Matilda's parents owned quite a nice house with three bedrooms upstairs, while on the ground
floor there was a dining-room and a living-room and a kitchen. Her father was a dealer in second-
hand cars and it seemed he did pretty well at it.
"Sawdust", he would say proudly, "is one of the great secrets of my success. And it costs me
nothing. I get it free from the sawmill."
"What do you use it for?" Matilda asked him.
"Ha!" the father said. "Wouldn't you like to know."
"I don't see how sawdust can help you to sell second-hand2 cars, daddy."
"That's because you're an ignorant little twit," the father said. His speech was never very delicate
but Matilda was used to it. She also knew that he liked to boast and she would egg him on
shamelessly.
"You must be very clever to find a use for something that costs nothing," she said. "I wish I could
do it."
"You couldn't," the father said. "You're too stupid. But I don't mind telling young Mike here about
it seeing he'll be joining me in the business one day." Ignoring Matilda, he turned to his son and
said, "I'm always glad to buy a car when some fool has been crashing the gears so badly they're all
worn out and rattle3 like mad. I get it cheap. Then all I do is mix a lot of sawdust with the oil in the
gear-box and it runs as sweet as a nut."
"How long will it run like that before it starts rattling4 again?" Matilda asked him.
"Long enough for the buyer to get a good distance away," the father said, grinning. "About a
hundred miles."
"But that's dishonest, daddy," Matilda said. "It's cheating."
"No one ever got rich being honest," the father said. "Customers are there to be diddled."
Mr Wormwood was a small ratty-looking man whose front teeth stuck out underneath5 a thin ratty
moustache. He liked to wear jackets with large brightly-coloured checks and he sported ties that
were usually yellow or pale green. "Now take mileage6 for instance," he went on. "Anyone who's
buying a second-hand car, the first thing he wants to know is how many miles it's done. Right?"
"Right," the son said.
"So I buy an old dump that's got about a hundred and fifty thousand miles on the clock. I get it
cheap. But no one's going to buy it with a mileage like that, are they? And these days you can't just
take the speedometer out and fiddle7 the numbers back like you used to ten years ago. They've fixed8
it so it's impossible to tamper9 with it unless you're a ruddy watchmaker or something. So what do I
do? I use my brains, laddie, that's what I do."
"How?" young Michael asked, fascinated. He seemed to have inherited his father's love of
crookery10.
"I sit down and say to myself, how can I convert a mileage reading of one hundred and fifty
thousand into only ten thousand without taking the speedometer to pieces? Well, if I were to run
the car backwards11 for long enough then obviously that would do it. The numbers would click
backwards, wouldn't they? But who's going to drive a flaming car in reverse for thousands and
thousands of miles? You couldn't do it!"
"Of course you couldn't," young Michael said.
"So I scratch my head," the father said. "I use my brains. When you've been given a fine brain like
I have, you've got to use it. And all of a sudden, the answer hits me. I tell you, I felt exactly like
that other brilliant fellow must have felt when he discovered penicillin12. 'Eureka!' I cried. 'I've got
it!" '
"What did you do, dad?" the son asked him.
"The speedometer", Mr Wormwood said, "is run off a cable that is coupled up to one of the front
wheels. So first I disconnect the cable where it joins the front wheel. Next, I get one of those high-
speed electric drills and I couple that up to the end of the cable in such a way that when the drill
turns, it turns the cable backwards. You got me so far? You following me?"
"Yes, daddy," young Michael said.
"These drills run at a tremendous speed," the father said, "so when I switch on the drill the mileage
numbers on the speedo spin backwards at a fantastic rate. I can knock fifty thousand miles off the
clock in a few minutes with my high-speed electric drill. And by the time I've finished, the car's
only done ten thousand and it's ready for sale. 'She's almost new,' I say to the customer. 'She's
hardly done ten thou. Belonged to an old lady who only used it once a week for shopping.' "
"Can you really turn the mileage back with an electric drill?" young Michael asked.
"I'm telling you trade secrets," the father said. "So don't you go talking about this to anyone else.
You don't want me put in jug13, do you?"
"I won't tell a soul," the boy said. "Do you do this to many cars, dad?"
"Every single car that comes through my hands gets the treatment," the father said. "They all have
their mileage cut to under under ten thou before they're offered for sale. And to think I invented
that all by myself," he added proudly. "It's made me a mint."
