The last time we saw Charlie, he was riding high above his
home town in the Great Glass Lift. Only a short while before,
Mr Wonka had told him that the whole gigantic fabulous1
Chocolate Factory was his, and now our small friend was
returning in triumph with his entire family to take over. The
passengers in the Lift (just to remind you) were:
Charlie Bucket, our hero.
Mr Willy Wonka, chocolate-maker extraordinary.
Mr and Mrs Bucket, Charlie's father and mother.
Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine, Mr Bucket's father and
mother.
Grandpa George and Grandma Georgina, Mrs Bucket's father
and mother.
Grandma Josephine, Grandma Georgina and Grandpa George
were still in bed, the bed having been pushed on board just
before take-off. Grandpa Joe, as you remember, had got out of
bed to go around the Chocolate Factory with Charlie.
The Great Glass Lift was a thousand feet up and cruising
nicely. The sky was brilliant blue. Everybody on board was
wildly excited at the thought of going to live in the famous
Chocolate Factory.
Grandpa Joe was singing. Charlie was jumping up and down.
Mr and Mrs Bucket were smiling for the first time in years,
and the three old ones in the bed were grinning at one
another with pink toothless gums.
'What in the world keeps this crazy thing up in the air?'
croaked2 Grandma Josephine.
'Madam,' said Mr Wonka, 'it is not a lift any longer. Lifts only
go up and down inside buildings. But now that it has taken us
up into the sky, it has become an ELEVATOR. It is THE
GREAT GLASS ELEVATOR.'
'And what keeps it up?' said Grandma Josephine. 'Skyhooks,'
said Mr Wonka.
'You amaze me,' said Grandma Josephine.
'Dear lady,' said Mr Wonka, 'you are new to the scene. When
you have been with us a little longer, nothing will amaze you.'
'These skyhooks,' said Grandma Josephine. 'I assume one end
is hooked on to this contraption we're riding in. Right?'
'Right,' said Mr Wonka.
'What's the other end hooked on to?' said Grandma Josephine.
'Every day,' said Mr Wonka, 'I get deafer and deafer. Remind
me, please, to call up my ear doctor the moment we get back.'
'Charlie,' said Grandma Josephine. 'I don't think I trust this
gentleman very much.' 'Nor do I,' said Grandma Georgina. 'He
footles around.'
Charlie leaned over the bed and whispered to the two old
women. 'Please,' he said, 'don't spoil everything. Mr Wonka is
a fantastic man. He's my friend. I love him.'
'Charlie's right,' whispered Grandpa Joe, joining the group.
'Now you be quiet, Josie, and don't make trouble.'
'We must hurry!' said Mr Wonka. 'We have so much time and
so little to do! No! Wait! Cross that out! Reverse it! Thank
you! Now back to the factory!' he cried, clapping his hands
once and springing two feet in the air with two feet. 'Back we
fly to the factory! But we must go up before we can come
down. We must go higher and higher!'
'What did I tell you,' said Grandma Josephine. 'The man's
cracked!'
'Be quiet, Josie,' said Grandpa Joe. 'Mr Wonka knows exactly
what he's doing.'
'He's cracked as a crab3!' said Grandma Georgina.
'We must go higher!' said Mr Wonka. 'We must go
tremendously high! Hold on to your stomach!' He pressed a
brown button. The Elevator shuddered4, and then with a fearful
whooshing5 noise it shot vertically6 upward like a rocket.
Everybody clutched hold of everybody else and as the great
machine gathered speed, the rushing whooshing sound of the
wind outside grew louder and louder and shriller and shriller
until it became a piercing shriek7 and you had to yell to make
yourself heard.
'Stop!' yelled Grandma Josephine. 'Joe, you make him stop! I
want to get off!' 'Save us!' yelled Grandma Georgina.
'Go down!' yelled Grandpa George.
'No, no!' Mr Wonka yelled back. 'We've got to go up!'
'But why?' they all shouted at once. 'Why up and not down?'
'Because the higher we are when we start coming down, the
faster we'll all be going when we hit,' said Mr Wonka. 'We've
got to be going at an absolutely sizzling speed when we hit.'
