too scared to move. But Janet started searching the bus.
In the glove compartment she found Ms. Frizzle's lesson book.
As she began reading from it, a huge planet came into view.
"Class, this is Jupiter," Janet read.
"It's the first of the outer planets, and the largest planet in the solar system.
She shouldn't touch Ms. Frizzle's things. But this is an emergency!
"As we approach Jupiter, we can see some of its many moons."
"Arnold, are you listening?" Boy, Ms. Frizzle plans everything!
We thought the school bus was going to land. But there was no solid ground to land on.
Jupiter is a "gas giant" - a planet made almost entirely of gas.
As we left Jupiter, we wondered and worried. Would we ever get home?
"Jupiter is so big that more than one thousand Earths could fit inside it."Ms. Frizzle, where are you?
The next sight made us forget our troubles. It was Saturn, a gas planet like Jupiter.
It had swirling clouds and lots of moons. But the most incredible thing about Saturn was its rings.
It was the most beautiful planet in the solar system!
"There are thousands of rings around Saturn, class."
They look like the grooves in an old phonograph record. Saturn is the grooviest planet, man!
Next was Uranus, a blue-green gas planet with faint gray rings and moons.
Some scientists think they might be made of chunks of graphite-the material used in pencils on Earth.
"Methane gas in its atmosphere makes Uranus look blue." You look kind of blue yourself.
I'm freezing! That's because we're so far away from the sun.
The bus was going faster and faster, and we couldn't control the autopilot.
We swept past stormy Neptune, another blue-green planet - eighth from the Sun.
All we could think about was finding Ms. Frizzle!
"Neptune is the last of the giant gas planets." We're almost out of gas ourselves!
And the nearest service station is 4,000 million kilometers away.
We were going so fast, we almost missed seeing Pluto and its moons.Charon is the biggest one, and hydrogen intranets are smaller.
We were so far away from the Sun that it didn't look big anymore.
It just looked like a very very bright star.I don't see anything but stars.Another star may have life on one fifth planets, we'll have to wait and see.
I hope Ms. Frizzle is waiting, too.
Janet flipped rapidly through Ms. Frizzle's book.
Suddenly she found something new - the instructions for the autopilot.
We punched in ASTEROID BELT on the control panel.
Slowly the bus turned around. It was working! We were going back!
Janet really saved the day. I told you she's a good kid.
When we reached the asteroid belt, there was Ms. Frizzle!
Hey, that asteroid is dressed funny.
That's not an asteroid, it's Ms. Frizzle! Boy, am I glad to see her. Me too!
