Matilda did not join the rush to get out of the classroom. After the other children had all
disappeared, she remained at her desk, quiet and thoughtful. She knew she had to tell somebody
about what had happened with the glass. She couldn't possibly keep a gigantic secret like that
bottled up inside her. What she needed was just one person, one wise and sympathetic grown-up
who could help her to understand the meaning of this extraordinary happening.
Neither her mother nor her father would be of any use at all. If they believed her story, and it was
doubtful they would, they almost certainly would fail to realise what an astounding1 event it was
that had taken place in the classroom that afternoon. On the spur of the moment, Matilda decided2
that the one person she would like to confide3 in was Miss Honey.
Matilda and Miss Honey were now the only two left in the class-room. Miss Honey had seated
herself at her table and was riffling through some papers. She looked up and said, "Well, Matilda,
aren't you going outside with the others?"
Matilda said, "Please may I talk to you for a moment?"
"Of course you may. What's troubling you?"
"Something very peculiar4 has happened to me, Miss Honey."
Miss Honey became instantly alert. Ever since the two disastrous5 meetings she had had recently
about Matilda, the first with the Headmistress and the second with the dreadful Mr and Mrs
Wormwood, Miss Honey had been thinking a great deal about this child and wondering how she
could help her. And now, here was Matilda sitting in the classroom with a curiously6 exalted7 look
on her face and asking if she could have a private talk. Miss Honey had never seen her looking so
wide-eyed and peculiar before.
"Yes, Matilda," she said. "Tell me what has happened to you that is so peculiar."
"Miss Trunchbull isn't going to expel me, is she?" Matilda asked. "Because it wasn't me who put
that creature in her jug8 of water. I promise you it wasn't."
"I know it wasn't," Miss Honey said.
"Am I going to be expelled?"
"I think not," Miss Honey said. "The Headmistress simply got a little over-excited, that's all."
"Good," Matilda said. "But that isn't what I want to talk to you about."
"What do you want to talk to me about, Matilda?"
"I want to talk to you about the glass of water with the creature in it," Matilda said. "You saw it
spilling all over Miss Trunchbull, didn't you?"
"I did indeed."
"Well, Miss Honey, I didn't touch it. I never went near it."
"I know you didn't," Miss Honey said. "You heard me telling the Headmistress that it couldn't
possibly have been you."
"Ah, but it was me, Miss Honey," Matilda said. "That's exactly what I want to talk to you about."
Miss Honey paused and looked carefully at the child. "I don't think I quite follow you," she said.
"I got so angry at being accused of something I hadn't done that I made it happen."
"You made what happen, Matilda?"
"I made the glass tip over."
"I still don't quite understand what you mean," Miss Honey said gently.
"I did it with my eyes," Matilda said. "I was staring at it and wishing it to tip and then my eyes
went all hot and funny and some sort of power came out of them and the glass just toppled over."
Miss Honey continued to look steadily9 at Matilda through her steel-rimmed spectacles and Matilda
looked back at her just as steadily.
"I am still not following you," Miss Honey said. "Do you mean you actually willed the glass to tip
over?"
"Yes," Matilda said. "With my eyes."
Miss Honey was silent for a moment. She did not think Matilda was meaning to tell a lie. It was
more likely that she was simply allowing her vivid imagination to run away with her. "You mean
you were sitting where you are now and you told the glass to topple over and it did?"
"Something like that, Miss Honey, yes."
"If you did that, then it is just about the greatest miracle a person has ever performed since the
time of Jesus."
"I did it, Miss Honey."
It is extraordinary, thought Miss Honey, how often small children have flights of fancy like this.
She decided to put an end to it as gently as possible. "Could you do it again?" she asked, not
unkindly.
"I don't know," Matilda said, "but I think I might be able to."
Miss Honey moved the now empty glass to the middle of the table. "Should I put water in it?" she
asked, smiling a little.
"I don't think it matters," Matilda said.
"Very well, then. Go ahead and tip it over."
"It may take some time."
Take all the time you want," Miss Honey said. I'm in no hurry."
Matilda, sitting in the second row about ten feet away from Miss Honey, put her elbows on the
desk and cupped her face in her hands, and this time she gave the order right at the beginning. "Tip
glass, tip!" she ordered, but her lips didn't move and she made no sound. She simply shouted the
words inside her head. And now she concentrated the whole of her mind and her brain and her will
up into her eyes and once again but much more quickly than before she felt the electricity
gathering10 and the power was beginning to surge and the hotness was coming into the eyeballs, and
then the millions of tiny invisible arms with hands on them were shooting out towards the glass,
and without making any sound at all she kept on shouting inside her head for the glass to go over.
She saw it wobble, then it tilted11, then it toppled right over and fell with a tinkle12 on to the table-top
not twelve inches from Miss Honey's folded arms.
Miss Honey's mouth dropped open and her eyes stretched so wide you could see the whites all
round. She didn't say a word. She couldn't. The shock of seeing the miracle performed had struck
her dumb. She gaped13 at the glass, leaning well away from it now as though it might be a
dangerous thing. Then slowly she lifted head and looked at Matilda. She saw the child white in the
face, as white as paper, trembling all over, the eyes glazed14, staring straight ahead and seeing
nothing. The whole face was transfigured, the eyes round and bright and she was sitting there
speechless, quite beautiful in a blaze of silence.
Miss Honey waited, trembling a little herself and watching the child as she slowly stirred herself
back into consciousness. And then suddenly, click went her face into a look of almost seraphic
calm. "I'm all right," she said and smiled. "I'm quite all right, Miss Honey, so don't be alarmed."
"You seemed so far away," Miss Honey whispered, awestruck.
"Oh, I was. I was flying past the stars on silver wings," Matilda said. "It was wonderful."
Miss Honey was still gazing at the child in absolute wonderment, as though she were The
Creation, The Beginning Of The World, The First Morning.
"It went much quicker this time," Matilda said quietly.
"It's not possible!" Miss Honey was gasping15. "I don't believe it! I simply don't believe it!" She
closed her eyes and kept them closed for quite a while, and when she opened them again it seemed
as though she had gathered herself together. "Would you like to come back and have tea at my
cottage?" she asked.
"Oh, I'd love to," Matilda said.
"Good. Gather up your things and I'll meet you outside in a couple of minutes."
"You won't tell anyone about this . . . this thing that I did, will you, Miss Honey?"
"I wouldn't dream of it," Miss Honey said.
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收听单词发音
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1
astounding
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| adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词) | |
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2
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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3
confide
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| v.向某人吐露秘密 | |
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4
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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6
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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7
exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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8
jug
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| n.(有柄，小口，可盛水等的)大壶，罐，盂 | |
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9
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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12
tinkle
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| vi.叮当作响；n.叮当声 | |
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13
gaped
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| v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的过去式和过去分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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14
glazed
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| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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15
gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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