8 Two More Golden Tickets Found

8 Two More Golden Tickets Found
That evening, Mr Bucket’s newspaper announced the finding of not only the third
Golden Ticket, but the fourth as well. TWO GOLDEN TICKETS FOUND TODAY,
screamed the headlines. ONLY ONE MORE LEFT.
‘All right,’ said Grandpa Joe, when the whole family was gathered in the old people’s
room after supper, ‘let’s hear who found them.’
‘The third ticket,’ read Mr Bucket, holding the newspaper up close to his face because
his eyes were bad and he couldn’t afford glasses, ‘the third ticket was found by a Miss
Violet Beauregarde. There was great excitement in the Beauregarde household when our
reporter arrived to interview the lucky young lady – cameras were clicking and
flashbulbs were flashing and people were pushing and jostling and trying to get a bit
closer to the famous girl. And the famous girl was standing¹ on a chair in the living room
waving the Golden Ticket madly at arm’s length as though she were flagging a taxi. She
was talking very fast and very loudly to everyone, but it was not easy to hear all that she
said because she was chewing so ferociously² upon a piece of gum at the same time.
‘ “I’m a gum chewer, normally,” she shouted, “but when I heard about these ticket
things of Mr Wonka’s, I gave up gum and started on chocolate bars in the hope of
striking lucky. Now, of course, I’m back on gum. I just adore gum. I can’t do without it. I
munch³ it all day long except for a few minutes at mealtimes when I take it out and stick
it behind my ear for safekeeping. To tell you the truth, I simply wouldn’t feel comfortable
if I didn’t have that little wedge of gum to chew on every moment of the day, I really
wouldn’t. My mother says it’s not ladylike and it looks ugly to see a girl’s jaws⁴ going up
and down like mine do all the time, but I don’t agree. And who’s she to criticize,
anyway, because if you ask me, I’d say that her jaws are going up and down almost as
much as mine are just from yelling at me every minute of the day.”
‘ “Now, Violet,” Mrs Beauregarde said from a far corner of the room where she was
standing on the piano to avoid being trampled⁵ by the mob.
‘ “All right, Mother, keep your hair on!” Miss Beauregarde shouted. “And now,” she
went on, turning to the reporters again, “it may interest you to know that this piece of
gum I’m chewing right at this moment is one I’ve been working on for over three months
solid. That’s a record, that is. It’s beaten the record held by my best friend, Miss Cornelia
Prinzmetel. And was she furious! It’s my most treasured possession now, this piece of
gum is. At night-time, I just stick it on the end of the bedpost, and it’s as good as ever in
the mornings -a bit hard at first, maybe, but it soon softens⁶ up again after I’ve given it a
few good chews. Before I started chewing for the world record, I used to change my
piece of gum once a day. I used to do it in our lift on the way home from school. Why
the lift? Because I liked sticking the gooey piece that I’d just finished with on to one of
the control buttons. Then the next person who came along and pressed the button got
my old gum on the end of his or her finger. Ha-ha! And what a racket they kicked up,
some of them. You get the best results with women who have expensive gloves on. Oh
yes, I’m thrilled to be going to Mr Wonka’s factory. And I understand that afterwards
he’s going to give me enough gum to last me for the rest of my whole life. Whoopee!
Hooray!” ’
‘Beastly girl,’ said Grandma Josephine.
‘Despicable!’ said Grandma Georgina. ‘She’ll come to a sticky end one day, chewing all
that gum, you see if she doesn’t.’
‘And who got the fourth Golden Ticket?’ Charlie asked.
‘Now, let me see,’ said Mr Bucket, peering at the newspaper again. ‘Ah yes, here we
are. The fourth Golden Ticket,’ he read, ‘was found by a boy called Mike Teavee.’
‘Another bad lot, I’ll be bound,’ muttered Grandma Josephine.
‘Don’t interrupt, Grandma,’ said Mrs Bucket.
‘The Teavee household,’ said Mr Bucket, going on with his reading, ‘was crammed⁷,
like all the others, with excited visitors when our reporter arrived, but young Mike
Teavee, the lucky winner, seemed extremely annoyed by the whole business. “Can’t you
fools see I’m watching television?” he said angrily. “I wish you wouldn’t interrupt!”
‘The nine-year-old boy was seated before an enormous television set, with his eyes
glued to the screen, and he was watching a film in which one bunch of gangsters⁸ was
shooting up another bunch of gangsters with machine guns. Mike Teavee himself had no
less than eighteen toy pistols of various sizes hanging from belts around his body, and
every now and again he would leap up into the air and fire off half a dozen rounds from
one or another of these weapons.
‘ “Quiet!” he shouted, when someone tried to ask him a question. “Didn’t I tell you not
to interrupt! This show’s an absolute whiz-banger! It’s terrific! I watch it every day. I
watch all of them every day, even the rotten ones, where there’s no shooting. I like the
gangsters best. They’re terrific, those gangsters! Especially when they start pumping
each other full of lead, or flashing the old stilettos, or giving each other the one-two-
three with their knuckledusters! Gosh, what wouldn’t I give to be doing that myself! It’s
the life, I tell you! It’s terrific!” ’
‘That’s quite enough!’ snapped Grandma Josephine. ‘I can’t bear to listen to it!’
‘Nor me,’ said Grandma Georgina. ‘Do all children behave like this nowadays – like
these brats⁹ we’ve been hearing about?’
‘Of course not,’ said Mr Bucket, smiling at the old lady in the bed. ‘Some do, of course.
In fact, quite a lot of them do. But not all.’
‘And now there’s only one ticket left!’ said Grandpa George.
‘Quite so,’ sniffed¹⁰ Grandma Georgina. ‘And just as sure as I’ll be having cabbage soup
for supper tomorrow, that ticket’ll go to some nasty little beast who doesn’t deserve it!’

