The next day was Thursday, and that, as the whole of Miss Honey's class knew, was the day on
which the Headmistress would take charge of the first lesson after lunch.
In the morning Miss Honey said to them, "One or two of you did not particularly enjoy the last
occasion when the Headmistress took the class, so let us all try to be especially careful and clever
today. How are your ears, Eric, after your last encounter with Miss Trunchbull?"
"She stretched them," Eric said. "My mother said she's positive they are bigger than they were."
"And Rupert," Miss Honey said, "I am glad to see you didn't lose any of your hair after last
Thursday."
"My head was jolly sore afterwards," Rupert said.
"And you, Nigel," Miss Honey said, "do please try not to be smart-aleck with the Headmistress
today. You were really quite cheeky to her last week."
"I hate her," Nigel said.
"Try not to make it so obvious," Miss Honey said. "It doesn't pay. She's a very strong woman. She
has muscles like steel ropes."
"I wish I was grown up," Nigel said. "I'd knock her flat."
"I doubt you would," Miss Honey said. ''No one has ever got the better of her yet."
"What will she be testing us on this afternoon?" a small girl asked.
"Almost certainly the three-times table," Miss Honey said. "That's what you are all meant to have
learnt this past week. Make sure you know it."
Lunch came and went.
After lunch, the class reassembled. Miss Honey stood at one side of the room. They all sat silent,
apprehensive1, waiting. And then, like some giant of doom2, the enormous Trunchbull strode into
the room in her green breeches and cotton smock. She went straight to her jug3 of water and lifted it
up by the handle and peered inside.
"I am glad to see", she said, "that there are no slimy creatures in my drinking-water this time. If
there had been, then something exceptionally unpleasant would have happened to every single
member of this class. And that includes you, Miss Honey."
The class remained silent and very tense. They had learnt a bit about this tigress by now and
nobody was about to take any chances.
"Very well," boomed the Trunchbull. "Let us see how well you know your three-times table. Or to
put it another way, let us see how badly Miss Honey has taught you the three-times table." The
Trunchbull was standing4 in front of the class, legs apart, hands on hips5, scowling6 at Miss Honey
who stood silent to one side.
Matilda, sitting motionless at her desk in the second row, was watching things very closely.
"You!" the Trunchbull shouted, pointing a finger the size of a rolling-pin at a boy called Wilfred.
Wilfred was on the extreme right of the front row. "Stand up, you!" she shouted at him.
Wilfred stood up.
"Recite the three-times table backwards7!" the Trunchbull barked.
"Backwards?" stammered8 Wilfred. "But I haven't learnt it backwards."
"There you are!" cried the Trunchbull, triumphant9. "She's taught you nothing! Miss Honey, why
have you taught them absolutely nothing at all in the last week?"
"That is not true, Headmistress," Miss Honey said. "They have all learnt their three-times table.
But I see no point in teaching it to them backwards. There is little point in teaching anything
backwards. The whole object of life, Headmistress, is to go forwards. I venture to ask whether
even you, for example, can spell a simple word like wrong backwards straight away. I very much
doubt it."
"Don't you get impertinent with me, Miss Honey!" the Trunchbull snapped, then she turned back
to the unfortunate Wilfred. "Very well, boy," she said. "Answer me this. I have seven apples,
seven oranges and seven bananas. How many pieces of fruit do I have altogether? Hurry up! Get
on with it! Give me the answer!"
"That's adding up!" Wilfred cried. "That isn't the three-times table!"
"You blithering idiot!" shouted the Trunchbull. You festering gumboil! You fleabitten fungus10!
That is the three-times table! You have three separate lots of fruit and each lot has seven pieces.
Three sevens are twenty-one. Can't you see that, you stagnant11 cesspool! I'll give you one more
chance. I have eight coconuts12, eight monkey-nuts and eight nutty little idiots like you. How many
nuts do I have altogether? Answer me quickly."
Poor Wilfred was properly flustered13. "Wait!" he cried. "Please wait! I've got to add up eight
coconuts and eight monkey-nuts . . ." He started counting on his fingers.
"You bursting blister14!" yelled the Trunchbull. "You moth-eaten maggot! This is not adding up!
This is multiplication15! The answer is three eights! Or is it eight threes? What is the difference
between three eights and eight threes? Tell me that, you mangled16 little wurzel and look sharp
about it!"
By now Wilfred was far too frightened and bewildered even to speak.
In two strides the Trunchbull was beside him, and by some amazing gymnastic trick, it may have
been judo17 or karate18, she flipped19 the back of Wilfred's legs with one of her feet so that the boy shot
up off the ground and turned a somersault in the air. But halfway20 through the somersault she
caught him by an ankle and held him dangling21 upside-down like a plucked chicken in a shop-
window.
"Eight threes," the Trunchbull shouted, swinging Wilfred from side to side by his ankle, "eight
threes is the same as three eights and three eights are twenty-four! Repeat that!"
At exactly that moment Nigel, at the other end of the room, jumped to his feet and started pointing
excitedly at the blackboard and screaming, "The chalk! The chalk! Look at the chalk! It's moving
all on its own!"
