von Brigitte Johanna Henkel-Waidhofer
Englisch von Patricia Wolf
basierend auf „Die drei ??? - Fußball Gangster“ von
Brigitte Johanna Henkel-Waidhofer
Die drei ??? – Fußball Gangster © 1995, 2005 Franckh-Kosmos
Verlags-GmbH & Co. KG, Stuttgart
Mit freundlicher Genehmigung der Universität von Michigan.
Based on characters by Robert Arthur.
© PONS GmbH, Stöckachstraße 11, 70190 Stuttgart, 2015
PONS Produktinfos und Shop: www.pons.com
E-Mail: info@pons.de
Alle Rechte vorbehalten.
Annotationen und Übungen: Patricia Wolf
Redaktion: Elizabeth Webster, Karin Adam
Logoentwurf: Erwin Poell, Heidelberg
Logoüberarbeitung: Sabine Redlin, Ludwigsburg
Titelillustration: Aiga Rasch, Leinfelden-Echterdingen
Einbandgestaltung: Daniel Müller, Stuttgart
Tonaufnahmen/Digital Mastering: allegria Musik-/Audioproduktion GbR
Sprecherin: Elizabeth Webster
Layout/Satz: Satz und mehr, Besigheim
ISBN: 978-3-12-050020-9
Super, dass du ein spannendes E-Book der Drei ??? auf Englisch liest! Hier zwei Tipps, wie du damit perfekt klarkommst:
Die fett geschriebenen Wörter oder Ausdrücke zeigen, dass es hierzu Vokabelangaben gibt. Mit Klick auf ein fett geschriebenes Wort springst du automatisch zur Vokabelliste. Mit nochmaligem Klick auf das Wort in der Liste schließt sich diese wieder und du gelangst zurück zum Text.
Das CD-Symbol zeigt an, welchen Track des Hörbuchs du zum jeweiligen Kapitel anhören kannst.
Viel Spaß!
Inhaltsangabe
Auftretende Personen
01 – 031. An Evil Foul
04 – 092. Explosive News
10 – 133. Jimboy Momentarily Moans
14 – 164. A Trip To The Lake
17 + 185. On a Hot Scent
19 – 216. Mr Bow Knows Nothing
22 – 247. A Risky Bluff
25 – 278. Chicago as a Reward
Englisch-deutsche Wortliste
Nützliche Detektiv-Ausdrücke
Welches Interesse könnte ein Lebensmittelkonzern daran haben, eine ganze Fußballmannschaft unter seine Kontrolle zu bringen? Jimboy, Justus’ Cousin, hat sich mächtig verändert, seit er Stürmer in dieser Elf ist. Und zwar nicht zu seinem Vorteil. Die drei ??? bemerken bald einen Zusammenhang zwischen Jimboys Schweigsamkeit und seinen Erlebnissen im streng bewachten Trainingslager. Aber kaum haben sie Erfolg bei ihren Erkundungen, schaltet sich Inspektor Cotta ein. Justus, Peter und Bob sollen die Finger von dem brandheißen Fall lassen. Das sehen die drei ??? entschieden anders…
Justus Jonas – „The First Investigator“
ist der Anführer der drei ??? und weiß nicht nur alles über die Nibelungen.
Peter Shaw – „The Second Investigator“
ist der Zweite Detektiv, supersportlich und auch sonst immer gut drauf.
Bob Andrews – „ The Third Investigator“
spielt keinesfalls die dritte Geige; sondern ist unter anderem immer vorneweg, wenn’s um Technik geht, und hat einen ganz großen Auftritt als Verkleideter.
Lys, Elizabeth und Kelly
sind – in dieser Reihenfolge – die Freundinnen der drei Jungen.
Titus Jonas
ist Justus’ Onkel und betreibt den Schrottplatz, auf dem das Hauptquartier der drei ??? steht.
Tante Mathilda
ist seine Frau und schon wegen ihres Kirschkuchens äußerst populär.
Jimboy
ist ein Vetter von Justus, ein Fußballstar von morgen und benimmt sich schon mal sehr seltsam.
Eric Randolphe
ist ein Fernsehjournalist, dem das Übertragen von Sportereignissen nicht genügt.