1 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

2 ferociously   

野蛮地，残忍地

参考例句：

• The buck shook his antlers ferociously. 那雄鹿猛烈地摇动他的鹿角。
• At intervals, he gritted his teeth ferociously. 他不时狠狠的轧平。

3 munch   

v.用力嚼，大声咀嚼

参考例句：

• We watched her munch through two packets of peanuts.我们看她津津有味地嚼了两包花生米。
• Getting them to munch on vegetable dishes was more difficult.使他们吃素菜就比较困难了。

4 jaws   

n.口部；嘴

参考例句：

• The antelope could not escape the crocodile's gaping jaws. 那只羚羊无法从鱷鱼张开的大口中逃脱。
• The scored jaws of a vise help it bite the work. 台钳上有刻痕的虎钳牙帮助它紧咬住工件。

5 trampled   

踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯

参考例句：

• He gripped his brother's arm lest he be trampled by the mob. 他紧抓着他兄弟的胳膊，怕他让暴民踩着。
• People were trampled underfoot in the rush for the exit. 有人在拼命涌向出口时被踩在脚下。

6 softens   

（使）变软( soften的第三人称单数 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰

参考例句：

• Iron softens with heat. 铁受热就软化。
• Moonlight softens our faults; all shabbiness dissolves into shadow. 月光淡化了我们的各种缺点，所有的卑微都化解为依稀朦胧的阴影。 来自名作英译部分

7 crammed   

adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式)

参考例句：

• He crammed eight people into his car. 他往他的车里硬塞进八个人。
• All the shelves were crammed with books. 所有的架子上都堆满了书。

8 gangsters   

匪徒，歹徒( gangster的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The gangsters offered him a sum equivalent to a whole year's earnings. 歹徒提出要给他一笔相当于他一年收入的钱。
• One of the gangsters was caught by the police. 歹徒之一被警察逮捕。

9 brats   

n.调皮捣蛋的孩子( brat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I've been waiting to get my hands on you brats. 我等着干你们这些小毛头已经很久了。 来自电影对白
• The charming family had turned into a parcel of brats. 那个可爱的家庭一下子变成了一窝臭小子。 来自互联网

10 sniffed   

v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；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 Jenney had stopped crying she sniffed and dried her eyes. 珍妮停止了哭泣，吸了吸鼻子，擦干了眼泪。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The dog sniffed suspiciously at the stranger. 狗疑惑地嗅着那个陌生人。 来自《简明英汉词典》