Matilda, who had been listening closely, said, "But daddy, that's even more dishonest than the
sawdust. It's disgusting. You're cheating people who trust you."
"If you don't like it then don't eat the food in this house," the father said. "It's bought with the
profits."
"It's dirty money," Matilda said. "I hate it."
Two red spots appears on the father's cheeks. "Who the heck do you think you are," he shouted,
"The Archbishop of Canterbury or something, preaching to me about honesty? You're just an
ignorant little squirt who hasn't the foggiest idea what you're talking about!"
"Quite right, Harry," the mother said. And to Matilda she said, "You've got a nerve talking to your
father like that. Now keep your nasty mouth shut so we can all watch this programme in peace."
They were in the living-room eating their suppers on their knees in front of the telly. The suppers
were TV dinners in floppy14 aluminium15 containers with separate compartments16 for the stewed17 meat,
the boiled potatoes and the peas. Mrs Wormwood sat munching18 her meal with her eyes glued to
the American soap-opera on the screen. She was a large woman whose hair was dyed platinum19
blonde except where you could see the mousy-brown bits growing out from the roots. She wore
heavy makeup20 and she had one of those unfortunate bulging21 figures where the flesh appears to be
strapped22 in all around the body to prevent it from falling out.
"Mummy," Matilda said, "would you mind if I ate my supper in the dining-room so I could read
my book?"
The father glanced up sharply. "I would mind!" he snapped. "Supper is a family gathering23 and no
one leaves the table till it's over!"
"But we're not at the table," Matilda said. "We never are. We're always eating off our knees and
watching the telly.
"What's wrong with watching the telly, may I ask?" the father said. His voice had suddenly
become soft and dangerous.
Matilda didn't trust herself to answer him, so she kept quiet. She could feel the anger boiling up
inside her. She knew it was wrong to hate her parents like this, but she was finding it very hard not
to do so. All the reading she had done had given her a view of life that they had never seen. If only
they would read a little Dickens or Kipling they would soon discover there was more to life than
cheating people and watching television.
Another thing. She resented being told constantly that she was ignorant and stupid when she knew
she wasn't. The anger inside her went on boiling and boiling, and as she lay in bed that night she
made a decision. She decided24 that every time her father or her mother was beastly to her, she
would get her own back in some way or another. A small victory or two would help her to tolerate
their idiocies25 and would stop her from going crazy. You must remember that she was still hardly
five years old and it is not easy for somebody as small as that to score points against an all-
powerful grown-up. Even so, she was determined26 to have a go. Her father, after what had
happened in front of the telly that evening, was first on her list.
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收听单词发音
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1
dealer
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| n.商人，贩子 | |
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2
second-hand
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| adj.用过的，旧的，二手的 | |
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3
rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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4
rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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5
underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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mileage
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| n.里程，英里数；好处，利润 | |
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7
fiddle
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| n.小提琴；vi.拉提琴；不停拨弄，乱动 | |
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8
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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9
tamper
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| v.干预，玩弄，贿赂，窜改，削弱，损害 | |
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10
crookery
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| n.不正当行为 | |
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11
backwards
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| adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地 | |
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12
penicillin
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| n.青霉素，盘尼西林 | |
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13
jug
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| n.(有柄，小口，可盛水等的)大壶，罐，盂 | |
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14
floppy
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| adj.松软的，衰弱的 | |
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15
aluminium
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| n.铝 (=aluminum) | |
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16
compartments
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| n.间隔( compartment的名词复数 )；（列车车厢的）隔间；（家具或设备等的）分隔间；隔层 | |
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17
stewed
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| adj.焦虑不安的，烂醉的v.炖( stew的过去式和过去分词 )；煨；思考；担忧 | |
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18
munching
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| v.用力咀嚼（某物），大嚼( munch的现在分词 ) | |
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19
platinum
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| n.白金 | |
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20
makeup
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| n.组织；性格；化装品 | |
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21
bulging
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| 膨胀； 凸出（部）； 打气； 折皱 | |
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22
strapped
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| adj.用皮带捆住的，用皮带装饰的；身无分文的；缺钱；手头紧v.用皮带捆扎(strap的过去式和过去分词)；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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23
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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24
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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25
idiocies
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| n.极度的愚蠢( idiocy的名词复数 )；愚蠢的行为；白痴状态 | |
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26
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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