During the next two weeks, the weather turned very cold. First came the snow. It began
very suddenly one morning just as Charlie Bucket was getting dressed for school.
Standing1 by the window, he saw the huge flakes2 drifting slowly down out of an icy sky
that was the colour of steel.
By evening, it lay four feet deep around the tiny house, and Mr Bucket had to dig a
path from the front door to the road.
After the snow, there came a freezing gale3 that blew for days and days without
stopping. And oh, how bitter cold it was! Everything that Charlie touched seemed to be
made of ice, and each time he stepped outside the door, the wind was like a knife on his
cheek.
Inside the house, little jets of freezing air came rushing in through the sides of the
windows and under the doors, and there was no place to go to escape them. The four old
ones lay silent and huddled4 in their bed, trying to keep the cold out of their bones. The
excitement over the Golden Tickets had long since been forgotten. Nobody in the family
gave a thought now to anything except the two vital problems of trying to keep warm
and trying to get enough to eat.
There is something about very cold weather that gives one an enormous appetite.
Most of us find ourselves beginning to crave5 rich steaming stews6 and hot apple pies and
all kinds of delicious warming dishes; and because we are all a great deal luckier than
we realize, we usually get what we want – or near enough. But Charlie Bucket never got
what he wanted because the family couldn’t afford it, and as the cold weather went on
and on, he became ravenously7 and desperately8 hungry. Both bars of chocolate, the
birthday one and the one Grandpa Joe had bought, had long since been nibbled9 away,
and all he got now were those thin, cabbagy meals three times a day.
Then all at once, the meals became even thinner.
The reason for this was that the toothpaste factory, the place where Mr Bucket
worked, suddenly went bust10 and had to close down. Quickly, Mr Bucket tried to get
another job. But he had no luck. In the end, the only way in which he managed to earn a
few pennies was by shovelling11 snow in the streets. But it wasn’t enough to buy even a
quarter of the food that seven people needed. The situation became desperate. Breakfast
was a single slice of bread for each person now, and lunch was maybe half a boiled
potato.
Slowly but surely, everybody in the house began to starve.
And every day, little Charlie Bucket, trudging12
through the snow on his way to school, would have to pass Mr Willy Wonka’s giant
chocolate factory. And every day, as he came near to it, he would lift his small pointed13
nose high in the air and sniff14 the wonderful sweet smell of melting chocolate.
Sometimes, he would stand motionless outside the gates for several minutes on end,
taking deep swallowing breaths as though he were trying to eat the smell itself.
‘That child,’ said Grandpa Joe, poking15 his head up from under the blanket one icy
morning, ‘that child has got to have more food. It doesn’t matter about us. We’re too old
to bother with. But a growing boy! He can’t go on like this! He’s beginning to look like a
skeleton!’
‘What can one do?’ murmured Grandma Josephine miserably16. ‘He refuses to take any
of ours. I hear his mother tried to slip her own piece of bread on to his plate at breakfast
this morning, but he wouldn’t touch it. He made her take it back.’
‘He’s a fine little fellow,’ said Grandpa George. ‘He deserves better than this.’
The cruel weather went on and on.
And every day, Charlie Bucket grew thinner and thinner. His face became
frighteningly white and pinched. The skin was drawn17 so tightly over the cheeks that you
could see the shapes of the bones underneath18. It seemed doubtful whether he could go
on much longer like this without becoming dangerously ill.
And now, very calmly, with that curious wisdom that seems to come so often to small
children in times of hardship, he began to make little changes here and there in some of
the things that he did, so as to save his strength. In the mornings, he left the house ten
minutes earlier so that he could walk slowly to school, without ever having to run. He
sat quietly in the classroom during break, resting himself, while the others rushed
outdoors and threw snowballs and wrestled19 in the snow. Everything he did now, he did
slowly and carefully, to prevent exhaustion20.
Then one afternoon, walking back home with the icy wind in his face (and
incidentally feeling hungrier than he had ever felt before), his eye was caught suddenly
by something silvery lying in the gutter21, in the snow. Charlie stepped off the kerb and
bent22 down to examine it. Part of it was buried under the snow, but he saw at once what
it was.
It was a fifty-pence piece!
Quickly he looked around him.
Had somebody just dropped it?
No – that was impossible because of the way part of it was buried.
Several people went hurrying past him on the pavement, their chins sunk deep in the
collars of their coats, their feet crunching23 in the snow. None of them was searching for
any money; none of them was taking the slightest notice of the small boy crouching24 in
the gutter.
Then was it his, this fifty pence?
Could he have it?
Carefully, Charlie pulled it out from under the snow. It was damp and dirty, but
otherwise perfect.
A WHOLE fifty pence!
He held it tightly between his shivering fingers, gazing down at it. It meant one thing
to him at that moment, only one thing. It meant FOOD.
Automatically, Charlie turned and began moving towards the nearest shop. It was
only ten paces away… it was a newspaper and stationery25 shop, the kind that sells almost
everything, including sweets and cigars… and what he would do, he whispered quickly
to himself… he would buy one luscious26 bar of chocolate and eat it all up, every bit of it,
right then and there… and the rest of the money he would take straight back home and
give to his mother.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
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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2
flakes
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| 小薄片( flake的名词复数 )； （尤指）碎片； 雪花； 古怪的人 | |
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3
gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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4
huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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5
crave
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| vt.渴望得到，迫切需要，恳求，请求 | |
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6
stews
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| n.炖煮的菜肴( stew的名词复数 )；烦恼，焦虑v.炖( stew的第三人称单数 )；煨；思考；担忧 | |
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7
ravenously
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| adv.大嚼地，饥饿地 | |
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8
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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9
nibbled
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| v.啃，一点一点地咬（吃）( nibble的过去式和过去分词 )；啃出（洞），一点一点咬出（洞）；慢慢减少；小口咬 | |
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10
bust
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| vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部 | |
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11
shovelling
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| v.铲子( shovel的现在分词 )；锹；推土机、挖土机等的)铲；铲形部份 | |
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12
trudging
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| vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的现在分词形式） | |
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13
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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14
sniff
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| vi.嗅…味道；抽鼻涕；对嗤之以鼻，蔑视 | |
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15
poking
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| n. 刺，戳，袋 vt. 拨开，刺，戳 vi. 戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢 | |
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16
miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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17
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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18
underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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19
wrestled
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| v.（与某人）搏斗( wrestle的过去式和过去分词 )；扭成一团；扭打；（与…）摔跤 | |
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20
exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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21
gutter
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| n.沟，街沟，水槽，檐槽，贫民窟 | |
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22
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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23
crunching
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| v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼( crunch的现在分词 )；嘎吱作响；（快速大量地）处理信息；数字捣弄 | |
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24
crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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25
stationery
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| n.文具；(配套的)信笺信封 | |
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26
luscious
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| adj.美味的；芬芳的；肉感的，引与性欲的 | |
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