'When we hit what?' they cried.
'The factory, of course,' answered Mr Wonka.
'You must be whackers,' said Grandma Josephine. 'We'll all be
pulpified!'
'We'll be scrambled8 like eggs!' said Grandma Georgina.
'That,' said Mr Wonka, 'is a chance we shall have to take.'
'You're joking,' said Grandma Josephine. 'Tell us you're joking.'
'Madam,' said Mr Wonka, 'I never joke.'
'Oh, my dears!' cried Grandma Georgina. 'We'll be lixivated,
every one of us!'
'More than likely,' said Mr Wonka.
Grandma Josephine screamed and disappeared under the
bedclothes, Grandma Georgina clutched Grandpa George so
tight he changed shape. Mr and Mrs Bucket stood hugging
each other, speechless with fright. Only Charlie and Grandpa
Joe kept moderately cool. They had travelled a long way with
Mr Wonka and had grown accustomed to surprises. But as
the Great Elevator continued to streak9 upward further and
further away from the earth, even Charlie began to feel a trifle
nervous. 'Mr Wonka!' he yelled above the noise, 'what I don't
understand is why we've got to come down at such a terrific
speed.'
'My dear boy,' Mr Wonka answered, 'if we don't come down
at a terrific speed, we'll never burst our way back in through
the roof of the factory. It's not easy to punch a hole in a roof
as strong as that.'
'But there's a hole in it already,' said Charlie. 'We made it
when we came out.'
'Then we shall make another,' said Mr Wonka. 'Two holes are
better than one. Any mouse will tell you that.'
Higher and higher rushed the Great Glass Elevator until soon
they could see the countries and oceans of the Earth spread
out below them like a map. It was all very beautiful, but when
you are standing10 on a glass floor looking down, it gives you a
nasty feeling. Even Charlie was beginning to feel frightened
now. He hung on tightly to Grandpa Joe's hand and looked
up anxiously into the old man's face. 'I'm scared, Grandpa,' he
said.
Grandpa Joe put an arm around Charlie's shoulders and held
him close. 'So am I, Charlie,' he said.
'Mr Wonka!' Charlie shouted. 'Don't you think this is about
high enough?'
'Very nearly,' Mr Wonka answered. 'But not quite. Don't talk to
me now, please. Don't disturb me. I must watch things very
carefully at this stage. Split-second timing11, my boy, that's what
it's got to be. You see this green button. I must press it at
exactly the right instant. If I'm just half a second late, then
we'll go too high!'
'What happens if we go too high?' asked Grandpa Joe.
'Do please stop talking and let me concentrate!' Mr Wonka
said.
At that precise moment, Grandma Josephine poked12 her head
out from under the sheets and peered over the edge of the
bed. Through the glass floor she saw the entire continent of
North America nearly two hundred miles below and looking no
bigger than a bar of chocolate. 'Someone's got to stop this
maniac13!' she screeched14 and she shot out a wrinkled old hand
and grabbed Mr Wonka by the coat-tails and yanked him
backwards15 on to the bed.
'No, no!' cried Mr Wonka, struggling to free himself. 'Let me
go! I have things to see to! Don't disturb the pilot!'
'You madman!' shrieked16 Grandma Josephine, shaking Mr
Wonka so fast his head became a blur17. 'You get us back
home this instant!'
'Let me go!' cried Mr Wonka, 'I've got to press that button or
we'll go too high! Let me go! Let me go!' But Grandma
Josephine hung on. 'Charlie!' shouted Mr Wonka. 'Press the
button! The green one! Quick, quick, quick!'
Charlie leaped across the Elevator and banged his thumb down
on the green button. But as he did so, the Elevator gave a
mighty18 groan19 and rolled over on to its side and the rushing
whooshing noise stopped altogether. There was an eerie20 silence.
'Too late!' cried Mr Wonka. 'Oh, my goodness me, we're
cooked!' As he spoke21, the bed with the three old ones in it
and Mr Wonka on top lifted gently off the floor and hung
suspended in mid-air. Charlie and Grandpa Joe and Mr and
Mrs Bucket also floated upwards22 so that in a twink the entire
company, as well as the bed, were floating around like balloons
inside the Great Glass Elevator.
