Mr Wonka led the party over to a gigantic machine that stood in the very centre of the
Inventing Room. It was a mountain of gleaming metal that towered high above the
children and their parents. Out of the very top of it there sprouted1 hundreds and
hundreds of thin glass tubes, and the glass tubes all curled downwards2 and came
together in a bunch and hung suspended over an enormous round tub as big as a bath.
‘Here we go!’ cried Mr Wonka, and he pressed three different buttons on the side of
the machine. A second later, a mighty3 rumbling4 sound came from inside it, and the
whole machine began to shake most frighteningly, and steam began hissing5 out of it all
over, and then suddenly the watchers noticed that runny stuff was pouring down the
insides of all the hundreds of little glass tubes and squirting out into the great tub below.
And in every single tube the runny stuff was of a different colour, so that all the colours
of the rainbow (and many others as well) came sloshing and splashing into the tub. It
was a lovely sight. And when the tub was nearly full, Mr Wonka pressed another button,
and immediately the runny stuff disappeared, and a whizzing whirring noise took its
place; and then a giant whizzer started whizzing round inside the enormous tub, mixing
up all the different coloured liquids like an ice-cream soda6. Gradually, the mixture began
to froth. It became frothier and frothier, and it turned from blue to white to green to
brown to yellow, then back to blue again.
‘Watch!’ said Mr Wonka.
Click went the machine, and the whizzer stopped whizzing. And now there came a
sort of sucking noise, and very quickly all the blue frothy mixture in the huge basin was
sucked back into the stomach of the machine. There was a moment of silence. Then a
few queer rumblings were heard. Then silence again. Then suddenly, the machine let out
a monstrous7 mighty groan8, and at the same moment a tiny drawer (no bigger than the
drawer in a slot machine) popped out of the side of the machine, and in the drawer
there lay something so small and thin and grey that everyone thought it must be a
mistake. The thing looked like a little strip of grey cardboard.
The children and their parents stared at the little grey strip lying in the drawer.
‘You mean that’s all?’ said Mike Teavee, disgusted.
‘That’s all,’ answered Mr Wonka, gazing proudly at the result. ‘Don’t you know what it
is?’
There was a pause. Then suddenly, Violet Beau-regarde, the silly gum-chewing girl, let
out a yell of excitement. ‘By gum, it’s gum!’ she shrieked9. ‘It’s a stick of chewing-gum!’
‘Right you are!’ cried Mr Wonka, slapping Violet hard on the back. ‘It’s a stick of gum!
It’s a stick of the most amazing and fabulous10 and sensational11 gum in the world!’
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1
sprouted
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v.发芽( sprout的过去式和过去分词 );抽芽;出现;(使)涌现出 | |
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2
downwards
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adj./adv.向下的(地),下行的(地) | |
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3
mighty
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adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
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4
rumbling
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n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词 | |
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5
hissing
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n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
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6
soda
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n.苏打水;汽水 | |
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7
monstrous
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adj.巨大的;恐怖的;可耻的,丢脸的 | |
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8
groan
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vi./n.呻吟,抱怨;(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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9
shrieked
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v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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10
fabulous
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adj.极好的;极为巨大的;寓言中的,传说中的 | |
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11
sensational
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adj.使人感动的,非常好的,轰动的,耸人听闻的 | |
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