9 Gobbled Up

9 Gobbled Up
On the day when all this was happening, no factories openedanywhere in the world. All offices and schools were closed.
Nobody moved away from the television screens, not even fora couple of minutes to get a Coke or to feed the baby. Thetension was unbearable¹. Everybody heard the AmericanPresident's invitation to the men from Mars to visit him in theWhite House. And they heard the weird² rhyming reply, whichsounded rather threatening. They also heard a piercing scream(Grandma Josephine), and a little later on, they heard someoneshouting, 'Scram! Scram! Scram!' (Mr Wonka). Nobody couldmake head or tail of the shouting. They took it to be somekind of Martian language. But when the eight mysteriousastronauts suddenly rushed back into their glass capsule andbroke away from the Space Hotel, you could almost hear thegreat sigh of relief that rose up from the peoples of the earth.
Telegrams and messages poured into the White Housecongratulating the President upon his brilliant handling of afrightening situation.
The President himself remained calm and thoughtful. He sat athis desk rolling a small piece of wet chewing-gum between hisfinger and thumb. He was waiting for the moment when hecould flick³ it at Miss Tibbs without her seeing him. He flicked⁴ itand missed Miss Tibbs but hit the Chief of the Air Force onthe tip of his nose.
'Do you think the men from Mars have accepted my invitationto the White House?' the President asked.
'Of course they have,' said the Foreign Secretary. 'It was abrilliant speech, sir.'
'They're probably on their way down here right now,' said MissTibbs. 'Go and wash that nasty sticky chewing-gum off yourfingers quickly. They could be here any minute.'
'Let's have a song first,' said the President. 'Sing another oneabout me, Nanny … please.'
THE NURSE'S SONG
This mighty⁵ man of whom I sing,The greatest of them all,Wasonce a teeny little thing,Just eighteen inches tall.
I knew him as
a tiny tot.
I nursed him on my knee.I used to sit him on thepot
And wait for him to wee.
I always washed between his toes,
And cut his little nails.I brushed his hair and wiped his noseAnd weighed him on the scales.Through happy childhood dayshe strayed,As all nice children should.I smacked⁶ him when hedisobeyed,And stopped when he was good.It soon began todawn on me
He wasn't very bright,Because when he was
twenty-threeHe couldn't read or write.'What shall we do?' hisparents sobbed⁷.'The boy has got the vapours!He couldn't evenget a jobDelivering the papers!''Ah-ha,' I said. 'This little clotCould be a politician.''Nanny,' he cried. 'Oh Nanny, whatAsuper proposition!'
'Okay,' I said. 'Let's learn and note
The art
of politics.Let's teach you how to miss the boatAnd how todrop some bricks,And how to win the people's voteAnd lotsof other tricks.Let's learn to make a speech a dayUpon the
TV screen,In which you never never sayExactly what youmean.And most important, by the way,
Is not to let your teeth
decay,
And keep your fingers clean.'And now that I ameighty-nine,It's too late to repent⁸.The fault was mine the littleswineBecame the President.
'Bravo, Nanny!' cried the President, clapping his hands.
'Hooray!' shouted the others. 'Well done, Miss Vice-President,ma'am! Brilliant! Tremendous!'
'My goodness!' said the President. 'Those men from Mars willbe here any moment! What on earth are we going to givethem for lunch? Where's my Chief Cook?'
The Chief Cook was a Frenchman. He was also a French spyand at this moment he was listening at the keyhole of thePresident's study. 'Ici, Monsieur le President!' he said, burstingin.
'Chief Cook,' said the President. 'What do men from Mars eatfor lunch?'
'Mars Bars,' said the Chief Cook.
'Baked or boiled?' asked the President.
'Oh, baked, of course, Monsieur le President. You will ruin aMars Bar by boiling!'
The voice of astronaut Shuckworth cut in over the loudspeakerin the President's study.
'Request permission to link up and go aboard Space Hotel?' hesaid.
'Permission granted,' said the President. 'Go right ahead,Shuckworth. It's all clear now … Thanks to me.'