Harry Bow
ist mal ziemlich redselig und dann wieder überhaupt nicht.
Mike Hammer
weiß als Sportpädagoge alles über Fußball und kennt noch ein paar Tricks mehr.
Tamara Mostowsky
ist in ihrem Beruf absolut professionell und scheint ziemlich nett zu sein.
Inspektor Cotta
ist von der Polizei in Rocky Beach und der Ansicht, die drei ??? müssten sich aus diesem Fall raushalten – aber da ist es schon zu spät.
Peter was in extreme pain. Justus saw the Second Investigator fall down in slow-motion.
“Peter!” Justus screamed, but his friend couldn’t hear him. Taking big strides he ran down the narrow stone steps and almost bumped into Elizabeth and Kelly. The girls belonged to the medical team that takes care of injured players. They were running onto the playing field behind two men carrying a stretcher. Justus wanted to follow them, but a boy with an armband held him back. “Not you,” he said rudely “you don’t belong here.” Justus gave him a dirty look but stopped at the side line. He could see Peter’s belly quickly moving up and down. Kelly was worried and bent over her friend.
Almost all of the players jogged up to them and stood in a circle around the injured boy. The referee signaled to the helpers to hurry. Justus felt his anger growing. Here was a seriously injured player lying on the ground and this jerk, was reacting as cool as a cucumber.
“Idiot,” he hissed. Carefully they lifted Peter onto the stretcher. Then the helpers and their patient disappeared behind the wide swinging doors into the first aid room.
Justus wasn’t interested in soccer until his high school team made the varsity league. The rules weren’t hard to understand for him, but he still wasn’t a real fan. He was only half interested in today’s match as well. The only reason he came along was because Peter had become the midfield-star of the team in the past weeks.
“Hey!” Justus went back to the boy from the security squad. “How did that happen?”
The other boy looked at him with pity. “During the counterattack after the corner ball, the boy from the ‘Angels’ covering on the left missed a cross.” He seemed to use as many special technical terms as possible. He wanted to show off as an expert of the new favorite sport of many teenagers and also wanted to make Justus angry. “Your man got the ball and the Angels’ sweeper swept him away.”
“Well, they’re stupid to still play with a sweeper, it’s really old-fashioned!” the First Investigator said. He wanted to stand up to this show-off. At the same moment the door of the first aid room opened and Kelly stormed out. “It’s probably the cruciate ligament,” she called, “it’s either overstretched or a bit torn. He has to be x-rayed.”
“I have a problem,” Justus said. “I would like to go along to the hospital but my cousin is arriving today. He is staying with us for a while. I promised Uncle Titus to go along to the airport.”
“No problem,” Kelly said. “Elizabeth and I will go along with Peter. We’ll call you afterwards, okay?”
Justus nodded and was relieved. In the past he often felt that both girls and their whole cheerleading squad were quite complicated. But that changed totally ever since Bob and Peter’s girl-friends started playing soccer. They were also responsible for organizing tournaments.
Two hours later Justus and Uncle Titus were standing in the airport waiting area. Because the air traffic controllers at the airport were on strike, the chaos here was worse than usual. Several signs were up about the strike – the air traffic controllers wanted to have more breaks during working time and they needed more workers. A few weeks ago there was almost a collision in the sky over Los Angeles. The result of the investigation showed that it was the fault of an overtired air traffic controller in the tower.
“Have I ever met Jimboy before?” asked Justus.
Uncle Titus shook his head. “Aunt Mathilda and I were in Chicago after he was born. But you weren’t around yet.”
Aunt Mathilda already told Justus about the complicated relationships between his relatives. His mother and Jimboy’s father had a mutual father, who was Uncle Titus’ father’s brother. Understanding this was no problem for Justus, the mastermind. Justus wanted to explain to Peter and Bob how he was related to Jimboy. But they waved it off and said they didn’t care.
“I can’t wait to see if we look alike,” the First Investigator said.
“I doubt it,” Uncle Titus said. “Jimboy’s father, Derny, is very, very tall. He’s two feet taller than anyone else in the family. Jimboy inherited his talent for soccer from him.”