'Now look what you've done!' said Mr Wonka, floating about.
'What happened?' Grandma Josephine called out. She had
floated clear of the bed and was hovering23 near the ceiling in
her nightshirt.
'Did we go too far?' Charlie asked.
'Too far?' cried Mr Wonka. 'Of course we went too far! You
know where we've gone, my friends? We've gone into orbit!'
They gaped24, they gasped25, they stared. They were too
flabbergasted to speak.
'We are now rushing around the Earth at seventeen thousand
miles an hour,' Mr Wonka said. 'How does that grab you?'
'I'm choking!' gasped Grandma Georgina. 'I can't breathe!'
'Of course you can't,' said Mr Wonka. 'There's no air up here.'
He sort of swam across under the ceiling to a button marked
OXYGEN. He pressed it. 'You'll be all right now,' he said.
'Breathe away.'
'This is the queerest feeling,' Charlie said, swimming about. 'I
feel like a bubble.' 'It's great,' said Grandpa Joe. 'It feels as
though I don't weigh anything at all.' 'You don't,' said Mr
Wonka. 'None of us weighs anything — not even one ounce.'
'What piffle!' said Grandma Georgina. 'I weigh one hundred
and thirty-seven pounds exactly.'
'Not now you don't,' said Mr Wonka. 'You are completely
weightless.'
The three old ones, Grandpa George, Grandma Georgina and
Grandma Josephine, were trying frantically26 to get back into
bed, but without success. The bed was floating about in
mid-air. They, of course, were also floating, and every time they
got above the bed and tried to lie down, they simply floated
up out of it. Charlie and Grandpa Joe were hooting27 with
laughter. 'What's so funny?' said Grandma Josephine.
'We've got you out of bed at last,' said Grandpa Joe. 'Shut up
and help us back!' snapped Grandma Josephine.
'Forget it,' said Mr Wonka. 'You'll never stay down. Just keep
floating around and be happy.'
'The man's a madman!' cried Grandma Georgina. 'Watch out, I
say, or he'll lixivate the lot of us!'
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收听单词发音
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1
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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2
croaked
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v.呱呱地叫( croak的过去式和过去分词 );用粗的声音说 | |
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3
crab
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n.螃蟹,偏航,脾气乖戾的人,酸苹果;vi.捕蟹,偏航,发牢骚;vt.使偏航,发脾气 | |
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4
shuddered
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v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 );发抖;(机器、车辆等)突然震动;颤动 | |
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5
whooshing
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v.(使)飞快移动( whoosh的现在分词 ) | |
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6
vertically
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adv.垂直地 | |
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7
shriek
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v./n.尖叫,叫喊 | |
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8
scrambled
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v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 );攀登;争夺;(军事飞机)紧急起飞 | |
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9
streak
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n.条理,斑纹,倾向,少许,痕迹;v.加条纹,变成条纹,奔驰,快速移动 | |
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10
standing
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n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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11
timing
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n.时间安排,时间选择 | |
参考例句: |
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12
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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13
maniac
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n.精神癫狂的人;疯子 | |
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14
screeched
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v.发出尖叫声( screech的过去式和过去分词 );发出粗而刺耳的声音;高叫 | |
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15
backwards
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adv.往回地,向原处,倒,相反,前后倒置地 | |
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16
shrieked
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v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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17
blur
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n.模糊不清的事物;vt.使模糊,使看不清楚 | |
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18
mighty
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adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
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19
groan
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vi./n.呻吟,抱怨;(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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20
eerie
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adj.怪诞的;奇异的;可怕的;胆怯的 | |
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21
spoke
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n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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22
upwards
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adv.向上,在更高处...以上 | |
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23
hovering
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鸟( hover的现在分词 ); 靠近(某事物); (人)徘徊; 犹豫 | |
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24
gaped
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v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的过去式和过去分词 );张开,张大 | |
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25
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 | |
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26
frantically
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ad.发狂地, 发疯地 | |
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27
hooting
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(使)作汽笛声响,作汽车喇叭声( hoot的现在分词 ); 倒好儿; 倒彩 | |
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