So hysterical22 and shrill23 was Nigel's scream that everyone in the place, including the Trunchbull,
looked up at the blackboard. And there, sure enough, a brand-new piece of chalk was hovering24
near the grey-black writing surface of the blackboard.
"It's writing something!" screamed Nigel. "The chalk is writing something!"
And indeed it was.
"What the blazes is this?" yelled the Trunchbull. It had shaken her to see her own first name being
written like that by an invisible hand. She dropped Wilfred on to the floor. Then she yelled at
nobody in particular, ''Who's doing this? Who's writing it?
The chalk continued to write.
Everyone in the place heard the gasp25 that came from the Trunchbull's throat. "No!" she cried, "It
can't be! It can't be Magnus!"
Miss Honey, at the side of the room glanced swiftly at Matilda. The child was sitting very straight
at her desk, the head held high, the mouth compressed, the eyes glittering like two stars.
For some reason everyone now looked at the Trunchbull. The woman's face had turned white as
snow and her mouth was opening and shutting like a halibut out of water and giving out a series of
strangled gasps26.
The chalk stopped writing. It hovered27 for a few moments, then suddenly it dropped to the floor
with a tinkle28 and broke in two.
Wilfred, who had managed to resume his seat in the front row, screamed, "Miss Trunchbull has
fallen down! Miss Trunchbull is on the floor!"
This was the most sensational29 bit of news of all and the entire class jumped up out of their seats to
have a really good look. And there she was, the huge figure of the Headmistress, stretched full-
length on her back across the floor, out for the count.
Miss Honey ran forward and knelt beside the prostrate30 giant. "She's fainted!" she cried. "She's out
cold! Someone go and fetch the matron at once." Three children ran out of the room.
Nigel, always ready for action, leapt up and seized the big jug of water. "My father says cold water
is the best way to wake up someone who's fainted," he said, and with that he tipped the entire
contents of the jug over the Trunchbull's head. No one, not even Miss Honey, protested.
As for Matilda, she continued to sit motionless at her desk. She was feeling curiously31 elated. She
felt as though she had touched something that was not quite of this world, the highest point of the
heavens, the farthest star. She had felt most wonderfully the power surging up behind her eyes,
gushing32 like a warm fluid inside her skull33, and her eyes had become scorching34 hot, hotter than ever
before, and things had come bursting out of her eye-sockets and then the piece of chalk had lifted
itself up and had begun to write. It seemed as though she had hardly done anything, it had all been
so simple.
The school matron, followed by five teachers, three women and two men, came rushing into the
room.
"By golly, somebody's floored her at last!" cried one of the men, grinning. "Congratulations, Miss
Honey!"
"Who threw the water over her?" asked the matron.
"I did," said Nigel proudly.
"Good for you," another teacher said. "Shall we get some more?"
"Stop that," the matron said. "We must carry her up to the sick-room."
It took all five teachers and the matron to lift the enormous woman and stagger with her out of the
room.
Miss Honey said to the class, "I think you'd all better go out to the playground and amuse
yourselves until the next lesson." Then she turned and walked over to the blackboard and carefully
wiped out all the chalk writing.
The children began filing out of the classroom. Matilda started to go with them, but as she passed
Miss Honey she paused and her twinkling eyes met the teacher's eyes and Miss Honey ran forward
and gave the tiny child a great big hug and a kiss.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
apprehensive
|
|
| adj.担心的，恐惧的，善于领会的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
doom
|
|
| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
jug
|
|
| n.(有柄，小口，可盛水等的)大壶，罐，盂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
hips
|
|
| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
scowling
|
|
| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
backwards
|
|
| adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
stammered
|
|
| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
triumphant
|
|
| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
fungus
|
|
| n.真菌，真菌类植物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
stagnant
|
|
| adj.不流动的，停滞的，不景气的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
coconuts
|
|
| n.椰子( coconut的名词复数 )；椰肉，椰果 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
flustered
|
|
| adj.慌张的；激动不安的v.使慌乱，使不安( fluster的过去式和过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
blister
|
|
| n.水疱；(油漆等的)气泡；v.(使)起泡 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
multiplication
|
|
| n.增加，增多，倍增；增殖，繁殖；乘法 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
mangled
|
|
| vt.乱砍（mangle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
judo
|
|
| n.柔道 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
karate
|
|
| n.空手道(日本的一种徒手武术) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
flipped
|
|
| 轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
halfway
|
|
| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
dangling
|
|
| 悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
hysterical
|
|
| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
shrill
|
|
| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
hovering
|
|
| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
gasp
|
|
| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
gasps
|
|
| v.喘气( gasp的第三人称单数 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
hovered
|
|
| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
tinkle
|
|
| vi.叮当作响；n.叮当声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
sensational
|
|
| adj.使人感动的，非常好的，轰动的，耸人听闻的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
prostrate
|
|
| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
curiously
|
|
| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
gushing
|
|
| adj.迸出的；涌出的；喷出的；过分热情的v.喷，涌( gush的现在分词 )；滔滔不绝地说话 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
skull
|
|
| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
scorching
|
|
| adj. 灼热的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |