‘Oompa-Loompas!’ everyone said at once. ‘Oompa-Loompas!’
‘Imported direct from Loompaland,’ said Mr Wonka proudly.
‘There’s no such place,’ said Mrs Salt.
‘Excuse me, dear lady, but…’
‘Mr Wonka,’ cried Mrs Salt. ‘I’m a teacher of geography…’
‘Then you’ll know all about it,’ said Mr Wonka. ‘And oh, what a terrible country it is!
Nothing but thick jungles infested1 by the most dangerous beasts in the world –
hornswogglers and snozzwangers and those terrible wicked whangdoodles. A whang-
doodle would eat ten Oompa- Loompas for breakfast and come galloping2 back for a
second helping3. When I went out there, I found the little Oompa-Loompas living in tree
houses. They had to live in tree houses to escape from the whangdoodles and the
hornswogglers and the snozzwangers. And they were living on green caterpillars4, and
the caterpillars tasted revolting, and the Oompa-Loompas spent every moment of their
days climbing through the treetops looking for other things to mash5 up with the
caterpillars to make them taste better – red beetles6, for instance, and eucalyptus7 leaves,
and the bark of the bong-bong tree, all of them beastly, but not quite so beastly as the
caterpillars. Poor little Oompa-Loompas! The one food that they longed for more than
any other was the cacao bean. But they couldn’t get it. An Oompa-Loompa was lucky if
he found three or four cacao beans a year. But oh, how they craved8 them. They used to
dream about cacao beans all night and talk about them all day. You had only to mention
the word “cacao” to an Oompa-Loompa and he would start dribbling9 at the mouth. The
cacao bean,’ Mr Wonka continued, ‘which grows on the cacao tree, happens to be the
thing from which all chocolate is made. You cannot make chocolate without the
cacao bean. The cacao bean is chocolate. I myself use billions of cacao beans every
week in this factory. And so, my dear children, as soon as I discovered that the Oompa-
Loompas were crazy about this particular food, I climbed up to their tree-house village
and poked10 my head in through the door of the tree house belonging to the leader of the
tribe. The poor little fellow, looking thin and starved, was sitting there trying to eat a
bowl full of mashed11- up green caterpillars without being sick. “Look here,” I said
(speaking not in English, of course, but in Oompa-Loompish), “look here, if you and all
your people will come back to my country and live in my factory, you can have all the
cacao beans you want! I’ve got mountains of them in my storehouses! You can have
cacao beans for every meal! You can gorge12 yourselves silly on them! I’ll even pay your
wages in cacao beans if you wish!”
‘ “You really mean it?” asked the Oompa-Loompa leader, leaping up from his chair.
‘ “Of course I mean it,” I said. “And you can have chocolate as well. Chocolate tastes
even better than cacao beans because it’s got milk and sugar added.”
‘The little man gave a great whoop13 of joy and threw his bowl of mashed caterpillars
right out of the tree-house window. “It’s a deal!” he cried. “Come on! Let’s go!”
‘So I shipped them all over here, every man, woman, and child in the Oompa-Loompa
tribe. It was easy. I smuggled14 them over in large packing cases with holes in them, and
they all got here safely. They are wonderful workers. They all speak English now. They
love dancing and music. They are always making up songs. I expect you will hear a good
deal of singing today from time to time. I must warn you, though, that they are rather
mischievous15. They like jokes. They still wear the same kind of clothes they wore in the
jungle. They insist upon that. The men, as you can see for yourselves across the river,
wear only deerskins. The women wear leaves, and the children wear nothing at all. The
women use fresh leaves every day…’
‘Daddy!’ shouted Veruca Salt (the girl who got everything she wanted). ‘Daddy! I want
an Oompa-Loompa! I want you to get me an Oompa-Loompa! I want an Oompa-Loompa
right away! I want to take it home with me! Go on, Daddy! Get me an Oompa-Loompa!’
‘Now, now, my pet!’ her father said to her, ‘we mustn’t interrupt Mr Wonka.’
‘But I want an Oompa-Loompa!’ screamed Veruca.
‘All right, Veruca, all right. But I can’t get it for you this second. Please be patient. I’ll
see you have one before the day is out.’
‘Augustus!’ shouted Mrs Gloop. ‘Augustus, sweetheart, I don’t think you had better do
that.’ Augustus Gloop, as you might have guessed, had quietly sneaked16 down to the edge
of the river, and he was now kneeling on the riverbank, scooping17 hot melted chocolate
into his mouth as fast as he could.
![](../../../skin/default/image/4.jpg)
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收听单词发音
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1
infested
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adj.为患的,大批滋生的(常与with搭配)v.害虫、野兽大批出没于( infest的过去式和过去分词 );遍布于 | |
参考例句: |
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2
galloping
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adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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3
helping
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n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的 | |
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4
caterpillars
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n.毛虫( caterpillar的名词复数 );履带 | |
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5
mash
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n.麦芽浆,糊状物,土豆泥;v.把…捣成糊状,挑逗,调情 | |
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6
beetles
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n.甲虫( beetle的名词复数 ) | |
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7
eucalyptus
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n.桉树,桉属植物 | |
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8
craved
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渴望,热望( crave的过去式 ); 恳求,请求 | |
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9
dribbling
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n.(燃料或油从系统内)漏泄v.流口水( dribble的现在分词 );(使液体)滴下或作细流;运球,带球 | |
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10
poked
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v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 );戳出;拨弄;与(某人)性交 | |
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11
mashed
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a.捣烂的 | |
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12
gorge
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n.咽喉,胃,暴食,山峡;v.塞饱,狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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13
whoop
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n.大叫,呐喊,喘息声;v.叫喊,喘息 | |
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14
smuggled
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水货 | |
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15
mischievous
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adj.调皮的,恶作剧的,有害的,伤人的 | |
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16
sneaked
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v.潜行( sneak的过去式和过去分词 );偷偷溜走;(儿童向成人)打小报告;告状 | |
参考例句: |
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17
scooping
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n.捞球v.抢先报道( scoop的现在分词 );(敏捷地)抱起;抢先获得;用铲[勺]等挖(洞等) | |
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