Lesson 9 The Ghost Ship
Martin Waddell
1、One day Ernie was late for school. He ran up School Hill and slipped through the hole in the fence. He hoped the Head wouldn’t see him.
2、“Wow!” Ernie gasped. There was a ghost ship floating about in the playground.It was much like an ordinary ship, but white and see-through. He knew that it couldn’t be real.
3、The ghost ship was tied to one of the netball posts. A strange glow came from it, and it rocked up and down as if it was riding invisible waves. A ghost seagull flew around it. “Ahoy there, ghost ship!” Ernie cried bravely.
4、A ghost’s head popped out from a window. “Who said that?” the ghost asked. “I did!” said Ernie. “But you’re not supposed to be able to see me!” the ghost gasped.Then the ghost thought again. “Are you sure you can see me?” the ghost asked. “Quite sure,” Ernie said.
5、The window slammed shut. “I spoke to a ghost!” Ernie shouted. Mrs. Wiggins, the caretaker, heard Ernie shout. She came running out to the playground. “I sp-sp-spoke to a ghost!” Ernie stuttered. “Shh! Don’t tell anyone,” said Mrs. Wiggins. “Why not?”
Ernie asked.
6、“I don’t want you upsetting the small ones in Class One!” Mrs. Wiggins said.
7、“But the ghost ship’s parked in the playground,” Ernie said. “They’ll see it when they come out at break.” “Not everyone can see it,” said Mrs. Wiggins.
8、“Well, I can,” Ernie told her. “Then that makes two of us,” sighed Mrs. Wiggins.
9、Mrs. Wiggins marched up to the ghost ship. “Ship ahoy!” called Mrs. Wiggins.
10、The window popped open, and out looked the same ghost as before.
11、“Ahoy there, Mrs. Wiggins,” the ghost said, politely.
12、“Captain Pegleg!” Mrs. Wiggins scolded. “You promised that no one else but me could see you. But one of the children from Class Four just has! Haven’t you, Ernie?’
13、“Yes,” Ernie said, “I just have.”
14、“Well, it can happen, you know,” the Captain said, sounding upset. “Not often, but sometimes it happens.”
15、“You can’t keep sailing in here if people can see you!” Mrs. Wiggins said, firmly.
16、“I can’t help sailing in here,” the Captain told her. “Why not?” Ernie asked.
17、“There’s just me on board!” said the Captain. “I can’t sail her alone, so I have to go where she blows. I just wish she’d blow in here more often. Then I could hunt for my treasure.” The Captain went on, “I’m doomed to sail the seas forever until I find my lost treasure. I know it’s here because that’s what it says on my map.”
18、“You’d better find it this time, or else!” warned Mrs. Wiggins. The window snapped shut.
19、“Ghost treasure!” said Ernie. “Wait till I tell this to Class Four!”
20、Everyone had to wait until break time to see the ghost ship. They rushed out of class and into the playground. “There it is!” Ernie shouted, pointing at the ghost ship. Everyone took a good look. They saw the bins and the fence, but they couldn’t see any ship. “We can’t see it,” said Louie. “But there IS a ghost ship!” Ernie said, looking at it, and through it, both at the same time. The ghost ship was see-through and fuzzy.
21、“There’s no ghost ship here!” said Louie. The ghost seagull flew down and landed on Louie’s head. “A ghost seagull just landed on your head!” Ernie told Louie.
22、“Oh no! It didn’t!” said Louie, who couldn’t see it, or feel it.
23、“OH YES IT DID!” Ernie shouted. “OH NO! IT DIDN’T!” roared everyone else.
24、They laughed at Ernie for making up stories about ghost seagulls and ships. Then they ran off to play.
25、Along came Jade, the smallest and cleverest girl in Class Four. “What’s that ghost ship doing here?” she asked Ernie. “You can see it too!” Ernie gasped. “Of course I can,” said Jade.
26、“No one else can, but me and Mrs. Wiggins,” Ernie said. “It’s Captain Pegleg’s ship and he’s doomed to sail the sea forever, until he finds his lost treasure. He thinks he left it around here.” “We could help him to find it,” said little Jade. “How?” Ernie asked.
27、“My dad has books about treasure hunting,” said Jade. “We’ll look in his books and find out what to do.” “Ghost treasure hunt starts right now!” shouted Ernie.
28、“Ghost treasure hunt starts when we’ve looked at Dad’s books!” said Jade.
29、The bell went for the start of lessons. “After school!” Jade told him. “After school and no mucking about!”
30、After school, they went to Jade’s house and got out her dad’s books about treasure hunting. “That’s how we’ll do it!” said Jade, showing Ernie a page in one of the books.