And so the large Transport Capsule, piloted by Shuckworth,Shanks and Showler, with all the hotel managers and assistantmanagers and hall porters and pastry⁹ chefs and bell-boys andwaitresses and chambermaids on board, moved in smoothlyand linked up with the giant Space Hotel.
'Hey there! We've lost our television picture,' called thePresident.
'I'm afraid the camera got smashed against the side of theSpace Hotel, Mr President,' Shuckworth replied. The Presidentsaid a very rude word into the microphone and ten millionchildren across the nation began repeating it gleefully and gotsmacked by their parents.
'All astronauts and one hundred and fifty hotel staff safelyaboard Space Hotel!' Shuckworth reported over the radio. 'Weare now standing¹⁰ in the lobby!'
'And what do you think of it all?' asked the President. Heknew the whole world was listening in and he wantedShuckworth to say how wonderful it was. Shuckworth didn't lethim down.
'Gee¹¹, Mr President, it's just great!' he said. 'It's unbelievable!
It's so enormous! And so … it's kind of hard to find words todescribe it, it's so truly grand, especially the chandeliers and thecarpets and all! I have the Chief Hotel Manager, Mr Walter W.
Wall, beside me now. He would like the honour of a wordwith you, sir.'
'Put him on,' said the President.
'Mr President, sir, this is Walter Wall. What a sumptuous¹² hotelthis is! The decorations are superb!'
'Have you noticed that all the carpets are wall-to-wall, MrWalter Wall?' said the President.
'I have indeed, Mr President.'
'All the wallpaper is all wall-to-wall, too, Mr Walter Wall.'
'Yes, sir, Mr President! Isn't that something! It's going to be areal pleasure running a beautiful hotel like this! … Hey! What'sgoing on over there? Something's coming out of the lifts! Help!'
Suddenly the loudspeaker in the President's study gave out aseries of the most ghastly screams and yells. 'Ayeeeee!
Owwwww! Ayeeeee! Hel-l-l-lp! Hel-l-l-l-l-lp! Hel-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-lp!'
'What on earth's going on?' said the President. 'Shuckworth!
Are you there, Shuckworth? … Shanks! Showler! Mr WalterWall! Where are you all! What's happening?'
The screams continued. They were so loud the President hadto put his fingers in his ears. Every house in the world thathad a television or radio receiver heard those awful screams.
There were other noises, too. Loud grunts¹³ and snortings andcrunching sounds. Then there was silence.
Frantically¹⁴ the President called the Space Hotel on the radio.
Houston called the Space Hotel. The President called Houston.
Houston called the President. Then both of them called theSpace Hotel again. But answer came there none. Up there inspace all was silent.
'Something nasty's happened,' said the President.
'It's those men from Mars,' said the Ex-Chief of the Army. 'Itold you to let me blow them up.'
'Silence!' snapped the President. 'I've got to think.'
The loudspeaker began to crackle. 'Hello!' it said. 'Hello hellohello! Are you receiving me, Space Control in Houston?'
The President grabbed the mike on his desk. 'Leave this tome, Houston!' he shouted. 'President Gilligrass here receivingyou loud and clear! Go ahead!'
'Astronaut Shuckworth here, Mr President, back aboard theTransport Capsule … thank heavens!'
'What happened, Shuckworth? Who's with you?'
'We're most of us here, Mr President, I'm glad to say. Shanksand Showler are with me, and a whole bunch of other folks. Iguess we lost maybe a couple of dozen people altogether,pastry chefs, hall porters, that sort of thing. It sure was ascramble getting out of that place alive!'
'What do you mean you lost two dozen people?' shouted thePresident. 'How did you lose them?'
'Gobbled up!' replied Shuckworth. 'One gulp¹⁵ and that was it! Isaw a big six-foot-tall assistant-manager being swallowed up justlike you'd swallow a lump of ice-cream, Mr President! Nochewing — nothing! Just down the hatch!'
'But who?' yelled the President. 'Who are you talking about?
Who did the swallowing?'
'Hold it!' cried Shuckworth. 'Oh, my lord, here they all comenow! They're coming after us! They're swarming¹⁶ out of theSpace Hotel! They're coming out in swarms¹⁷! You'll have toexcuse me a moment, Mr President. No time to talk rightnow!'

