18 Down the Chocolate River

18 Down the Chocolate River
‘Off we go!’ cried Mr Wonka. ‘Hurry up, everybody! Follow me to the next room! And
please don’t worry about Augustus Gloop. He’s bound to come out in the wash. They
always do. We shall have to make the next part of the journey by boat! Here she comes!
Look!’
A steamy mist was rising up now from the great warm chocolate river, and out of the
mist there appeared suddenly a most fantastic pink boat. It was a large open row boat
with a tall front and a tall back (like a Viking boat of old), and it was of such a shining
sparkling glistening¹ pink colour that the whole thing looked as though it were made of
bright, pink glass. There were many oars² on either side of it, and as the boat came
closer, the watchers on the riverbank could see that the oars were being pulled by
masses of Oompa-Loompas – at least ten of them to each oar³.
‘This is my private yacht!’ cried Mr Wonka, beaming with pleasure. ‘I made her by
hollowing out an enormous boiled sweet! Isn’t she beautiful! See how she comes cutting
through the river!’
The gleaming pink boiled-sweet boat glided⁴ up to the riverbank. One hundred Oompa-
Loompas rested on their oars and stared up at the visitors. Then suddenly, for some
reason best known to themselves, they all burst into shrieks⁵ of laughter.
‘What’s so funny?’ asked Violet Beauregarde.
‘Oh, don’t worry about them!’ cried Mr Wonka. ‘They’re always laughing! They think
everything’s a colossal⁶ joke! Jump into the boat, all of you! Come on! Hurry up!’
As soon as everyone was safely in, the Oompa-Loompas pushed the boat away from
the bank and began to row swiftly downriver.
‘Hey, there! Mike Teavee!’ shouted Mr Wonka. ‘Please do not lick the boat with your
tongue! It’ll only make it sticky!’
‘Daddy,’ said Veruca Salt, ‘I want a boat like this! I want you to buy me a big pink
boiled-sweet boat exactly like Mr Wonka’s! And I want lots of Oompa-Loompas to row
me about, and I want a chocolate river and I want… I want…‘
‘She wants a good kick in the pants,’ whispered Grandpa Joe to Charlie. The old man
was sitting in the back of the boat and little Charlie Bucket was right beside him. Charlie
was holding tightly on to his grandfather’s bony old hand. He was in a whirl of
excitement. Everything that he had seen so far – the great chocolate river, the waterfall,
the huge sucking pipes, the minty sugar meadows, the Oompa-Loompas, the beautiful
pink boat, and most of all, Mr Willy Wonka himself – had been so astonishing that he
began to wonder
whether there could possibly be any more astonishments left. Where were they going
now? What were they going to see? And what in the world was going to happen in the
next room?
‘Isn’t it marvellous?’ said Grandpa Joe, grinning at Charlie.
Charlie nodded and smiled up at the old man.
Suddenly, Mr Wonka, who was sitting on Charlie’s other side, reached down into the
bottom of the boat, picked up a large mug, dipped it into the river, filled it with
chocolate, and handed it to Charlie. ‘Drink this,’ he said. ‘It’ll do you good! You look
starved to death!’
Then Mr Wonka filled a second mug and gave it to Grandpa Joe. ‘You, too,’ he said.
‘You look like a skeleton! What’s the matter? Hasn’t there been anything to eat in your
house lately?’
‘Not much,’ said Grandpa Joe.
Charlie put the mug to his lips, and as the rich warm creamy chocolate ran down his
throat into his empty tummy, his whole body from head to toe began to tingle⁷ with
pleasure, and a feeling of intense happiness spread over him.
‘You like it?’ asked Mr Wonka.
‘Oh, it’s wonderful!’ Charlie said.
‘The creamiest loveliest chocolate I’ve ever tasted!’ said Grandpa Joe, smacking⁸ his
lips.
‘That’s because it’s been mixed by waterfall,’ Mr Wonka told him.
The boat sped on down the river. The river was getting narrower. There was some
kind of a dark tunnel ahead – a great round tunnel that looked like an enormous pipe –
and the river was running right into the tunnel. And so was the boat! ‘Row on!’ shouted
Mr Wonka, jumping up and waving his stick in the air. ‘Full speed ahead!’ And with the
Oompa-Loompas rowing faster than ever, the boat shot into the pitch-dark tunnel, and
all the passengers screamed with excitement.
‘How can they see where they’re going?’ shrieked⁹ Violet Beauregarde in the darkness.
‘There’s no knowing where they’re going!’ cried Mr Wonka, hooting¹⁰ with laughter.
‘ There’s no earthly way of knowing
Which direction they are going!
There’s no knowing where they’re rowing,
Or which way the river’s flowing!
Mot a speck¹¹ of light is showing,
So the danger must be growing,
For the rowers keep on rowing,
And they’re certainly not showing
Any signs that they are slowing…’
‘He’s gone off his rocker!’ shouted one of the fathers, aghast, and the other parents
joined in the chorus of frightened shouting. ‘He’s crazy!’ they shouted.
‘He’s balmy!’
‘He’s nutty!’
‘He’s screwy!’
‘He’s batty!’
‘He’s dippy!’
‘He’s dotty!’
‘He’s daffy!’
‘He’s goofy!’
‘He’s beany!’
‘He’s buggy!’
‘He’s wacky!’
‘He’s loony!’
‘No, he is not!’ said Grandpa Joe.
‘Switch on the lights!’ shouted Mr Wonka. And suddenly, on came the lights and the
whole tunnel was brilliantly lit up, and Charlie could see that they were indeed inside a
gigantic pipe, and the great upward- curving walls of the pipe were pure white and
spotlessly clean. The river of chocolate was flowing very fast inside the pipe, and the
Oompa-Loompas were all rowing like mad, and the boat was rocketing along at a furious
pace. Mr Wonka was jumping up and down in the back of the boat and calling to the
rowers to row faster and faster still. He seemed to love the sensation of whizzing
through a white tunnel in a pink boat on a chocolate river, and he clapped his hands and
laughed and kept glancing at his passengers to see if they were enjoying it as much as
he.
‘Look, Grandpa!’ cried Charlie. ‘There’s a door in the wall!’ It was a green door and it
was set into the wall of the tunnel just above the level of the river. As they flashed past
it there was just enough time to read the writing on the door: STOREROOM NUMBER
54, it said. ALL THE CREAMS – DAIRY CREAM, WHIPPED CREAM, VIOLET CREAM,
COFFEE CREAM, PINEAPPLE CREAM, VANILLA¹² CREAM, AND HAIR CREAM.
‘Hair cream?’ cried Mike Teavee. ‘You don’t use hair cream?’
‘Row on!’ shouted Mr Wonka. ‘There’s no time to answer silly questions!’
They streaked¹³ past a black door. STOREROOM NUMBER 71, it said on it. WHIPS –
ALL SHAPES AND SIZES.
‘Whips!’ cried Veruca Salt. ‘What on earth do you use whips for?’
‘For whipping cream, of course,’ said Mr Wonka. ‘How can you whip cream without
whips? Whipped cream isn’t whipped cream at all unless it’s been whipped with whips.
Just as a poached egg isn’t a poached egg unless it’s been stolen from the woods in the
dead of night! Row on, please!’
They passed a yellow door on which it said: STOREROOM NUMBER 77 – ALL THE
BEANS, CACAO BEANS, COFFEE BEANS, JELLY BEANS, AND HAS BEANS.
‘Has beans?’ cried Violet Beauregarde.
‘You’re one yourself!’ said Mr Wonka. ‘There’s no time for arguing! Press on, press on!’
But five seconds later, when a bright red door came into sight ahead, he suddenly waved
his gold-topped cane¹⁴ in the air and shouted, ‘Stop the boat!’

