Snozzcumbers 大鼻子瓜

Snozzcumbers
‘But if you don’t eat people like all the others,’ Sophie said, ‘then what do you live on?’
‘That is a squelching¹ tricky² problem around here,’ the BFG answered. ‘In this sloshflunking
Giant Country, happy eats like pineapples and pigwinkles is simply not growing. Nothing is growing
except for one extremely icky-poo vegetable. It is called the snozzcumber.’
‘The snozzcumber!’ cried Sophie. ‘There’s no such thing.’
The BFG looked at Sophie and smiled, showing about twenty of his square white teeth.
‘Yesterday’ he said, ‘we was not believing in giants, was we? Today we is not believing in
snozzcumbers. Just because we happen not to have actually seen something with our own two little
winkles, we think it is not existing. What about for instance the great squizzly scotch-hopper?’
‘I beg your pardon?’ Sophie said.
‘And the humplecrimp?’
‘What’s that?’ Sophie said.
‘And the wraprascal?’
‘The what?’ Sophie said.
‘And the crumpscoddle?’
‘Are they animals?’ Sophie asked.
‘They is common animals,’ said the BFG contemptuously. ‘I is not a very know-all giant myself,
but it seems to me that you is an absolutely know-nothing human bean. Your brain is full of rotten-
wool.’
‘You mean cotton-wool,’ Sophie said.
‘What I mean and what I say is two different things,’ the BFG announced rather grandly. ‘I will
now show you a snozzcumber.’
The BFG flung open a massive cupboard and took out the weirdest-looking thing Sophie had
ever seen. It was about half as long again as an ordinary man but was much thicker. It was as thick
around its girth as a perambulator. It was black with white stripes along its length. And it was
covered all over with coarse knobbles.
‘Here is the repulsant snozzcumber!’ cried the BFG, waving it about. ‘I squoggle it! I mispise it!
I dispunge it! But because I is refusing to gobble up human beans like the other giants, I must spend
my life guzzling³ up icky-poo snozzcumbers instead. If I don’t, I will be nothing but skin and groans⁴.’
‘You mean skin and bons,’ Sophie said.
‘I know it is bones,’ the BFG said. ‘But please understand that I cannot be helping⁵ it if I
sometimes is saying things a little squiggly. I is trying my very best all the time.’ The Big Friendly
Giant looked suddenly so forlorn that Sophie got quite upset.
‘I’m sorry’ she said. ‘I didn’t mean to be rude.’
‘There never was any schools to teach me talking in Giant Country,’ the BFG said sadly.
‘But couldn’t your mother have taught you?’ Sophie asked.
‘My mother!’ cried the BFG. ‘Giants don’t have mothers! Surely you is knowing that.’
‘I did not know that,’ Sophie said.
‘Whoever heard of a woman giant!’ shouted the BFG, waving the snozzcumber around his head
like a lasso. ‘There never was a woman giant! And there never will be one. Giants is always men!’
Sophie felt herself getting a little muddled⁶. ‘In that case,’ she said, ‘how were you born?’
‘Giants isn’t born,’ the BFG answered. ‘Giants appears and that’s all there is to it. They simply
appears, the same way as the sun and the stars.’
‘And when did you appear?’ Sophie asked.
‘Now how on earth could I be knowing a thing like that?’ said the BFG. ‘It was so long ago I
couldn’t count.’
‘You mean you don’t even know how old you are?’
‘No giant is knowing that,’ the BFG said. ‘All I is knowing about myself is that I is very old,
very very old and crumply⁷ Perhaps as old as the earth.’
‘What happens when a giant dies?’ Sophie asked.
‘Giants is never dying,’ the BFG answered. ‘Sometimes and quite suddenly, a giant is
disappearing and nobody is ever knowing where he goes to. But mostly us giants is simply going on
and on like whiffsy time-twiddlers.’
The BFG was still holding the awesome⁸ snozzcumber in his right hand, and now he put one end
into his mouth and bit off a huge hunk of it. He started crunching⁹ it up and the noise he made was like
the crunching of lumps of ice.
‘It’s filthing!’ he spluttered, speaking with his mouth full and spraying large pieces of
snozzcumber like bullets in Sophie’s direction. Sophie hopped¹⁰ around on the table-top, ducking out
of the way.
‘It’s disgusterous!’ the BFG gurgled. ‘It’s sickable! It’s rotsome! It’s maggotwise! Try it
yourself, this foulsome snozzcumber!’
‘No, thank you,’ Sophie said, backing away.
‘It’s all you’re going to be guzzling around here from now on so you might as well get used to
it,’ said the BFG. ‘Go on, you snipsy little winkle, have a go!’
Sophie took a small nibble¹¹. ‘Uggggggggh!’ she spluttered. ‘Oh no! Oh gosh! Oh help!’ She spat¹²
it out quickly. ‘It tastes of frogskins!’ she gasped¹³. ‘And rotten fish!’
‘Worse than that!’ cried the BFG, roaring with laughter. ‘To me it is tasting of clockcoaches and
slime-wanglers!’
‘Do we really have to eat it?’ Sophie said.
‘You do unless you is wanting to become so thin you will be disappearing into a thick ear.’
‘Into thin air,’ Sophie said. ‘A thick ear is something quite different.’
Once again that sad winsome¹⁴ look came into the BFG’s eyes. ‘Words,’ he said, ‘is oh such a
twitch-tickling problem to me all my life. So you must simply try to be patient and stop squibbling.
