1 Here Comes Charlie

1 Here Comes Charlie

These two very old people are the father and mother of Mr Bucket. Their names are
Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine.

And these two very old people are the father and mother of Mrs Bucket. Their names
are Grandpa George and Grandma Georgina.

This is Mr Bucket. This is Mrs Bucket.
Mr and Mrs Bucket have a small boy whose name is Charlie Bucket.

This is Charlie.
How d’you do? And how d’you do? And how d’you do again? He is pleased to meet
you.
The whole of this family – the six grown-ups (count them) and little Charlie Bucket –
live together in a small wooden house on the edge of a great town.

The house wasn’t nearly large enough for so many people, and life was extremely
uncomfortable for them all. There were only two rooms in the place altogether, and
there was only one bed. The bed was given to the four old grandparents because they
were so old and tired. They were so tired, they never got out of it.
Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine on this side, Grandpa George and Grandma
Georgina on this side.
Mr and Mrs Bucket and little Charlie Bucket slept in the other room, upon mattresses¹
on the floor.
In the summertime, this wasn’t too bad, but in the winter, freezing cold draughts² blew
across the floor all night long, and it was awful.
There wasn’t any question of them being able to buy a better house – or even one
more bed to sleep in. They were far too poor for that.
Mr Bucket was the only person in the family with a job. He worked in a toothpaste
factory, where he sat all day long at a bench and screwed the little caps on to the tops of
the tubes of toothpaste after the tubes had been filled. But a toothpaste cap-screwer is
never paid very much money, and poor Mr Bucket, however hard he worked, and
however fast he screwed on the caps, was never able to make enough to buy one half of
the things that so large a family needed. There wasn’t even enough money to buy proper
food for them all. The only meals they could afford were bread and margarine for
breakfast, boiled potatoes and cabbage for lunch, and cabbage soup for supper. Sundays
were a bit better. They all looked forward to Sundays because then, although they had
exactly the same, everyone was allowed a second helping³.
The Buckets, of course, didn’t starve, but every one of them – the two old
grandfathers, the two old grandmothers, Charlie’s father, Charlie’s mother, and
especially little Charlie himself – went about from morning till night with a horrible
empty feeling in their tummies.
Charlie felt it worst of all. And although his father and mother often went without
their own share of lunch or supper so that they could give it to him, it still wasn’t nearly
enough for a growing boy. He desperately⁴ wanted something more filling and satisfying
than cabbage and cabbage soup. The one thing he longed for more than anything else
was… CHOCOLATE.
Walking to school in the mornings, Charlie could see great slabs⁵ of chocolate piled up
high in the shop windows, and he would stop and stare and press his nose against the
glass, his mouth watering like mad. Many times a day, he would see other children
taking bars of creamy chocolate out of their pockets and munching⁶ them greedily, and
that, of course, was pure torture.
Only once a year, on his birthday, did Charlie Bucket ever get to taste a bit of
chocolate. The whole family saved up their money for that special occasion, and when
the great day arrived, Charlie was always presented with one small chocolate bar to eat
all by himself. And each time he received it, on those marvellous birthday mornings, he
would place it carefully in a small wooden box that he owned, and treasure it as though
it were a bar of solid gold; and for the next few days, he would allow himself only to
look at it, but never to touch it. Then at last, when he could stand it no longer, he would
peel back a tiny bit of the paper wrapping at one corner to expose a tiny bit of chocolate,
and then he would take a tiny nibble⁷ – just enough to allow the lovely sweet taste to
spread out slowly over his tongue. The next day, he would take another tiny nibble, and
so on, and so on. And in this way, Charlie would make his sixpenny bar of birthday
chocolate last him for more than a month.
But I haven’t yet told you about the one awful thing that tortured little Charlie, the
lover of chocolate, more than anything else. This thing, for him, was far, far worse than
seeing slabs of chocolate in the shop windows or watching other children munching bars
of creamy chocolate right in front of him. It was the most terrible torturing thing you
could imagine, and it was this:
In the town itself, actually within sight of the house in which Charlie lived, there was
an ENORMOUS CHOCOLATE FACTORY!
Just imagine that!
And it wasn’t simply an ordinary enormous chocolate factory, either. It was the largest
and most famous in the whole world! It was WONKA’S FACTORY, owned by a man
called Mr Willy Wonka, the greatest inventor and maker⁸ of chocolates that there has
ever been. And what a tremendous, marvellous place it was! It had huge iron gates
leading into it, and a high wall surrounding it, and smoke belching⁹ from its chimneys,
and strange whizzing sounds coming from deep inside it. And outside the walls, for half
a mile around in every direction, the air was scented¹⁰ with the heavy rich smell of
melting chocolate!
Twice a day, on his way to and from school, little Charlie Bucket had to walk right
past the gates of the factory. And every time he went by, he would begin to walk very,
very slowly, and he would hold his nose high in the air and take long deep sniffs¹¹ of the
gorgeous¹² chocolatey smell all around him.
Oh, how he loved that smell!
And oh, how he wished he could go inside the factory and see what it was like!

1 mattresses   

褥垫，床垫( mattress的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The straw mattresses are airing there. 草垫子正在那里晾着。
• The researchers tested more than 20 mattresses of various materials. 研究人员试验了二十多个不同材料的床垫。

2 draughts   

n. <英>国际跳棋

参考例句：

• Seal (up) the window to prevent draughts. 把窗户封起来以防风。
• I will play at draughts with him. 我跟他下一盘棋吧！

3 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

4 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。

5 slabs   

n.厚板，平板，厚片( slab的名词复数 )；厚胶片

参考例句：

• The patio was made of stone slabs. 这天井是用石板铺砌而成的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The slabs of standing stone point roughly toward the invisible notch. 这些矗立的石块，大致指向那个看不见的缺口。 来自辞典例句

6 munching   

v.用力咀嚼（某物），大嚼( munch的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He was munching an apple. 他在津津有味地嚼着苹果。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Munching the apple as he was, he had an eye for all her movements. 他虽然啃着苹果，但却很留神地监视着她的每一个动作。 来自辞典例句

7 nibble   

n.轻咬，啃；v.一点点地咬，慢慢啃，吹毛求疵

参考例句：

• Inflation began to nibble away at their savings.通货膨胀开始蚕食他们的存款。
• The birds cling to the wall and nibble at the brickwork.鸟儿们紧贴在墙上，啄着砖缝。

8 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

9 belching   

n. 喷出，打嗝 动词belch的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The Tartars employed another weapon, the so-called Chinese dragon belching fire. 鞑靼人使用了另一种武器，所谓中国龙喷火器。
• Billows of smoke were belching from the chimney. 巨浪似的烟正从烟囱里喷出来。

10 scented   

adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词)

参考例句：

• I let my lungs fill with the scented air. 我呼吸着芬芳的空气。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The police dog scented about till he found the trail. 警犬嗅来嗅去，终于找到了踪迹。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

11 sniffs   

v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的第三人称单数 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说

参考例句：

• When a dog smells food, he usually sniffs. 狗闻到食物时常吸鼻子。 来自辞典例句
• I-It's a difficult time [ Sniffs ] with my husband. 最近[哭泣]和我丈夫出了点问题。 来自电影对白

12 gorgeous   

adj.华丽的，灿烂的，美丽的，宜人的，棒的

参考例句：

• The gorgeous costume added to the brilliance of the dance.华丽的服装使舞蹈更加光彩夺目。
• What a gorgeous day it is today!今天天气多好啊！