Level 4 - Kid City E-Book

Andreas Schlüter

• Herausgeber: Arena
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Deutsch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Seitenzahl: 299

Beschreibung

"Die Stadt der Kinder" ist für den dreizehnjährigen Computerfreak Ben das Spiel aller Spiele. Noch nie ist es ihm gelungen, die letzte Spielebene zu erreichen. Bei einem seiner unzähligen Versuche verschwinden durch einen Fehler im Programm alle Erwachsenen - nicht nur im Spiel, sondern auch in der Wirklichkeit. Ein atemberaubend spannender Roman, in dem Kinder Verantwortung übernehmen und sich erfolgreich organisieren. Englisch lernen mit einem der erfolgreichsten Jugendromane der letzten Jahre - da ist Hochspannung im Unterricht angesagt. Die Übersetzung von einer der renommiertesten Übersetzerinnen (sie übersetzte unter anderem Cornelia Funkes "Tintenherz" ins Englische) sowie die didaktische Ausarbeitung sorgen für optimalen Lernerfolg - und die spannende Geschichte für den nötigen Spaß dabei.

Leseprobe

Andreas Schlüter

Level 4

Kid City

Ins Englische übersetzt von Anthea Bell

Didaktische Bearbeitung: Birgit Hock

Andreas Schlüter,geboren 1958, ist einer der erfolgreichsten Jugendbuchautoren der letzten Jahre. Mit seinem Kinderroman »Level 4 – Die Stadt der Kinder« hatte er vom Start weg großen Erfolg und eine riesige Leserschar. Bevor Andreas Schlüter zum Schreiben kam, leitete er mehrere Jahre Kinder- und Jugendgruppen in Hamburg. Seit 1990 arbeitet er als freischaffender Journalist und Redakteur, seit 1996 als freier Schriftsteller.

Von Andreas Schlüter sind als Arena-Taschenbuch erschienen: Schnappschuss! (Band 2450) Abgezockt! (Band 2452)

In neuer Rechtschreibung

1. Auflage dieser Ausgabe als Arena-Taschenbuch 2004 Die Erstausgabe erschien 1994 unter dem Titel Level 4. Die Stadt der Kinderbei Altberliner, Berlin/München. Copyright dieser Ausgabe: © 2004 by Arena Verlag GmbH, Würzburg Englische Fassung: Anthea Bell Alle Rechte vorbehalten Umschlagillustration: Caroline Kehr Umschlagtypografie: knaus. büro für konzeptionelle und visuelle identitäten, Würzburg ISSN 0518-4002 ISBN 978-3-401-80603-7

The New Computer Game

The sun shone through the window right into Ben’s eyes. Ben blinked, squinted at his radio alarm, and next moment he was wide awake. The clock showed sixthirty. He could really have slept in for another half an hour if he’d wanted, but today he just couldn’t do that.

(to) squint: schielen

Full of excitement, Ben jumped out of bed. Today was the day. Today he was finally getting that new computer game. His best friend Frank was going to bring it to school. In return Ben had promised him the new tracksuit that Grandma had given him. It was a steep price to pay. Just for a moment Ben had misgivings: ought he really to do the deal? His grandmother certainly wouldn’t be pleased to know he was planning to swap the tracksuit for a computer game. But he’d thought it all over for two weeks and made his decision. The computer game mattered more to him.

tracksuit: der Trainingsanzug

misgivings: die Bedenken

(to) swap: tauschen

Ben dressed at the speed of light. He opened his chest of drawers and snatched two socks, one red and one green. Now, quick, sweater and jeans. Minutes later he put his head around the door of his mother’s bedroom. »Hi, Mum! No breakfast today?« Ben’s mother shot upright in bed. She gave the alarm clock a frantic glance. Six thirty-three. Thank heavens, she hadn’t overslept after all.

»Ben!« she said in surprise. »Look, it’s only six thirty. Another forty-five minutes to breakfast. What’s up with you?«

at the speed of light: mit Lichtgeschwindigkeit

(to) snatch: greifen

frantic: hektisch, verzweifelt

»I have to be at school early today,« Ben told her in urgent tones. »I’m getting a new computer game.«

»I don’t believe it!« groaned Ben’s mother, letting her head drop back on the warm, soft pillow. . . »You wake me up half an hour early to tell me that?»

in urgent tones: mit drängeliger Stimme

(to) groan: stöhnen

»Well, it’s important,« said Ben grouchily.