1 unbearable   

adj.不能容忍的；忍受不住的

参考例句：

• It is unbearable to be always on thorns.老是处于焦虑不安的情况中是受不了的。
• The more he thought of it the more unbearable it became.他越想越觉得无法忍受。

2 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。

3 flick   

n.快速的轻打，轻打声，弹开；v.轻弹，轻轻拂去，忽然摇动

参考例句：

• He gave a flick of the whip.他轻抽一下鞭子。
• By a flick of his whip,he drove the fly from the horse's head.他用鞭子轻抽了一下，将马头上的苍蝇驱走。

4 flicked   

（尤指用手指或手快速地）轻击( flick的过去式和过去分词 )； （用…）轻挥； （快速地）按开关； 向…笑了一下（或瞥了一眼等）

参考例句：

• She flicked the dust off her collar. 她轻轻弹掉了衣领上的灰尘。
• I idly picked up a magazine and flicked through it. 我漫不经心地拿起一本杂志翻看着。

5 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

6 smacked   

拍，打，掴( smack的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He smacked his lips but did not utter a word. 他吧嗒两下嘴，一声也不言语。
• She smacked a child's bottom. 她打孩子的屁股。

7 sobbed   

哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说

参考例句：

• She sobbed out the story of her son's death. 她哭诉着她儿子的死。
• She sobbed out the sad story of her son's death. 她哽咽着诉说她儿子死去的悲惨经过。

8 repent   

v.悔悟，悔改，忏悔，后悔

参考例句：

• He has nothing to repent of.他没有什么要懊悔的。
• Remission of sins is promised to those who repent.悔罪者可得到赦免。

9 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。

10 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。

11 gee   

n.马；int.向右！前进！，惊讶时所发声音；v.向右转

参考例句：

• Their success last week will gee the team up.上星期的胜利将激励这支队伍继续前进。
• Gee,We're going to make a lot of money.哇！我们会赚好多钱啦！

12 sumptuous   

adj.豪华的，奢侈的，华丽的

参考例句：

• The guests turned up dressed in sumptuous evening gowns.客人们身着华丽的夜礼服出现了。
• We were ushered into a sumptuous dining hall.我们被领进一个豪华的餐厅。

13 grunts   

（猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的第三人称单数 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说； 石鲈

参考例句：

• With grunts of anguish Ogilvie eased his bulk to a sitting position. 奥格尔维苦恼地哼着，伸个懒腰坐了起来。
• Linda fired twice A trio of Grunts assembling one mortar fell. 琳达击发两次。三个正在组装迫击炮的咕噜人倒下了。

14 frantically   

ad.发狂地, 发疯地

参考例句：

• He dashed frantically across the road. 他疯狂地跑过马路。
• She bid frantically for the old chair. 她发狂地喊出高价要买那把古老的椅子。

15 gulp   

vt.吞咽，大口地吸（气）；vi.哽住；n.吞咽

参考例句：

• She took down the tablets in one gulp.她把那些药片一口吞了下去。
• Don't gulp your food,chew it before you swallow it.吃东西不要狼吞虎咽，要嚼碎了再咽下去。

16 swarming   

密集( swarm的现在分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去

参考例句：

• The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。
• The beach is swarming with bathers. 海滩满是海水浴的人。

17 swarms   

蜂群，一大群( swarm的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They came to town in swarms. 他们蜂拥来到城里。
• On June the first there were swarms of children playing in the park. 6月1日那一天，这个公园里有一群群的孩子玩耍。