Matilda sat down again at her desk. The Trunchbull seated herself behind the teacher's table. It
was the first time she had sat down during the lesson. Then she reached out a hand and took hold
of her water-jug1. Still holding the jug by the handle but not lifting it yet, she said, "I have never
been able to understand why small children are so disgusting. They are the bane of my life. They
are like insects. They should be got rid of as early as possible. We get rid of flies with fly-spray
and by hanging up fly-paper. I have often thought of inventing a spray for getting rid of small
children. How splendid it would be to walk into this classroom with a gigantic spray-gun in my
hands and start pumping it. Or better still, some huge strips of sticky paper. I would hang them all
round the school and you'd all get stuck to them and that would be the end of it. Wouldn't that be a
good idea, Miss Honey?"
"If it's meant to be a joke, Headmistress, I don't think it's a very funny one," Miss Honey said from
the back of the class.
"You wouldn't, would you, Miss Honey," the Trunchbull said. "And it's not meant to be a joke.
My idea of a perfect school, Miss Honey, is one that has no children in it at all. One of these days I
shall start up a school like that. I think it will be very successful."
The woman's mad, Miss Honey was telling herself. She's round the twist. She's the one who ought
to be got rid of.
The Trunchbull now lifted the large blue porcelain2 water-jug and poured some water into her
glass. And suddenly, with the water, out came the long slimy newt straight into the glass, plop!
The Trunchbull let out a yell and leapt off her chair as though a firecracker had gone off
underneath3 her. And now the children also saw the long thin slimy yellow-bellied lizard-like
creature twisting and turning in the glass, and they squirmed and jumped about as well, shouting,
"What is it? Oh, it's disgusting! It's a snake! It's a baby crocodile! It's an alligator4!"
"Look out, Miss Trunchbull!" cried Lavender. "I'll bet it bites!"
The Trunchbull, this mighty5 female giant, stood there in her green breeches, quivering like a
blancmange. She was especially furious that someone had succeeded in making her jump and yell
like that because she prided herself on her toughness. She stared at the creature twisting and
wriggling6 in the glass. Curiously7 enough, she had never seen a newt before. Natural history was
not her strong point. She hadn't the faintest idea what this thing was. It certainly looked extremely
unpleasant. Slowly she sat down again in her chair. She looked at this moment more terrifying
than ever before. The fires of fury and hatred8 were smouldering in her small black eyes.
"Matilda!" she barked. "Stand up!"
"Who, me?" Matilda said. "What have I done?"
"Stand up, you disgusting little cockroach9!"
"I haven't done anything, Miss Trunchbull, honestly I haven't. I've never seen that slimy thing
before!"
"Stand up at once, you filthy10 little maggot!"
Reluctantly, Matilda got to her feet. She was in the second row. Lavender was in the row behind
her, feeling a bit guilty. She hadn't intended to get her friend into trouble. On the other hand, she
was certainly not about to own up.
''You are a vile11, repulsive12, repellent, malicious13 little brute14!" the Trunchbull was shouting. "You are
not fit to be in this school! You ought to be behind bars, that's where you ought to be! I shall have
you drummed out of this establishment in utter disgrace! I shall have the prefects chase you down
the corridor and out of the front-door with hockey-sticks! I shall have the staff escort you home
under armed guard! And then I shall make absolutely sure you are sent to a reformatory for
delinquent15 girls for the minimum of forty years!"
The Trunchbull was in such a rage that her face had taken on a
boiled colour and little flecks16 of froth were gathering17 at the corners of her mouth. But she was not
the only one who was losing her cool. Matilda was also beginning to see red. She didn't in the least
mind being accused of having done something she had actually done. She could see the justice of
that. It was, however, a totally new experience for her to be accused of a crime that she definitely
had not committed. She had had absolutely nothing to do with that beastly creature in the glass. By
golly, she thought, that rotten Trunchbull isn't going to pin this one on me!
"I did not do it!" she screamed.
