2 Space Hotel 'U.S.A.'

2 Space Hotel 'U.S.A.'
Mr Wonka's Great Glass Elevator was not the only thingorbiting the Earth at that
particular time. Two days before, the United States of Americahad successfully launched
its first Space Hotel, a gigantic sausage-shaped capsule no lessthan one thousand feet long.
It was called Space Hotel 'U.S.A.' and it was the marvel¹ of thespace age. It had inside it a
tennis-court, a swimming pool, a gymnasium, a children'splayroom and five hundred
luxury bedrooms, each with a private bath. It was fullyair-conditioned. It was also
equipped with a gravity-making machine so that you didn't floatabout inside it. You
walked normally.
This extraordinary object was now speeding round and roundthe earth at a height of 240 miles. Guests were to be takenup and down by a taxi-service of small capsules blasting offfrom Cape² Kennedy every hour on the hour, Mondays toFridays. But as yet there was nobody on board at all, noteven an astronaut. The reason for this was that no one hadreally believed such an enormous thing would ever get off theground without blowing up.
But the launching had been a great success and now that theSpace Hotel was safely in orbit, there was a tremendous hustleand bustle³ to send up the first guests. It was rumoured⁴ thatthe President of the United States himself was going to beamong the first to stay in the hotel, and of course there was amad rush by all sorts of other people across the world tobook rooms. Several kings and queens had cabled the WhiteHouse in Washington for reservations, and a Texas millionairecalled Orson Cart, who was about to marry a Hollywood starletcalled Helen Highwater, was offering one hundred thousanddollars a day for the honeymoon⁵ suite⁶.
But you cannot send guests to an hotel unless there are lotsof people there to look after them, and that explains why therewas yet another interesting object orbiting the earth at thatmoment. This was the large Transport Capsule containing theentire staff for Space Hotel 'U.S.A.' There were managers,assistant managers, desk-clerks, waitresses, bell-boys,chambermaids, pastry⁷ chefs and hall porters. The capsule theywere travelling in was manned by the three famous astronauts,Shuckworth, Shanks and Showler, all of them handsome, cleverand brave.
'In exactly one hour,' said Shuckworth, speaking to thepassengers over the loudspeaker, 'we shall link up with SpaceHotel "U.S.A.", your happy home for the next ten years. Andany moment now, if you look straight ahead, you should catchyour first glimpse of this magnificent space-ship. Ah-ha! I seesomething there! That must be it, folks! There's definitelysomething up there ahead of us!'
Shuckworth, Shanks and Showler, as well as the managers,assistant managers, desk-clerks, waitresses, bell-boys,chambermaids, pastry chefs and hall porters, all stared excitedlythrough the windows. Shuckworth fired a couple of smallrockets to make the capsule go faster, and they began to catchup very quickly.
'Hey!' yelled Showler. 'That isn't our space hotel!'
'Holy rats!' cried Shanks. 'What in the name ofNebuchadnezzar is it!'
'Quick! Give me the telescope!' yelled Shuckworth. With onehand he focused the telescope and with the other he flippedthe switch connecting him to Ground Control.
'Hello, Houston!' he cried into the mike. 'There's somethingcrazy going on up here! There's a thing orbiting ahead of usand it's not like any space-ship I've ever seen, that's for sure!'
'Describe it at once,' ordered Ground Control in Houston.
'It's … it's all made of glass and it's kind of square and it'sgot lots of people inside it! They're all floating about like fish ina tank!'
'How many astronauts on board?'
'None,' said Shuckworth. 'They can't possibly be astronauts.'
'What makes you say that?'
'Because at least three of them are in nightshirts!'
'Don't be a fool, Shuckworth!' snapped Ground Control. 'Pullyourself together, man! This is serious!'
'I swear it!' cried poor Shuckworth. 'There's three of them innightshirts! Two old women and one old man! I can see themclearly! I can even see their faces! Jeepers, they're older thanMoses! They're about ninety years old!'
'You've gone mad, Shuckworth!' shouted Ground Control.
'You're fired! Give me Shanks!'
'Shanks speaking,' said Shanks. 'Now listen here, Houston.
There's these three old birds in nightshirts floating around inthis crazy glass box and there's a funny little guy with apointed beard wearing a black top-hat and a plum-colouredvelvet tail-coat and bottle-green trousers …'
'Stop!' screamed Ground Control.
'That's not all,' said Shanks. 'There's also a little boy about tenyears old …'
'That's no boy, you idiot!' shouted Ground Control. 'That's anastronaut in disguise! It's a midget astronaut dressed up as alittle boy! Those old people are astronauts too! They're all indisguise!'
'But who are they?' cried Shanks.
'How the heck would I know?' said Ground Control. 'Are theyheading for our Space Hotel?'
'That's exactly where they are heading!' cried Shanks. 'I cansee the Space Hotel now about a mile ahead.'
'They're going to blow it up!' yelled Ground Control. 'This isdesperate! This is …' Suddenly his voice was cut off andShanks heard another quite different voice in his earphones. Itwas deep and rasping.
'I'll take charge of this,' said the deep rasping voice. 'Are youthere, Shanks?'
'Of course I'm here,' said Shanks. 'But how dare you butt⁸ in.
Keep your big nose out of this. Who are you anyway?'
'This is the President of the United States,' said the voice.
'And this is the Wizard of Oz,' said Shanks. 'Who are youkidding?'
'Cut the piffle, Shanks,' snapped the President. 'This is anational emergency!'
'Good grief!' said Shanks, turning to Shuckworth and Showler.
'It really is the President. It's President Gilligrass himself … Well,hello there, Mr President, sir. How are you today?'
'How many people are there in that glass capsule?' rasped thePresident.
'Eight,' said Shanks. 'All floating.'
'Floating?
'We're outside the pull of gravity up here, Mr President.
Everything floats. We'd be floating ourselves if we weren'tstrapped down. Didn't you know that?'
'Of course I knew it,' said the President. 'What else can youtell me about that glass capsule?'
'There's a bed in it,' said Shanks. 'A big double bed and that'sfloating too.'
'A bed!' barked the President. 'Whoever heard of a bed in aspacecraft!'
'I swear it's a bed,' said Shanks.
'You must be loopy, Shanks,' declared the President. 'You'redotty as a doughnut! Let me talk to Showler!'
'Showler here, Mr President,' said Showler, taking the mikefrom Shanks. 'It is a great honour to talk to you, MrPresident, sir.'
'Oh, shut up!' said the President. 'Just tell me what you see.'
'It's a bed all right, Mr President. I can see it through mytelescope. It's got sheets and blankets and a mattress⁹ …'
'That's not a bed, you drivelling thickwit!' yelled the President.
'Can't you understand it's a trick! It's a bomb. It's a bombdisguised as a bed! They're going to blow up our magnificentSpace Hotel!'
'Who's they, Mr President, sir?' said Showler.
'Don't talk so much and let me think,' said the President.
There were a few moments of silence. Showler waited tensely.
So did Shanks and Shuckworth. So did the managers andassistant managers and desk-clerks and waitresses and bell-boysand chambermaids and pastry chefs and hall porters. Anddown in the huge Control Room at Houston, one hundredcontrollers sat motionless in front of their dials and monitors,waiting to see what orders the President would give next to theastronauts.
'I've just thought of something,' said the President. 'Don't youhave a television camera up there on the front of yourspacecraft, Showler?'
'Sure do, Mr President.'
'Then switch it on, you nit, and let all of us down here get alook at this object!'
'I never thought of that,' said Showler. 'No wonder you're thePresident. Here goes …' He reached out and switched on theTV camera in the nose of the spacecraft, and at that moment,five hundred million people all over the world who had beenlistening in on their radios rushed to their television sets.
On their screens they saw exactly what Shuckworth andShanks and Showler were seeing — a weird¹⁰ glass box insplendid orbit around the earth, and inside the box, seen nottoo clearly but seen none the less, were seven grown-ups andone small boy and a big double bed, all floating. Three of thegrown-ups were barelegged and wearing nightshirts. And far offin the distance, beyond the glass box, the TV watchers couldsee the enormous, glistening¹¹, silvery shape of Space Hotel'U.S.A.'
But it was the sinister¹² glass box itself that everyone was staringat, and the cargo¹³ of sinister creatures inside it — eightastronauts so tough and strong they didn't even bother towear space-suits. Who were these people and where did theycome from? And what in heaven's name was that bigevil-looking thing disguised as a double bed? The President hadsaid it was a bomb and he was probably right. But what werethey going to do with it? All across America and Canada andRussia and Japan and India and China and Africa andEngland and France and Germany and everywhere else in theworld a kind of panic began to take hold of the televisionwatchers.
'Keep well clear of them, Showler!' ordered the President overthe radio link. 'Sure will, Mr President!' Showler answered. 'Isure will!'

