28 Only Charlie Left

28 Only Charlie Left
‘Which room shall it be next?’ said Mr Wonka as he turned away and darted¹ into the lift.
‘Come on! Hurry up! We must get going! And how many children are there left now?’
Little Charlie looked at Grandpa Joe, and Grandpa Joe looked back at little Charlie.
‘But Mr Wonka,’ Grandpa Joe called after him, ‘there’s… there’s only Charlie left
now.’
Mr Wonka swung round and stared at Charlie.
There was a silence. Charlie stood there holding tightly on to Grandpa Joe’s hand.
‘You mean you’re the only one left?’ Mr Wonka said, pretending to be surprised.
‘Why, yes,’ whispered Charlie. ‘Yes.’
Mr Wonka suddenly exploded with excitement. ‘But my dear boy,’ he cried out, ‘that
means you’ve won!’ He rushed out of the lift and started shaking Charlie’s hand so
furiously it nearly came off. ‘Oh, I do congratulate you!’ he cried. ‘I really do! I’m
absolutely delighted! It couldn’t be better! How wonderful this is! I had a hunch², you
knew, right from the beginning, that it was going to be you! Well done, Charlie, well
done! This is terrific! Now the fun is really going to start! But we mustn’t dilly! We
mustn’t dally³! There’s even less time to lose now than there was before! We have an
enormous number of things to do before the day is out! Just think of the arrangements
that have to be made! And the people we have to fetch! But luckily for us,
we have the great glass lift to speed things up! Jump in, my dear Charlie, jump in!
You too, Grandpa Joe, sir! No, no, after you! That’s the way! Now then! This time I shall
choose the button we are going to press!’ Mr Wonka’s bright twinkling blue eyes rested
for a moment on Charlie’s face.
Something crazy is going to happen now, Charlie thought. But he wasn’t frightened.
He wasn’t even nervous. He was just terrifically excited. And so was Grandpa Joe. The
old man’s face was shining with excitement as he watched every move that Mr Wonka
made. Mr Wonka was reaching for a button high up on the glass ceiling of the lift.
Charlie and Grandpa Joe both craned their necks to read what it said on the little label
beside the button.
It said… UP AND OUT.
‘Up and out,’ thought Charlie. ‘What sort of a room is that?’
Mr Wonka pressed the button.
The glass doors closed.
‘Hold on!’ cried Mr Wonka.
Then WHAM! The lift shot straight up like a rocket! ‘Yippee!’ shouted Grandpa Joe.
Charlie was clinging to Grandpa Joe’s legs and Mr Wonka was holding on to a strap⁴ from
the ceiling, and up they went, up, up, up, straight up this time, with no twistings or
turnings, and Charlie could hear the whistling of the air outside as the lift went faster
and faster. ‘Yippee!’ shouted Grandpa Joe again. ‘Yippee! Here we go!’
‘Faster!’ cried Mr Wonka, banging the wall of the lift with his hand. ‘Faster! Faster! If
we don’t go any faster than this, we shall never get through!’
‘Through what?’ shouted Grandpa Joe. ‘What have we got to get through?’
‘Ah-ha!’ cried Mr Wonka, ‘you wait and see! I’ve been longing⁵ to press this button for
years! But I’ve never done it until now! I was tempted⁶ many times! Oh, yes, I was
tempted! But I couldn’t bear the thought of making a great big hole in the roof of the
factory! Here we go, boys! Up and out!’
‘But you don’t mean…’ shouted Grandpa Joe, ‘… you don’t really mean that this lift…’
‘Oh yes, I do!’ answered Mr Wonka. ‘You wait and see! Up and out!’
‘But… but… but… it’s made of glass!’ shouted Grandpa Joe. ‘It’ll break into a million
pieces!’
‘I suppose it might,’ said Mr Wonka, cheerful as ever, ‘but it’s pretty thick glass, all the
same.’
The lift rushed on, going up and up and up, faster and faster and faster…
Then suddenly, CRASH! – and the most tremendous noise of splintering wood and
broken tiles came from directly above their heads, and Grandpa Joe shouted, ‘Help! It’s
the end! We’re done for!’ and Mr Wonka said, ‘No, we’re not! We’re through! We’re out!’
Sure enough, the lift had shot right up through the roof of the factory and was now
rising into the sky like a rocket, and the sunshine was pouring in through the glass roof.
In five seconds they were a thousand feet up in the sky.
‘The lift’s gone mad!’ shouted Grandpa Joe.
‘Have no fear, my dear sir,’ said Mr Wonka calmly, and he pressed another button.
The lift stopped. It stopped and hung in mid-air, hovering⁷ like a helicopter, hovering
over the factory and over the very town itself which lay spread out below them like a
picture postcard! Looking down through the glass floor on which he was standing⁸,
Charlie could see the small far-away houses and the streets and the snow that lay thickly
over everything. It was an eerie⁹ and frightening feeling to be standing on clear glass
high up in the sky. It made you feel that you weren’t standing on anything at all.
‘Are we all right?’ cried Grandpa Joe. ‘How does this thing stay up?’
‘Sugar power!’ said Mr Wonka. ‘One million sugar power! Oh, look,’ he cried, pointing
down, ‘there go the other children! They’re returning home!’

1 darted   

v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔

参考例句：

• The lizard darted out its tongue at the insect. 蜥蜴伸出舌头去吃小昆虫。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The old man was displeased and darted an angry look at me. 老人不高兴了，瞪了我一眼。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 hunch   

n.预感，直觉

参考例句：

• I have a hunch that he didn't really want to go.我有这么一种感觉，他并不真正想去。
• I had a hunch that Susan and I would work well together.我有预感和苏珊共事会很融洽。

3 dally   

v.荒废(时日)，调情

参考例句：

• You should not dally away your time.你不应该浪费时间。
• One shouldn't dally with a girl's affection.一个人不该玩弄女孩子的感情。

4 strap   

n.皮带，带子；v.用带扣住，束牢；用绷带包扎

参考例句：

• She held onto a strap to steady herself.她抓住拉手吊带以便站稳。
• The nurse will strap up your wound.护士会绑扎你的伤口。

5 longing   

n.（for）渴望

参考例句：

• Hearing the tune again sent waves of longing through her.再次听到那首曲子使她胸中充满了渴望。
• His heart burned with longing for revenge.他心中燃烧着急欲复仇的怒火。

6 tempted   

v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词）

参考例句：

• I was sorely tempted to complain, but I didn't. 我极想发牢骚，但还是没开口。
• I was tempted by the dessert menu. 甜食菜单馋得我垂涎欲滴。

7 hovering   

鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫

参考例句：

• The helicopter was hovering about 100 metres above the pad. 直升机在离发射台一百米的上空盘旋。
• I'm hovering between the concert and the play tonight. 我犹豫不决今晚是听音乐会还是看戏。

8 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

9 eerie   

adj.怪诞的；奇异的；可怕的；胆怯的

参考例句：

• It's eerie to walk through a dark wood at night.夜晚在漆黑的森林中行走很是恐怖。
• I walked down the eerie dark path.我走在那条漆黑恐怖的小路上。