"Oh yes, you did!" the Trunchbull roared back. "Nobody else could have thought up a trick like
that! Your father was right to warn me about you!" The woman seemed to have lost control of
herself completely. She was ranting18 like a maniac19. "You are finished in this school, young lady!"
she shouted. "You are finished everywhere. I shall personally see to it that you are put away in a
place where not even the crows can land their droppings on you! You will probably never see the
light of day again!"
"I'm telling you I did not do it!" Matilda screamed. "I've never even seen a creature like that in my
life!"
"You have put a . . . a . . . a crocodile in my drinking water!" the Trunchbull yelled back. "There is
no worse crime in the world against a Headmistress! Now sit down and don't say a word! Go on,
sit down at once!"
"But I'm telling you . . ." Matilda shouted, refusing to sit down.
"I am telling you to shut up!" the Trunchbull roared. "If you don't shut up at once and sit down I
shall remove my belt and let you have it with the end that has the buckle20!"
Slowly Matilda sat down. Oh, the rottenness of it all! The unfairness! How dare they expel her for
something she hadn't done!
Matilda felt herself getting angrier . . . and angrier . . . and angrier . . . so unbearably21 angry that
something was bound to explode inside her very soon.
The newt was still squirming in the tall glass of water. It looked horribly uncomfortable. The glass
was not big enough for it. Matilda glared at the Trunchbull. How she hated her. She glared at the
glass with the newt in it. She longed to march up and grab the glass and tip the contents, newt and
all, over the Trunchbull's head. She trembled to think what the Trunchbull would do to her if she
did that.
The Trunchbull was sitting behind the teacher's table staring with a mixture of horror and
fascination22 at the newt wriggling in the glass. Matilda's eyes were also riveted23 on the glass. And
now, quite slowly, there began to creep over Matilda a most extraordinary and peculiar24 feeling.
The feeling was mostly in the eyes. A kind of electricity seemed to be gathering inside them. A
sense of power was brewing25 in those eyes of hers, a feeling of great strength was settling itself
deep inside her eyes. But there was also another feeling which was something else altogether, and
which she could not understand. It was like flashes of lightning. Little waves of lightning seemed
to be flashing out of her eyes. Her eyeballs were beginning to get hot, as though vast energy was
building up somewhere inside them. It was an amazing sensation. She kept her eyes steadily26 on the
glass, and now the power was concentrating itself in one small part of each eye and growing
stronger and stronger and it felt as though millions of tiny little invisible arms with hands on them
were shooting out of her eyes towards the glass she was staring at.
"Tip it!" Matilda whispered. "Tip it over!"
She saw the glass wobble. It actually tilted27 backwards28 a fraction of an inch, then righted itself
again. She kept pushing at it with all those millions of invisible little arms and hands that were
reaching out from her eyes, feeling the power that was flashing straight from the two little black
dots in the very centres of her eyeballs.
"Tip it!" she whispered again. "Tip it over!"
Once more the glass wobbled. She pushed harder still, willing her eyes to shoot out more power.
And then, very very slowly, so slowly she could hardly see it happening, the glass began to lean
backwards, farther and farther and farther backwards until it was balancing on just one edge of its
base. And there it teetered for a few seconds before finally toppling over and falling with a sharp
tinkle29 on to the desk-top. The water in it and the squirming newt splashed out all over Miss
Trunchbull's enormous bosom30. The headmistress let out a yell that must have rattled31 every
window-pane in the building and for the second time in the last five minutes she shot out of her
chair like a rocket. The newt clutched desperately32 at the cotton smock where it covered the great
chest and there it clung with its little claw-like feet. The Trunchbull looked down and saw it and
she bellowed33 even louder and with a swipe of her hand she sent the creature flying across the
class-room. It landed on the floor beside Lavender's desk and very quickly she ducked down and
picked it up and put it into her pencil-box for another time. A newt, she decided34, was a useful
thing to have around.
The Trunchbull, her face more like a boiled ham than ever, was standing35 before the class quivering
with fury. Her massive bosom was heaving in and out and the splash of water down the front of it
made a dark wet patch that had probably soaked right through to her skin.
