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His younger brother, Hintze, nodded in agreement. "Bad news!"
他弟弟辛茨也点头说：“不好了！”
"The corn fell down," Thomas said.
“玉米倒下了！”托马斯说。
I leapt to my feet, dashed through the house and flung the back door open wide. “No,” I whispered. It was true. My small field of light-emerald, three-and-a-half feet high corn was leaning. No, more than leaning. Some of the stalks were practically horizontal. Slipping my feet into my work shoes, I hurried to the corn.
我跳起来，猛地推开后门，冲出屋子。“不！”我低声道。但是千真万确，我那片小小的嫩绿的玉米地里，横七竖八地歪着那些三英尺半高的玉米。不仅仅是歪着，有的玉米秆都横着躺下了。我急匆匆地穿上工作鞋赶紧冲到玉米地里。
"See?" It was Thomas, coming up behind me, "It fell down. The wind did it."
“看到了吧？”跟着跑来的托马斯说，“它们都被风吹倒了。”
I nodded, numb. But, never one to give up, I set to feverish action. I waded gently into the garden, my hands tenderly lifting each corn stalk back to its vertical position. The wind blew. The corn fell again. I cursed the wind and straightened my corn plants again, daring the wicked southwestern gusts to come again. They did; the corn fell. Muttering swear words for all things stormy, I gently roped each and every stalk up, tying the rows to firm anchors on each end. Now the wind died down. My corn was going to live! It was going to thrive! It would provide loads of delicious, nourishing staple food for my family!
我呆呆地点了点头。但我可不是一个轻易放弃的人，我又狂热地行动起来。我小心翼翼地趟水走进菜园，用手轻轻地把每一株玉米扶起来。风一刮，玉米又倒下了。我一边骂着风，一边又一次把玉米扶起来，我可不怕这可恶的西南风再刮来。确实又来了，玉米再次倒下。我喃喃自语地说起粗话，咒骂着所有与暴风雨有关的事。我轻轻地把每一株玉米扶起绑好，把每一排玉米都牢牢绑在两头的支架上。现在风平息了，我的玉米会活下去！它们会茂盛地生长！又可以为我们家提供许多美味又营养丰富的主食了。
By the end of August, it was clear my corn would provide very little, if any, delicious, nourishing staple food for my family. The tallest stalk in my tiny field reached no higher than my neck. Small nubs were growing here and there on the healthiest of the plants, but they were not developing well. In the end, we got five little cobs. Kernels had formed over maybe seventy percent of the cobs' body.
8月底到了，很明显，我的玉米就算能结籽，也只能为我们家提供一点点美味又营养丰富的主食。那片地上最高的玉米还不到我的脖子，只有几棵最健康的玉米秧上零星地长了几根小玉米棒，就这几个也长得不太好。最后我们只收获了5根小玉米棒，一根玉米棒上只有大约70%的地方结了玉米粒。