1 marvel   

vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事

参考例句：

• The robot is a marvel of modern engineering.机器人是现代工程技术的奇迹。
• The operation was a marvel of medical skill.这次手术是医术上的一个奇迹。

2 cape   

n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风

参考例句：

• I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
• She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。

3 bustle   

v.喧扰地忙乱，匆忙，奔忙；n.忙碌；喧闹

参考例句：

• The bustle and din gradually faded to silence as night advanced.随着夜越来越深，喧闹声逐渐沉寂。
• There is a lot of hustle and bustle in the railway station.火车站里非常拥挤。

4 rumoured   

adj.谣传的；传说的；风

参考例句：

• It has been so rumoured here. 此间已有传闻。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• It began to be rumoured that the jury would be out a long while. 有人传说陪审团要退场很久。 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

5 honeymoon   

n.蜜月（假期）；vi.度蜜月

参考例句：

• While on honeymoon in Bali,she learned to scuba dive.她在巴厘岛度蜜月时学会了带水肺潜水。
• The happy pair are leaving for their honeymoon.这幸福的一对就要去度蜜月了。

6 suite   

n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员

参考例句：

• She has a suite of rooms in the hotel.她在那家旅馆有一套房间。
• That is a nice suite of furniture.那套家具很不错。

7 pastry   

n.油酥面团，酥皮糕点

参考例句：

• The cook pricked a few holes in the pastry.厨师在馅饼上戳了几个洞。
• The pastry crust was always underdone.馅饼的壳皮常常烤得不透。

8 butt   

n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶

参考例句：

• The water butt catches the overflow from this pipe.大水桶盛接管子里流出的东西。
• He was the butt of their jokes.他是他们的笑柄。

9 mattress   

n.床垫，床褥

参考例句：

• The straw mattress needs to be aired.草垫子该晾一晾了。
• The new mattress I bought sags in the middle.我买的新床垫中间陷了下去。

10 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

11 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》

12 sinister   

adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的

参考例句：

• There is something sinister at the back of that series of crimes.在这一系列罪行背后有险恶的阴谋。
• Their proposals are all worthless and designed out of sinister motives.他们的建议不仅一钱不值，而且包藏祸心。

13 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。