»Oh, sure,« said his mother, slowly sitting up in bed again. She looked at Ben again and suddenly laughed out loud.

grouchily: grantig

»What’s the joke?« Ben inquired.

(to) inquire: nachfragen, sich erkundigen

Shaking her head, his mother looked at the red sock and the green sock. Her eyes moved on to the waist of Ben’s jeans, saw that his flies were still open, travelled still higher and noticed that his sweater was on back to front.

»You clown, have you looked at yourself in the mirror today?« asked his mother, giggling. »I bet the game was so important you didn’t even wash.«

waist: die Taille

flies (pl): der Hosenschlitz

Wash! I ask you! I’m getting the new computer game today and she carries on about washing! Ben was baffled. I washed last night, I slept in a clean bed and I got out of that clean bed again this morning. So can anyone tell me how I’d be dirty?

baffled: verblüfft

»I’m not a baby any more,« said Ben indignantly, hoping to get away from the awkward subject of washing as soon as possible.

»Of course not,« agreed his mother, grinning. »Still, it seems you’re not big enough yet to get dressed properly, let along make your own breakfast.«

indignantly: entrüstet, empört

awkward: unangenehm

»Oh, Ma!« groaned Ben. »You never take me seriously. Look, it’s nearly ten to seven. I must go.«

»It’s not even twenty to seven,« his mother corrected him. »Must be a really important game to get you up so early.« She sat on the edge of the bed, rubbed her eyes sleepily again and picked up her dressing-gown from the floor beside the bed. »Where’s this wonderful game coming from?« she asked.

(to) groan: stöhnen

»Frank,« said Ben at once. »It’s a swap.« As soon as he said it he wished he hadn’t.

swap: der Tausch

Now she’ll ask what I’m swapping for it. He made a beeline for the kitchen. Sure enough, here came the question he expected. »A swap? What for?«

(to) make a beeline for sb/sth: schnell, geradewegs auf jdn/etw zugehen

Ben pretended he hadn’t heard. His mother shuffled into the kitchen and asked again as she took milk, butter and jam out of the fridge.

(to) pretend: vortäuschen, vorgeben; so tun, als ob

(to) shuffle: schlurfen

Ben took refuge in his room. »I have to pack up my things for school,« he said as casually as possible.

(to) take refuge in: sich flüchten

casually: beiläufig, lässig

As he entered his room, his radio alarm was just going off. It was set for quarter to seven. Some man reading the news summary was droning on. »The following measures to counter the escalation of street violence are therefore being discussed by parliamentary committees.« Ben pressed the Off button. All that boring talk, he thought. Who bothers about it?

(to) drone on: leiern

(to) counter: bekämpfen, entgegenwirken

He picked up his school bag, hoping it had the books he’d need today in it. Over the last three days he’d been lucky anyway with the basic stuff in his bag. An exercise book, two pens, and of course his maths and physics books. Ben always had those with him. He wasn’t about to miss out on his favourite subjects. His history textbook, on the other hand, had vanished without trace three weeks ago, but no one at school had noticed yet.

(to) vanish without trace: spurlos verschwinden

He went back into the kitchen, where his mother had now laid a good breakfast just as she did every morning. Her coffee was still gurgling through the filter machine. Ben drank his glass of milk in a single gulp, took an apple from the fruit bowl and disappeared into the front hall.

»Don’t you want any breakfast?« asked his mother in surprise.

(to) gurgle: gluckern

» . . .ised . . . eet . . . nk,« grunted Ben, holding the apple in his mouth as he put his jacket on, at the same time trying to get his right foot into a trainer that was still laced up.

»What?« asked his mother.

Removing the apple from his mouth, Ben repeated impatiently, »I promised to meet Frank. And it’s so late already.«

He finally managed to get his trainers on without unlacing them first. Picking up his school bag, he grabbed the sandwich his mother was handing him and was about to hurry out of the door.

No luck – she was asking that question again. »Right, so you’re swapping this computer game with Frank? What for?«

He really did have to leave now. »My tracksuit,« he said very quickly, hoping his mother wouldn’t hear him properly. But she did.

(to) grunt: grunzen, brummen, knurren

trainer: der Sportschuh

to be laced up: zugeschnürt sein

»The new tracksuit Grandma gave you?« she insisted. »Yes,« Ben admitted in a small voice.