When the first travellers came out of the gate Justus craned his neck to get a better view. The first one he saw was a blond guy, who seemed really nice. He had a duffle bag and was wearing cowboy boots. But he didn’t even look at Uncle Titus. Justus knew that Jimboy had Uncle Titus’ photograph with him so he wouldn’t miss him. Next, a red-haired boy in a track-suit came along, who was looking at the people waiting.
“Hi,” a deep voice on their right suddenly said, “I’m James Jonas.”
Justus looked around surprised. He had seen the tall guy with the long ponytail when he came out, but never thought he could be his athletic cousin. He looked more like a musician or a painter.
“I’m Titus Jonas,” Uncle Titus said, “and this is your cousin Justus.” “Hello, Jimboy.” Justus and Jonas shook hands and smiled.
“Jimboy?” he repeated. “Nobody in Chicago calls me ‘Jimboy’ anymore.”
“Here we always call you that when we talk about you. Do you mind?” Justus asked. They were walking to the baggage claim area. James shook his head. “Actually no,” he answered. “Maybe it’s not too bad to say goodbye to ‘James’.”
Even though Jimboy was only five months older than Justus, he was much taller. He was wearing baggy jeans and a casual sweater. But you could tell he was in good shape. They fetched Jimboy’s duffle bag and fought their way through the crowd to the exit. A few minutes later they turned onto the highway.
“Have you ever been on the West coast before?” Justus asked. Jimboy said no.
“Have you ever been in the East?” Jimboy asked. This time Justus shook his head.
Jimboy wanted to stay in Rocky Beach to attend Tamilton High School for at least half a year. The school’s varsity soccer team was famous all the way down to Mexico.
Next weekend a national tournament with the best soccer talents would take place to promote the new professional league. And Jimboy was so talented he was chosen out of hundreds of candidates in Chicago.
“I want to become a professional soccer player,” he said. “And I’m quite sure I can make it.”
Justus liked his self-confident attitude. “We’ll get along great,” he thought.
Of course Jimboy knew that Justus had a successful detective agency with two friends. But that was all he knew, so Justus told him all about the Three Investigators.
“We can’t count on Peter at the moment,” he finally said. “He was the victim of an evil foul this afternoon.”
“You guys play soccer too?” Jimboy said happily. Justus nodded. “Peter is quite good. But he surely can’t compare with you.”
“On the other hand I can’t solve crime cases,” Jimboy said. Justus continued his report about Justus, Peter and Bob and their headquarters in an old converted trailer. It stood in a lonely corner of Uncle Titus’ junkyard in Rocky Beach. He told him about their technical equipment which included an answering machine, a fax machine and a light-weight laptop with an integrated webcam. When they arrived, first of all Jimboy wanted a tour. He was impressed by the equipment. But when Justus opened the door to the secret passage his cousin was speechless.
“That is our tunnel number two,” the First Investigator explained in a matter-of-fact way. “It leads halfway underneath the junkyard in case we have to leave the headquarters quickly.”
“Is what you do dangerous?”
Justus winked at him. “We used it to escape Aunt Mathilda more than anything else.”
“I understand,” Jimboy laughed.
“We have another secret passage. That one takes us away from the junkyard without being seen.” Justus closed the trap door. “Follow me!”
They went through the back entrance and walked around the outside of the wooden fence, which had a big painting on it. He put his finger in the dog’s eye in the painting, which was actually a knothole. A narrow door opened.
“Great!” Jimboy was again impressed. “I’d also like to meet your friends soon.”
Before they fell asleep, Justus talked about Peter, Bob, their friends Lys, Kelly and Elizabeth for a long time. He also told him about Inspector Cotta – a man they often co-operated with. And about Morton, the chauffeur of a Rolls Royce. The Three Investigators could use his service whenever they needed it – thanks to a multi-millionaire client they once had.
Jimboy also wanted to know what their most exciting case so far had been. Justus waved his hand. “We’ve often asked ourselves that question,” said Justus, “and we always come to the same conclusion: it’s the case we’re solving at the moment. And we expect the next one to be even more exciting.”
“It’s just like soccer,” Jimboy yawned, “the next game is always the hardest.”
Welche Ausrüstung würdest du anschaffen, um ein perfektes Detektivbüro mit allem drum und dran einzurichten?