12.Lavender

Lavender
In the middle of the first week of Matilda's first term, Miss Honey said to the class, "I have some
important news for you, so listen carefully. You too, Matilda. Put that book down for a moment
and pay attention."
Small eager faces looked up and listened.
"It is the Headmistress's custom", Miss Honey went on, "to take over the class for one period each
week. She does this with every class in the school and each class has a fixed² day and a fixed time.
Ours is always two o'clock on Thursday afternoons, immediately after lunch. So tomorrow at two
o'clock Miss Trunchbull will be taking over from me for one lesson. I shall be here as well, of
course, but only as a silent witness. Is that understood?"
"Yes, Miss Honey," they chirruped.
"A word of warning to you all," Miss Honey said. "The Headmistress is very strict about
everything. Make sure your clothes are clean, your faces are clean and your hands are clean. Speak
only when spoken to. When she asks you a question, stand up at once before you answer it. Never
argue with her. Never answer back. Never try to be funny. If you do, you will make her angry, and
when the Headmistress gets angry you had better watch out."
"You can say that again," Lavender murmured.
"I am quite sure", Miss Honey said, "that she will be testing you on what you are meant to have
learnt this week, which is your two-times table. So I strongly advise you to swot it up when you
get home tonight. Get your mother or father to hear you on it."
"What else will she test us on?" someone asked.
"Spelling," Miss Honey said. "Try to remember everything you have learned these last few days.
And one more thing. A jug³ of water and a glass must always be on the table here when the
Headmistress comes in. She never takes a lesson without that. Now who will be responsible for
seeing that it's there?"
"I will,"Lavender said at once.
"Very well, Lavender," Miss Honey said. "It will be your job to go to the kitchen and get the jug
and fill it with water and put it on the table here with a clean empty glass just before the lesson
starts."
"What if the jug's not in the kitchen?" Lavender asked.
"There are a dozen Headmistress's jugs⁴ and glasses in the kitchen," Miss Honey said. "They are
used all over the school."
"I won't forget," Lavender said. "I promise I won't."
Already Lavender's scheming mind was going over the possibilities that this water-jug job had
opened up for her. She longed to do something truly heroic. She admired the older girl Hortensia
to distraction⁵ for the daring deeds she had performed in the school. She also admired Matilda who
had sworn her to secrecy⁶ about the parrot job she had brought off at home, and also the great hair-
oil switch which had bleached⁷ her father's hair. It was her turn now to become a heroine if only
she could come up with a brilliant plot.
On the way home from school that afternoon she began to mull over the various possibilities, and
when at last the germ of a brilliant idea hit her, she began to expand on it and lay her plans with
the same kind of care the Duke of Wellington had done before the Battle of Waterloo. Admittedly
the enemy on this occasion was not Napoleon. But you would never have got anyone at Crunchem
Hall to admit that the Headmistress was a less formidable foe⁸ than the famous Frenchman. Great
skill would have to be exercised, Lavender told herself, and great secrecy observed if she was to
come out of this exploit alive.
There was a muddy pond at the bottom of Lavender's garden and this was the home of a colony of
newts. The newt, although fairly common in English ponds, is not often seen by ordinary people
because it is a shy and murky⁹ creature. It is an incredibly ugly gruesome-looking animal, rather
like a baby crocodile but with a shorter head. It is quite harmless but doesn't look it. It is about six
inches long and very slimy, with a greenish-grey skin on top and an orange-coloured belly¹⁰
underneath¹¹. It is, in fact, an amphibian¹², which can live in or out of water.
That evening Lavender went to the bottom of the garden determined¹³ to catch a newt. They are
swiftly-moving animals and not easy to get hold of. She lay on the bank for a long time waiting
patiently until she spotted¹⁴ a whopper. Then, using her school hat as a net, she swooped¹⁵ and caught
it. She had lined her pencil-box with pond-weed ready to receive the creature, but she discovered
that it
was not easy to get the newt out of the hat and into the pencil-box. It wriggled¹⁶ and squirmed like
quicksilver and, apart from that, the box was only just long enough to take it. When she did get it
in at last, she had to be careful not to trap its tail in the lid when she slid it closed. A boy next door
called Rupert Entwistle had told her that if you chopped off a newt's tail, the tail stayed alive and
grew into another newt ten times bigger than the first one. It could be the size of an alligator¹⁷.
Lavender didn't quite believe that, but she was not prepared to risk it happening.
Eventually she managed to slide the lid of the pencil-box right home and the newt was hers. Then,
on second thoughts, she opened the lid just the tiniest fraction so that the creature could breathe.
The next day she carried her secret weapon to school in her satchel¹⁸. She was tingling¹⁹ with
excitement. She was longing²⁰ to tell Matilda about her plan of battle. In fact, she wanted to tell the
whole class. But she finally decided²¹ to tell nobody. It was better that way because then no one,
even when put under the most severe torture, would be able to name her as the culprit.
Lunchtime came. Today it was sausages and baked beans, Lavender's favourite, but she couldn't
eat it.
"Are you feeling all right, Lavender?" Miss Honey asked from the head of the table.
"I had such a huge breakfast", Lavender said, "I really couldn't eat a thing."
Immediately after lunch, she dashed off to the kitchen and found one of the Trunchbull's famous
jugs. It was a large bulging²² thing made of blue-glazed pottery²³. Lavender filled it half-full of water
and carried it, together with a glass, into the classroom and set it on the teacher's table. The
classroom was still empty. Quick as a flash, Lavender got her pencil-box from her satchel and slid
open the lid just a tiny bit. The newt was lying quite still. With great care, she held the box over
the neck of the jug and pulled the lid fully¹ open and tipped the newt in. There was a plop as it
landed in the water, then it thrashed around wildly for a few seconds before settling down. And
now, to make the newt feel more at home, Lavender decided to give it all the pond-weed from the
pencil-box as well.
The deed was done. All was ready. Lavender put her
pencils back into the rather damp pencil-box and returned it to its correct place on her own desk.
Then she went out and joined the others in the playground until it was time for the lesson to begin.