»Do you think that’s a nice thing to do?« asked his mother, adding, »You wanted it so much. And Grandma went all over the place to find exactly the right tracksuit for you.«

(to) insist: beharren, bestehen auf

»I know,« mumbled Ben, staring at the floor with his head bent. »But . . . well, I’m not all that mad about sport anyway. And this computer game isn’t just any old game. It’s really new and exciting. No one’s ever made it to Level Four yet. When we’re trying it in the store they always chuck us out before we can get that far, and . . .«

(to) mumble: murmeln

(to) chuck sb out: jdn rausschmeißen

Ben’s mother interrupted her son’s sudden torrent of words. »It was the same with the other five hundred computer games, am I right?« Sometimes his mother just wouldn’t let go.

»Only a hundred and forty-eight,« Ben put her right. He knew exactly how many games he had. »But I copied most of them. You can’t copy this one!« Ben tried desperately to find good reasons why his grandmother’s present of the tracksuit had to go.

torrent of words: der Wortschwall

»Well, it’s your tracksuit,« said his mother. »You can do what you like with it. All I say is, be honest about it. If Grandma asks you where the tracksuit is you must tell her truthfully what you did. So think about that for a moment.«

»Yes, yes, I will,« promised Ben, hoping his grandmother would never ask any such question.

truthfully: ehrlich

Barely ten minutes later Ben arrived at the school gates, out of breath. He’d run all the way, of course. His excitement grew with every step he took. He was going to get that new computer game at last. Long before he reached the school gates Ben was looking in all directions, hoping to spot Frank. But Frank was nowhere to be seen, and he wasn’t at the school gates either. I don’t believe it, thought Ben, looking at his watch, which showed that it was 14.15 hours in Tokyo, 1.15 in New York, 9.15 in Moscow and 7.15 here at Ben’s school. He hadn’t fixed to meet Frank until seven-thirty. But you don’t have to leave it to the very last minute, he told his absent friend. Ben was getting more and more impatient.

barely: kaum, knapp

at last: endlich

absent: abwesend, nicht da

»Hi, Ben,« someone called across the school yard. Ben turned and saw Thomas mooching towards him. That’s all I needed, thought Ben. School will be out before thatdawdlergets here.

(to) mooch: schleichen, zockeln

dawdler: der Trödler, der Bummelant

»Have your done your maths homework? I need to copy it from somewhere,« shouted Thomas while he was still some way off. Two teachers hurrying past glanced at him in surprise. Maths was the first lesson, but even that didn’t seem to make Thomas feel he’d better get a move on. He was approaching Ben in slow motion, as usual. Thomas thought that if you were in too much of a hurry you missed out on the best things in life. He was a keen collector of all kinds of odds and ends, never mind what they were. »The main thing is, they’re for free and you only have to pick them up,« Thomas explained to his friends whenever he made another find. His room at home looked like the biggest, untidiest, craziest lost property office in town – the collection had even taken over his parents’ garage.

keen: eifrig, begeistert

odds and ends (pl): Der Krimskram, der Kram

lost property office: das Fundbüro

»Watch out!« Ben instinctively jumped aside. Tyres squealing, a bike had braked right next to him just outside the school gates. It was a miracle it managed to stop before hitting them. Ben’s heart was thudding. He gasped for air. Then he sighed with relief. »Frank – at last! Where’ve you been all this time?«

»It was my mother. You know what it’s like – eat your toast, drink your milk, are you sure you have everything for school, where’s this, where’s that . . .«

»Yes, just like mine,« Ben interrupted his friend. »Well – do you have it with you?«

(to) squeal: quietschen, quieken, kreischen

(to) thud: klopfen, pochen

relief: die Erleichterung

»Of course. What did you think?« Frank fished a large bundle of newspaper out of his jacket pocket. Relishing Ben’s happy anticipation to the full, Frank unfolded the newspaper very slowly, with solemn gestures and a grave face, as if about to reveal the greatest invention of the century to the world – even though it was only the new computer game that his father had passed on to him. Ben often envied Frank because his father, who worked for a computer firm, could get his hands on the very latest games. A father who could provide all these good things was wasted on Frank. First, Frank was more interested in sport than computers, and second, he usually failed right at the start on Level One in most games.

Something enclosed in yellow plastic foam and red rubber bands came into view.

»Do you have that maths homework or don’t you?« Thomas had arrived by now.