1 glistening   

adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Her eyes were glistening with tears. 她眼里闪着晶莹的泪花。
• Her eyes were glistening with tears. 她眼睛中的泪水闪着柔和的光。 来自《用法词典》

2 oars   

n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• He pulled as hard as he could on the oars. 他拼命地划桨。
• The sailors are bending to the oars. 水手们在拼命地划桨。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 oar   

n.桨，橹，划手；v.划行

参考例句：

• The sailors oar slowly across the river.水手们慢慢地划过河去。
• The blade of the oar was bitten off by a shark.浆叶被一条鲨鱼咬掉了。

4 glided   

v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔

参考例句：

• The President's motorcade glided by. 总统的车队一溜烟开了过去。
• They glided along the wall until they were out of sight. 他们沿着墙壁溜得无影无踪。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 shrieks   

n.尖叫声( shriek的名词复数 )v.尖叫( shriek的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• shrieks of fiendish laughter 恶魔般的尖笑声
• For years, from newspapers, broadcasts, the stages and at meetings, we had heard nothing but grandiloquent rhetoric delivered with shouts and shrieks that deafened the ears. 多少年来， 报纸上， 广播里， 舞台上， 会场上的声嘶力竭，装腔做态的高调搞得我们震耳欲聋。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 colossal   

adj.异常的，庞大的

参考例句：

• There has been a colossal waste of public money.一直存在巨大的公款浪费。
• Some of the tall buildings in that city are colossal.那座城市里的一些高层建筑很庞大。

7 tingle   

vi.感到刺痛，感到激动；n.刺痛，激动

参考例句：

• The music made my blood tingle.那音乐使我热血沸腾。
• The cold caused a tingle in my fingers.严寒使我的手指有刺痛感。

8 smacking   

活泼的，发出响声的，精力充沛的

参考例句：

• He gave both of the children a good smacking. 他把两个孩子都狠揍了一顿。
• She inclined her cheek,and John gave it a smacking kiss. 她把头低下，约翰在她的脸上响亮的一吻。

9 shrieked   

v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She shrieked in fright. 她吓得尖叫起来。
• Li Mei-t'ing gave a shout, and Lu Tzu-hsiao shrieked, "Tell what? 李梅亭大声叫，陆子潇尖声叫：“告诉什么？ 来自汉英文学 - 围城

10 hooting   

（使）作汽笛声响，作汽车喇叭声( hoot的现在分词 )； 倒好儿； 倒彩

参考例句：

• He had the audience hooting with laughter . 他令观众哄堂大笑。
• The owl was hooting. 猫头鹰在叫。

11 speck   

n.微粒，小污点，小斑点

参考例句：

• I have not a speck of interest in it.我对它没有任何兴趣。
• The sky is clear and bright without a speck of cloud.天空晴朗，一星星云彩也没有。

12 vanilla   

n.香子兰，香草

参考例句：

• He used to love milk flavoured with vanilla.他过去常爱喝带香草味的牛奶。
• I added a dollop of vanilla ice-cream to the pie.我在馅饼里加了一块香草冰激凌。

13 streaked   

adj.有条斑纹的，不安的v.快速移动( streak的过去式和过去分词 )；使布满条纹

参考例句：

• The children streaked off as fast as they could. 孩子们拔脚飞跑 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• His face was pale and streaked with dirt. 他脸色苍白，脸上有一道道的污痕。 来自辞典例句

14 cane   

n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的

参考例句：

• This sugar cane is quite a sweet and juicy.这甘蔗既甜又多汁。
• English schoolmasters used to cane the boys as a punishment.英国小学老师过去常用教鞭打男学生作为惩罚。