1 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

2 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

3 jug   

n.(有柄，小口，可盛水等的)大壶，罐，盂

参考例句：

• He walked along with a jug poised on his head.他头上顶着一个水罐，保持着平衡往前走。
• She filled the jug with fresh water.她将水壶注满了清水。

4 jugs   

（有柄及小口的）水壶( jug的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Two china jugs held steaming gravy. 两个瓷罐子装着热气腾腾的肉卤。
• Jugs-Big wall lingo for Jumars or any other type of ascenders. 大岩壁术语，祝玛式上升器或其它种类的上升器。

5 distraction   

n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐

参考例句：

• Total concentration is required with no distractions.要全神贯注，不能有丝毫分神。
• Their national distraction is going to the disco.他们的全民消遣就是去蹦迪。

6 secrecy   

n.秘密，保密，隐蔽

参考例句：

• All the researchers on the project are sworn to secrecy.该项目的所有研究人员都按要求起誓保守秘密。
• Complete secrecy surrounded the meeting.会议在绝对机密的环境中进行。

7 bleached   

漂白的，晒白的，颜色变浅的

参考例句：

• His hair was bleached by the sun . 他的头发被太阳晒得发白。
• The sun has bleached her yellow skirt. 阳光把她的黄裙子晒得褪色了。

8 foe   

n.敌人，仇敌

参考例句：

• He knew that Karl could be an implacable foe.他明白卡尔可能会成为他的死敌。
• A friend is a friend;a foe is a foe;one must be clearly distinguished from the other.敌是敌，友是友，必须分清界限。

9 murky   

adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗

参考例句：

• She threw it into the river's murky depths.她把它扔进了混浊的河水深处。
• She had a decidedly murky past.她的历史背景令人捉摸不透。

10 belly   

n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛

参考例句：

• The boss has a large belly.老板大腹便便。
• His eyes are bigger than his belly.他眼馋肚饱。

11 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

12 amphibian   

n.两栖动物；水陆两用飞机和车辆

参考例句：

• The frog is an amphibian,which means it can live on land and in water.青蛙属于两栖动物，也就是说它既能生活在陆地上也能生活在水里。
• Amphibian is an important specie in ecosystem and has profound meaning in the ecotoxicology evaluation.两栖类是生态系统中的重要物种，并且对环境毒理评价有着深远意义。

13 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

14 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

15 swooped   

俯冲，猛冲( swoop的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The aircraft swooped down over the buildings. 飞机俯冲到那些建筑物上方。
• The hawk swooped down on the rabbit and killed it. 鹰猛地朝兔子扑下来，并把它杀死。

16 wriggled   

v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的过去式和过去分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等）

参考例句：

• He wriggled uncomfortably on the chair. 他坐在椅子上不舒服地扭动着身体。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A snake wriggled across the road. 一条蛇蜿蜒爬过道路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

17 alligator   

n.短吻鳄(一种鳄鱼)

参考例句：

• She wandered off to play with her toy alligator.她开始玩鳄鱼玩具。
• Alligator skin is five times more costlier than leather.鳄鱼皮比通常的皮革要贵5倍。

18 satchel   

n.(皮或帆布的)书包

参考例句：

• The school boy opened the door and flung his satchel in.那个男学生打开门，把他的书包甩了进去。
• She opened her satchel and took out her father's gloves.打开书箱，取出了她父亲的手套来。

19 tingling   

v.有刺痛感( tingle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• My ears are tingling [humming; ringing; singing]. 我耳鸣。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• My tongue is tingling. 舌头发麻。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

20 longing   

n.（for）渴望

参考例句：

• Hearing the tune again sent waves of longing through her.再次听到那首曲子使她胸中充满了渴望。
• His heart burned with longing for revenge.他心中燃烧着急欲复仇的怒火。

21 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

22 bulging   

膨胀； 凸出（部）； 打气； 折皱

参考例句：

• Her pockets were bulging with presents. 她的口袋里装满了礼物。
• Conscious of the bulging red folder, Nim told her,"Ask if it's important." 尼姆想到那个鼓鼓囊囊的红色文件夹便告诉她：“问问是不是重要的事。”

23 pottery   

n.陶器，陶器场

参考例句：

• My sister likes to learn art pottery in her spare time.我妹妹喜欢在空余时间学习陶艺。
• The pottery was left to bake in the hot sun.陶器放在外面让炎热的太阳烘晒焙干。