The Teavee family, together with Charlie and Grandpa Joe, stepped out of the lift into a
room so dazzlingly bright and dazzlingly white that they screwed up their eyes in pain
and stopped walking. Mr Wonka handed each of them a pair of dark glasses and said,
‘Put these on quick! And don’t take them off in here whatever you do! This light could
blind you!’
As soon as Charlie had his dark glasses on, he was able to look around him in comfort.
He saw a long narrow room. The room was painted white all over. Even the floor was
white, and there wasn’t a speck1 of dust anywhere. From the ceiling, huge lamps hung
down and bathed the room in a brilliant blue-white light. The room was completely bare
except at the far ends. At one of these ends there was an enormous camera on wheels,
and a whole army of Oompa-Loompas was clustering around it, oiling its joints2 and
adjusting its knobs and polishing its great glass lens. The Oompa- Loompas were all
dressed in the most extraordinary way. They were wearing bright- red space suits,
complete with helmets and goggles3 – at least they looked like space suits – and they
were working in complete silence. Watching them, Charlie experienced a queer sense of
danger. There was something dangerous about this whole business, and the Oompa-
Loompas knew it. There was no chattering4 or singing among them here, and they moved
about over the huge black camera slowly and carefully in their scarlet5 space suits.
At the other end of the room, about fifty paces away from the camera, a single
Oompa-Loompa (also wearing a space suit) was sitting at a black table gazing at the
screen of a very large television set.
‘Here we go!’ cried Mr Wonka, hopping6 up and down with excitement. ‘This is the
Testing Room for my very latest and greatest invention – Television Chocolate!’
‘But what is Television Chocolate?’ asked Mike Teavee.
‘Good heavens, child, stop interrupting me!’ said Mr Wonka. ‘It works by television. I
don’t like television myself. I suppose it’s all right in small doses, but children never
seem to be able to take it in small doses. They want to sit there all day long staring and
staring at the screen…’
‘That’s me!’ said Mike Teavee.
‘Shut up!’ said Mr Teavee.
‘Thank you,’ said Mr Wonka. T shall now tell you how this amazing television set of
mine works. But first of all, do you know how ordinary television works? It is very
simple. At one end, where the picture is being taken, you have a large ciné camera and
you start photographing something. The photographs are then split up into millions of
tiny little pieces which are so small that you can’t see them, and these little pieces are
shot out into the sky by electricity. In the sky, they go whizzing around all over the
place until suddenly they hit the antenna7 on the roof of somebody’s house. They then go
flashing down the wire that leads right into the back of the television set, and in there
they get jiggled and joggled around until at last every single one of those millions of tiny
pieces is fitted back into its right place (just like a jigsaw8 puzzle), and presto9! – the
photograph appears on the screen…’
‘That isn’t exactly how it works,’ Mike Teavee said.
‘I am a little deaf in my left ear,’ Mr Wonka said. ‘You must forgive me if I don’t hear
everything you say.’
‘I said, that isn’t exactly how it works!’ shouted Mike Teavee.
‘You’re a nice boy,’ Mr Wonka said, ‘but you talk too much. Now then! The very first
time I saw ordinary television working, I was struck by a tremendous idea. “Look here!”
I shouted. “If these people can break up a photograph into millions of pieces and send the
pieces whizzing through the air and then put them together again at the other end, why
can’t I do the same thing with a bar of chocolate? Why can’t I send a real bar of
chocolate whizzing through the air in tiny pieces and then put the pieces together at the
other end, all ready to be eaten?” ’
‘Impossible!’ said Mike Teavee.
‘You think so?’ cried Mr Wonka. ‘Well, watch this! I shall now send a bar of my very
best chocolate from one end of this room to the other by television! Get ready, there!
Bring in the chocolate!’
Immediately, six Oompa-Loompas marched forward carrying on their shoulders the
most enormous bar of chocolate Charlie had ever seen. It was about the size of the
mattress10 he slept on at home.
‘It has to be big,’ Mr Wonka explained, ‘because whenever you send something by
television, it always comes out much smaller than it was when it went in. Even with
ordinary television, when you photograph a big man, he never comes out on your screen
any taller than a pencil, does he? Here we go, then! Get ready! No, no! Stop! Hold
everything! You there! Mike Teavee! Stand back! You’re too close to the camera! There
are dangerous rays coming out of that thing! They could break you up into a million tiny
pieces in one second! That’s why the Oompa-Loompas are wearing space suits! The suits
protect them! All right! That’s better! Now, then! Switch on!’
One of the Oompa-Loompas caught hold of a large switch and pulled it down.
There was a blinding flash.
‘The chocolate’s gone!’ shouted Grandpa Joe, waving his arms.
He was quite right! The whole enormous bar of chocolate had disappeared completely
into thin air!
‘It’s on its way!’ cried Mr Wonka. ‘It is now rushing through the air above our heads in
a million tiny pieces. Quick! Come over here!’ He dashed over to the other end of the
room where the large television set was standing11, and the others followed him. ‘Watch
the screen!’ he cried. ‘Here it comes! Look!’
The screen flickered12 and lit up. Then suddenly, a small bar of chocolate appeared in
the middle of the screen.
‘Take it!’ shouted Mr Wonka, growing more and more excited.
‘How can you take it?’ asked Mike Teavee, laughing. ‘It’s just a picture on a television
screen!’
‘Charlie Bucket!’ cried Mr Wonka. ‘You take it! Reach out and grab it!’
Charlie put out his hand and touched the screen, and suddenly, miraculously13, the bar
of chocolate came away in his fingers. He was so surprised he nearly dropped it.
‘Eat it!’ shouted Mr Wonka. ‘Go on and eat it! It’ll be delicious! It’s the same bar! It’s
got smaller on the journey, that’s all!’
‘It’s absolutely fantastic!’ gasped14 Grandpa Joe. ‘It’s… it’s… it’s a miracle!’
‘Just imagine,’ cried Mr Wonka, ‘when I start using this across the country… you’ll be
sitting at home watching television and suddenly a commercial will flash on to the
screen and a voice will say, “EAT WONKA’S CHOCOLATES! THEY’RE THE BEST IN THE
WORLD! IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE US, TRY ONE FOR YOURSELF – NOW!” And you
simply reach out and take one! How about that, eh?’
‘Terrific!’ cried Grandpa Joe. ‘It will change the world!’
![](../../../skin/default/image/4.jpg)
点击
收听单词发音
![收听单词发音](/template/default/tingnovel/images/play.gif)
1
speck
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n.微粒,小污点,小斑点 | |
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2
joints
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接头( joint的名词复数 ); 关节; 公共场所(尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所) (非正式); 一块烤肉 (英式英语) | |
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3
goggles
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n.护目镜 | |
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4
chattering
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n. (机器振动发出的)咔嗒声,(鸟等)鸣,啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的,啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句: |
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5
scarlet
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n.深红色,绯红色,红衣;adj.绯红色的 | |
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6
hopping
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n. 跳跃 动词hop的现在分词形式 | |
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7
antenna
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n.触角,触须;天线 | |
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8
jigsaw
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n.缕花锯,竖锯,拼图游戏;vt.用竖锯锯,使互相交错搭接 | |
参考例句: |
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9
presto
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adv.急速地;n.急板乐段;adj.急板的 | |
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10
mattress
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n.床垫,床褥 | |
参考例句: |
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11
standing
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n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
参考例句: |
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12
flickered
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(通常指灯光)闪烁,摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
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13
miraculously
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ad.奇迹般地 | |
参考例句: |
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14
gasped
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v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 );喘息;倒抽气;很想要 | |
参考例句: |
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