聚集的人群

闵正威

星際战争前夕，一颗诡异的星球落在了地球上之后，有人漠视、有人猜疑、还有人忧虑……

难词探意

1. belly / beli/  n. 腹部;胃

2. ambitious / m b   s/  adj. 志向远大的;雄心勃勃的

When I got to the pit， there were about twenty or so people standing around it. My friend， Ogilvy， and Henderson were not there. I guessed that they had probably decided to get some food in their bellies before coming back to spend the day observing the strange object. The people currently looking at it were a mixture of townspeople， farmers， gardeners， a woman with her child， and some impatient boys， who， until I told them to stop， were expressing their boredom and disappointment by throwing rocks at the cylinder.

In reality， from a distance， the object was not at all impressive. It looked like a common man- made object. However， when I walked down into the pit and took a closer look，I saw that the metal covering was nothing like the metal we are used to on earth. It had as lightly different color. I knew， almost right away，that it had come from Mars， but I doubted that it contained any living things inside. My best guess was that it would simply; contain items from another planet's civilization， things such as currency， writing，or maybe even pictures. I hoped that they would soon open it， So that we could have a look inside.

Standing there and looking at the Thing only made me more impatient. I decided to return home for a little while.

By the afternoon， the sandpits were entirely crowded with people from all over. Neither the heat of the day nor the lack of sheltering trees could keep people from coming miles to see the mysterious cylinder from Mars. One ambitious sales man even set up a stand to sell apples and drinks to the gathering crowd. As I approached the pit， I found Ogilvy， along with five other scientists， working around the cylinder. One of the men， Stent， was from 9 the Royal Astronomical Society. He was standing on top of the metal object， giving orders to people here and there to dig. Much more of the machine could now be seen. However， the bottom was still deeply set in the sand.

Ogilvy then called to me to join him in the pit，where he asked me if I would be willing to find the owner of the sandpits， Lord Hilton. It seemed that the crowd of people was preventing the scientists from doing their work and they wanted a fence to be built around the bake in order to  keep the people out. He also said that they could hear some sounds coming from inside the object， and the softness of the sound might indicate that the walls of the cylinder were extremely thick.

I left at once， only to find that the landowner was away on business and would be returning later that evening at about six. I then went home for tea and made plans to meet the gentleman as soon as he arrived at the train station.