"Who did it?" she roared. "Come on! Own up! Step forward! You won't escape this time! Who is
responsible for this dirty job? Who pushed over this glass?"
Nobody answered. The whole room remained silent as a tomb.
"Matilda!" she roared. "It was you! I know it was you!"
Matilda, in the second row, sat very still and said nothing. A strange feeling of serenity36 and
confidence was sweeping37 over her and all of a sudden she found that she was frightened by
nobody in the world. With the power of her eyes alone she had compelled a glass of water to tip
and spill its contents over the horrible Headmistress, and anybody who could do that could do
anything.
"Speak up, you clotted38 carbuncle!" roared the Trunchbull. "Admit that you did it!"
Matilda looked right back into the flashing eyes of this infuriated female giant and said with total
calmness, "I have not moved away from my desk, Miss Trunchbull, since the lesson began. I can
say no more."
Suddenly the entire class seemed to rise up against the Headmistress. "She didn't move!" they
cried out. "Matilda didn't move! Nobody moved! You must have knocked it over yourself!"
"I most certainly did not knock it over myself!" roared the Trunchbull. "How dare you suggest a
thing like that! Speak up, Miss Honey! You must have seen everything! Who knocked over my
glass?"
"None of the children did, Miss Trunchbull," Miss Honey answered. "I can vouch39 for it that
nobody has moved from his or her desk all the time you've been here, except for Nigel and he has
not moved from his corner."
Miss Trunchbull glared at Miss Honey. Miss Honey met her gaze without flinching40. "I am telling
you the truth, Headmistress," she said. "You must have knocked it over without knowing it. That
sort of thing is easy to do."
"I am fed up with you useless bunch of midgets!" roared the Trunchbull. "I refuse to waste any
more of my precious time in here!" And with that she marched out of the class-room, slamming
the door behind her.
In the stunned41 silence that followed, Miss Honey walked up to the front of the class and stood
behind her table. "Phew!" she said. "I think we've had enough school for one day, don't you? The
class is dismissed. You may all go out into the playground and wait for your parents to come and
take you home."
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收听单词发音
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1
jug
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| n.(有柄，小口，可盛水等的)大壶，罐，盂 | |
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2
porcelain
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| n.瓷；adj.瓷的，瓷制的 | |
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3
underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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4
alligator
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| n.短吻鳄(一种鳄鱼) | |
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5
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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6
wriggling
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| v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的现在分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等）；蠕蠕 | |
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7
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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8
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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9
cockroach
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| n.蟑螂 | |
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10
filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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11
vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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12
repulsive
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| adj.排斥的，使人反感的 | |
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13
malicious
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| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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14
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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15
delinquent
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| adj.犯法的，有过失的；n.违法者 | |
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16
flecks
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| n.斑点，小点( fleck的名词复数 )；癍 | |
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17
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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18
ranting
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| v.夸夸其谈( rant的现在分词 )；大叫大嚷地以…说教；气愤地)大叫大嚷；不停地大声抱怨 | |
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19
maniac
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| n.精神癫狂的人；疯子 | |
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20
buckle
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| n.扣子，带扣；v.把...扣住，由于压力而弯曲 | |
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21
unbearably
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| adv.不能忍受地，无法容忍地；慌 | |
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22
fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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23
riveted
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| 铆接( rivet的过去式和过去分词 )； 把…固定住； 吸引； 引起某人的注意 | |
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24
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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25
brewing
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| n. 酿造, 一次酿造的量 动词brew的现在分词形式 | |
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26
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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27
tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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28
backwards
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| adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地 | |
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29
tinkle
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| vi.叮当作响；n.叮当声 | |
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30
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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31
rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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32
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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33
bellowed
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| v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的过去式和过去分词 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫 | |
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34
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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35
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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36
serenity
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| n.宁静，沉着，晴朗 | |
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37
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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38
clotted
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| adj.凝结的v.凝固( clot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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39
vouch
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| v.担保；断定；n.被担保者 | |
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40
flinching
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| v.（因危险和痛苦）退缩，畏惧( flinch的现在分词 ) | |
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41
stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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