31、“But we haven’t got one of those,” Ernie said, pointing at the metal detector.
32、“My dad has,” Jade said. “He uses it when he hunts for old coins and things on the beach. That’s why he has all these books about treasure hunting.”
33、They ran back up School Hill to the school. Ernie was carrying a spade and Jade had a big bag, with the metal detector in it.
34、“Captain Pegleg!” Ernie called. The Captain was on deck. “You again!” said Captain Pegleg. “Can you still see me?” “Yes,” Ernie said.
35、“We know you can’t stop sailing till you find your ghost treasure,” Jade told the Captain.
36、“We want to help you find it,” Ernie added. “But first we want to look at your map,” said Jade. The map was ripped and torn, with lots of holes in it.
37、“The ghost seagull got at it!” Captain Pegleg said.
38、“It says: X Marks the treasure on the map,” said Jade, “but I don’t see any X.”
39、“The ghost seagull pecked out my X. I can’t remember where it was,” sighed Captain Pegleg. “I can’t even find Treasure Island… But I’m sure this is where it used to be.”
40、“It is!” said little Jade, and she grinned. “Treasure Island is here, where we’re standing!”
41、“How do you know?” asked Ernie. “Look!” Jade said, and she drew on the back of the Captain’s map. “The bit sticking up is School Hill!” she told Ernie. “Where our houses are now used to be under the sea years ago. My dad told me.”
42、“We still don’t know where to look!” Ernie said. “We could dig all day and never find the treasure.” “We’ll use my dad’s metal detector,” explained Jade. “It’ll go pinging when we’re near the treasure.”
43、“If metal detectors work on ghost gold!” muttered Ernie.
44、“Well, it might work,” said Jade. “At least we can try.”
45、So they looked for the treasure… But they didn’t find it… so they looked again… and again… They looked again… and again… Then PING PING PING went the metal detector. It was the treasure!
46、They dug up Captain Pegleg’s ghost treasure chest filled with gold. It was ghost gold, so it wasn’t as heavy as real gold. They started to carry it back to the ship.
47、At least, that’s what they started to do. But as they were walking back towards the school, the ghost treasure chest began fading away. Captain Pegleg began fading, too.
48、“Goodbye, Captain Pegleg,” Jade whispered.
49、“The ghost ship faded away because we found Captain Pegleg’s treasure,” Ernie told Class Four the next day. “There never was a ghost ship,” said Louie.
50、“Oh yes, there WAS!” shouted Ernie. “Oh no, there WASN’T!” shouted everyone else.
51、Somewhere else, somewhere far away, a ghost seagull cried. But nobody heard it, except Ernie and Jade and Mrs. Wiggins.
(1,252 words)
Exercises
Ⅰ. How well did you read?
1. [Check the details] Who could see the ghost ship?
A. Mrs. Wiggins and Ernie.
B. Mrs. Wiggins, Ernie and Jade.
C. Mrs. Wiggins, Ernie and Louie.
2. [Give the reason] Why did the ghost captain wish the ship parked in the playground?
A. Because he liked the kids at school.
B. Because he wanted to find his lost treasure.
C. Because he wished he could find someone to play with him.
3. [Check the details] What helped Ernie and Jade find the ghost treasure?
A. The ghost seagull. B. The ghost ship. C. The metal detector.
Ⅱ. Read for words.
1. Choose one best paraphrase or Chinese meaning for the underlined words.
(1) The ghost ship was tied to one of the netball posts. (Para. 3, Line 1)
A. 柱子 B. 邮件 C. 岗位
(2) “But we haven’t got one of those,” Ernie said, pointing at the metal detector. (Para. 31, Line 1)
A. a discoverer
B. a device used to discover sth
C. a tool helping find ghost
2. Choose one best paraphrase or Chinese meaning for the underlined expressions.
(1) A strange glow came from it, and it rocked up and down as if it was riding invisible waves. (Para. 3, Line 2)
A. 晃来晃去 B. 上下跳动 C. 触礁
(2) They laughed at Ernie for making up stories about ghost seagulls and ships. (Para. 24, Line 1)
A. reading stories B. inventing stories C. telling stories
(3) “If metal detectors work on ghost gold!” muttered Ernie. (Para. 43, Line 1)
A. are ready to look for B. keep on working C. are useful in finding
Ⅲ. Writing practice.
1. Where did the ghost ship park and why did it park there?
2. What was the ghost captain’s name?
3. When could the ghost captain stop sailing the seas?
4. Who helped the captain to find the lost ghost treasure?
5. What happened to the ghost captain and his ship when they
helped to find theghost treasure?