(to) relish: auskosten, Gefallen finden, genießen

anticipation: die Vorfreude

solemn: feierlich

grave: ernst

(to) waste: verschwenden, vergeuden

»You’re a pain, Thomas,« said Ben and Frank in the same breath. Thomas froze, not that you’d really have noticed since he usually moved so slowly anyway. There’s some mystery about this, he guessed. But no one was about to tell him what it was, so he turned and mooched off again in the direction of the classroom. Frank had undone the plastic foam and rubber bands. But there was still another layer of wrapping – this time it was aluminium foil.

»Didn’t you have a proper case for it at home?« complained Ben nervously.

in the same breath: im selben Atemzug

»Nope. Better ask Thomas. He’s sure to have one,« replied Frank, and went calmly on with unpacking the game. There was cotton wool under the foil, a duster under the cotton wool, a handkerchief under the duster, and under the handkerchief – at long last – was the CD-ROM with the game he wanted so much. Ben had often seen that game in the department store, he’d tried it out himself several times. But whenever he was about to reach the most advanced level some spoilsport salesman would come along and stop the fun. »You’ve been playing long enough,« he’d tell Ben. »The customers who are really going to buy want to see how it works.« Well, Ben couldn’t care less about any salesman now.

»So where’s the tracksuit?« asked Frank.

duster: das Staubtuch

advanced: fortgeschritten, anspruchsvoll

spoilsport: der Spielverderber, die Spielverderberin

Ben carefully put the silver disk in the sleeve he’d brought with him. Then he pointed to the cardboard box he had brought to school, too. Frank picked it up, grinning happily.

»Do me a favour,« Ben asked. »If you ever happen to meet my grandma don’t tell her all about your new tracksuit, right?«

During lessons Ben couldn’t concentrate at all, even in maths. He kept imagining himself reaching Level Four and successfully ending the game there with maximum points, a record score. He was so lost in thought that he didn’t even notice a small, screwedup ball of paper thrown at him from the right-hand side of the classroom. It landed on the floor right beside his chair.

sleeve: die Hülle

Thomas thumped him on the back from behind.

»Note for you,« he whispered.

»Note? Where from?« asked Ben.

Thomas was grinning all over his face. »Where do you think?« he replied. »Same as usual.« He nodded briefly in Jennifer’s direction.

Jennifer, sitting on the other side of the classroom by the windows, was looking impatiently at Ben and wondering if he was ever going to notice her note – before the teacher did, anyway.

(to) thump: klopfen, schlagen

Ben smoothed out the crumpled paper and read:

Hi, Ben!

I haven’t even looked at the maths homework properly yet. And the maths test is tomorrow.

Can you help me?

This afternoon, please.

It’s really important.

Jennifer.

(to) smooth: glätten, glatt streichen

That was all Ben needed. He himself had already ticked off preparation for the test on his To Do list. Or rather, he was so anxious to get started on the new computer game that he’d forgotten all about the test. That didn’t matter. Ben had no problems with maths. He’d never had worse than a Two Minus in a test, even without any preparation for it.

(to) tick off: abhaken

anxious: begierig auf

Now here was Jennifer wanting help. And without her help his last English test would certainly have been a disaster. The fact was, he owed her.

disaster: die Katastrophe, das Fiasko

(to) owe sb sth: jdm etw schuldig sein

Although he wasn’t best pleased, Ben tore a page out of his exercise book and scribbled on it:

Hi, Jennifer!

Okay.

Come round to my place at four.

We’ll go through the maths together.

But I don’t have much time. Sorry, but I really don’t.

Ben.

Ben folded up the note, wrote »Jennifer« on it in large letters, and sent it back by what they called the usual mailing route – the note was passed from hand to hand under the desks until it finally reached Jennifer.

She unfolded the paper, glanced through it, and a smile of relief spread over her face.

(to) tear: reißen, ausreißen

(to) scribble: kritzeln

»Great,« she signalled to Ben with her thumb and forefinger in sign language. Ben rolled his eyes toward the ceiling, and then let his head drop heavily into his hands, elbows propped on the desk. That was his afternoon gone, he knew.

sign language: die Zeichensprache

The Game Begins

Ben was finally home.

He raced up to his room, flung his school bag into the corner and took the CD-ROM out of its sleeve. His hands were shaking, partly with excitement, partly because he’d run all the way from school. Still breathing heavily, he put the CD in its slot. With a swift gesture, Ben swept everything off his desk that might distract him as he played. Then he switched the computer on. The screen flickered. A brief beep.

The usual standard lines came up on the screen in yellow and disappeared again. Ben began installing the game. Finally a shrill, simple was heard. Then the screen announced: