Who? 他是谁

Who?
It wasn’t a human. It couldn’t be. It was four times as tall as the tallest human. It was so tall its
head was higher than the upstairs windows of the houses. Sophie opened her mouth to scream, but no
sound came out. Her throat, like her whole body, was frozen with fright.
This was the witching hour all right.
The tall black figure was coming her way. It was keeping very close to the houses across the
street, hiding in the shadowy places where there was no moonlight.
On and on it came, nearer and nearer. But it was moving in spurts¹. It would stop, then it would
move on, then it would stop again.
But what on earth was it doing?
Ah-ha! Sophie could see now what it was up to. It was stopping in front of each house. It would
stop and peer into the upstairs window of each house in the street. It actually had to bend down to
peer into the upstairs windows. That’s how tall it was.
It would stop and peer in. Then it would slide on to the next house and stop again, and peer in,
and so on all along the street.
It was much closer now and Sophie could see it more clearly.
Looking at it carefully, she decided² it had to be some kind of PERSON. Obviously it was not a
human. But it was definitely a PERSON.
A GIANT PERSON, perhaps.
Sophie stared hard across the misty³ moonlit street. The Giant (if that was what he was) was
wearing a long BLACK CLOAK.
In one hand he was holding what looked like a VERY LONG, THIN TRUMPET⁴.
In the other hand, he held a LARGE SUITCASE.
The Giant had stopped now right in front of Mr and Mrs Goochey’s house. The Goocheys had a
greengrocer’s shop in the middle of the High Street, and the family lived above the shop. The two
Goochey children slept in the upstairs front room, Sophie knew that.
The Giant was peering through the window into the room where Michael and Jane Goochey
were sleeping. From across the street, Sophie watched and held her breath.
She saw the Giant step back a pace and put the suitcase down on the pavement. He bent⁵ over
and opened the suitcase. He took something out of it. It looked like a glass jar, one of those square
ones with a screw top. He unscrewed the top of the jar and poured what was in it into the end of the
long trumpet thing.
Sophie watched, trembling.
She saw the Giant straighten up again and she saw him poke⁶ the trumpet in through the open
upstairs window of the room where the Goochey children were sleeping. She saw the Giant take a
deep breath and whoof, he blew through the trumpet.
No noise came out, but it was obvious to Sophie that whatever had been in the jar had now been
blown through the trumpet into the Goochey children’s bedroom.
What could it be?
As the Giant withdrew the trumpet from the window and bent down to pick up the suitcase he
happened to turn his head and glance across the street.
In the moonlight, Sophie caught a glimpse of an enormous long pale wrinkly face with the most
enormous ears. The nose was as sharp as a knife, and above the nose there were two bright flashing
eyes, and the eyes were staring straight at Sophie. There was a fierce and devilish look about them.
Sophie gave a yelp⁷ and pulled back from the window. She flew across the dormitory and jumped
into her bed and hid under the blanket.
And there she crouched⁸, still as a mouse, and tingling⁹ all over.


他是谁
这不是一个人。这不可能是一个人。它有最高的人四个那么高。它的头比楼上的窗子还
要高。索菲张开了嘴巴尖叫，可是没有声音发出来。她的喉咙和她的全身一样被吓僵了。
没错，这是巫师出没时刻。
那个又高又瘦的黑东西径直朝她走来。它一直紧靠着街对面的房子，隐藏在月光照不到
的阴影里。
它走啊走啊，越来越近了。可是它走走停停。它停下来，接着又走，接着又停下来。
天哪，它要干什么呢？
啊哈！索菲现在能看到它在干什么了。它在每座房子前面都要停一停。它停下来是朝街
上每座房子楼上的窗子里看。说真的，它朝楼上那些窗子里看，得把它的腰弯下来。它就高
成了那个样子。
它停下来朝一扇窗子里看看。接着它走到下一座房子，又停下来朝窗子里看看。它就这
样一路看过来。
这会儿它近得多了，索菲可以把它看得更清楚了。
她仔仔细细地看它，最后断定，它只能是一种人。显然，不是一个普通的人，但百分之
百是一个人。
或者说，是一个巨人。
索菲拼命朝月光下朦朦胧胧的街对面看去。巨人（如果那是巨人的话）身上穿着一件长
长的黑色大氅。
他的一只手拿着一把非常长非常长、非常细非常细的小号。
他的另一只手拿着一只大手提箱。
巨人现在正停在古切先生和他太太的房子前。古切先生在这大街中心开着一家蔬菜水果
店，他一家住在店上面。古切先生的两个孩子睡在楼上临街的前楼房间，这一点索菲知道。
巨人正望着窗子，望进古切家迈克尔和简的房间，他们两个正在里面睡觉。索菲从街对
面盯着看，屏住了呼吸。
她看见巨人退后一步，把手提箱放在人行道上。他弯下腰打开手提箱。他从手提箱里拿
出一样东西。那东西看上去像一只玻璃瓶，是四方形、顶上有旋转瓶盖的那一种。他旋开玻
璃瓶的瓶盖，把里面装的什么东西倒进那把长小号的一头。
索菲看着，浑身发抖。
她看见巨人重新站直身体。她看见他把小号伸进古切家两个孩子正在睡觉的楼上房间那
打开的窗子。她看见巨人深深地吸了口长气，然后“呼——”吹他的那把小号。
没有声音发出来，可是索菲一眼就看出来，原先在瓶子里的东西如今通过小号吹到古切
家孩子的卧室里去了。
那会是什么东西呢？
当巨人把小号从窗子里收回来、弯下腰拿起手提箱的时候，他碰巧转过头来朝街的这一
边看。
在月光里，索菲一眼看到一张大长脸，十分苍白，满是皱纹，两只耳朵其大无比。鼻子
尖得像把刀。鼻子上面是两只闪光的亮眼睛，这双眼睛正好盯住了索菲看，眼睛里露出了一
种凶恶的光。
索菲尖叫一声，连忙从窗口缩回来。她飞也似的往回跑，跳上自己的床，拉起毯子，把
头蒙住了。
她蜷缩成一团，像受惊吓的老鼠那样不发出一点儿声音，浑身打战。

1 spurts   

短暂而突然的活动或努力( spurt的名词复数 )； 突然奋起

参考例句：

• Great spurts of gas shoot out of the sun. 太阳气体射出形成大爆发。
• Spurts of warm rain blew fitfully against their faces. 阵阵温热的雨点拍打在他们脸上。

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

3 misty   

adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的

参考例句：

• He crossed over to the window to see if it was still misty.他走到窗户那儿，看看是不是还有雾霭。
• The misty scene had a dreamy quality about it.雾景给人以梦幻般的感觉。

4 trumpet   

n.喇叭，喇叭声；v.吹喇叭，吹嘘

参考例句：

• He plays the violin, but I play the trumpet.他拉提琴，我吹喇叭。
• The trumpet sounded for battle.战斗的号角吹响了。

5 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

6 poke   

n.刺，戳，袋；vt.拨开，刺，戳；vi.戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢

参考例句：

• We never thought she would poke her nose into this.想不到她会插上一手。
• Don't poke fun at me.别拿我凑趣儿。

7 yelp   

vi.狗吠

参考例句：

• The dog gave a yelp of pain.狗疼得叫了一声。
• The puppy a yelp when John stepped on her tail.当约翰踩到小狗的尾巴，小狗发出尖叫。

8 crouched   

v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He crouched down beside her. 他在她的旁边蹲了下来。
• The lion crouched ready to pounce. 狮子蹲下身，准备猛扑。

9 tingling   

v.有刺痛感( tingle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• My ears are tingling [humming; ringing; singing]. 我耳鸣。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• My tongue is tingling. 舌头发麻。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》