As I am telling you before, I know exactly what words I am wanting to say, but somehow or other
they is always getting squiff-squiddled around.’
‘That happens to everyone,’ Sophie said.
‘Not like it happens to me,’ the BFG said. ‘I is speaking the most terrible wigglish.’
‘I think you speak beautifully’ Sophie said.
‘You do?’ cried the BFG, suddenly brightening. ‘You really do?’
‘Simply beautifully’ Sophie repeated.
‘Well, that is the nicest present anybody is ever giving me in my whole life!’ cried the BFG.
‘Are you sure you is not twiddling my leg?’
‘Of course not,’ Sophie said. ‘I just love the way you talk.’
‘How wondercrump!’ cried the BFG, still beaming. ‘How whoopsey-splunkers! How absolutely
squiffling! I is all of a stutter.’
‘Listen,’ Sophie said. ‘We don’t have to eat snozzcumbers. In the fields around our village there
are all sorts of lovely vegetables like cauliflowers and carrots. Why don’t you get some of those next
time you go visiting?’
The BFG raised his great head proudly in the air. ‘I is a very honourable¹⁵ giant,’ he said. ‘I would
rather be chewing up rotsome snozzcumbers than snitching things from other people.’
‘You stole me,’ Sophie said.
‘I did not steal you very much,’ said the BFG, smiling gently. ‘After all, you is only a tiny little
girl.’


大鼻子瓜
“如果你不像其他巨人那样吃人，”索菲说，“那靠吃什么东西活下去呢？”
“在这里这是一个伤透脑筋的问题。”好心眼儿巨人回答说，“在这个荒凉的巨人国，好吃
的东西像菠萝什么的根本不生长。什么也不生长，只除了一种极其难吃的蔬菜，它叫做大鼻
子瓜。”
“大鼻子瓜？”索菲说，“根本没有这样一种蔬菜。”
好心眼儿巨人冲索菲笑笑，露出他大约二十颗雪白四方的牙齿。
“昨天你还不相信有巨人，对吗？”他说，“今天你又不相信有大鼻子瓜。只因为你还没有
用你自己的两只小眼睛真正看到过，就以为它并不存在了。那么比方说，苏格兰大跳虫怎么
样？”
“对不起，我没听说过。”索菲说。
“那么皱驼呢？”
“那是什么？”索菲说。
“还有蜡烛包宝宝？”
“你说什么？”索菲说。
“再有装甲鱼？”
“它们是动物吗？”索菲问道。
“是很普通的动物。”好心眼儿巨人用看不起她的口气说，“我自己不是一个无所不知的巨
人，可在我看来，你是个百分之百一无所知的人豆子。你那个脑袋瓜里全是些面茶。”
“你是说棉花吧？”索菲说。
“我心里想的和我说出来的常常是两码事。”好心眼儿巨人很神气地说，“我现在来给你看
一根大鼻子瓜。”
好心眼儿巨人打开一个其大无比的食品柜，拿出一样索菲从未见过的样子古怪的东西。
这东西有半个普通人高，可是比人粗得多。它的“腰围”粗得像一辆童车。它的颜色是黑的，
可是有一道道竖的白条纹。它浑身长满粗糙的疙瘩。
“这就是难吃的大鼻子瓜！”好心眼儿巨人挥动着那东西大叫，“我不喜欢它！我讨厌它！
我憎恨它！可因为我不要像其他巨人那样吃人豆子，只好一辈子啃这种难吃的大鼻子瓜。如
果我不啃它，就变成皮包布头了。”
“你是说皮包骨头吧？”索菲说。
“我知道是皮包骨头，”好心眼儿巨人说，“不过请你明白，我常常说出来就变样了。我一
直在尽力忍住不这样。”好心眼儿巨人一下子看上去那么可怜巴巴的，索菲也觉得十分难过。
“我很抱歉，”她说，“我并不想伤害你。”
“在巨人国没有学校教我好好说话。”好心眼儿巨人伤心地说。
“可你妈妈不教你吗？”索菲问道。
“我妈妈！”好心眼儿巨人叫起来，“巨人没有妈妈！你应该知道这一点。”
“我不知道。”索菲说。
“谁听说过有女巨人的！”好心眼儿巨人叫着，把那大鼻子瓜在头顶上旋转得像个套
索，“从来没有过一个女巨人！也永远不会有。巨人都是男的！”
索菲觉得有点糊涂。“那么，”她说，“你是怎么生出来的呢？”
“巨人不是生出来的，”好心眼儿巨人回答说，“巨人是冒出来的，就这么回事。他们只是
冒出来，跟太阳和星星冒出来一样。”
“那你是什么时候冒出来的呢？”索菲问道。
“这样的事我怎么知道？”好心眼儿巨人说，“那是很久很久以前了，我算都算不过来。”
“你是说，你甚至不知道你有多大岁数？”
“没有一个巨人知道自己有多大岁数。”好心眼儿巨人说，“我只知道我非常老了，非常非
常老，老掉牙了，也许跟地球一样老。”
“一个巨人死了会怎样呢？”
“巨人永远不死。”好心眼儿巨人回答，“有时候一个巨人忽然不见了，没有人知道他去了
哪里。不过我们大多数巨人就这样活着，像混日子那样混下去。”
好心眼儿巨人仍旧用右手抓住那根可怕的大鼻子瓜。现在，他把它的一头塞到嘴里，啃
了一大口。他开始喀嚓喀嚓地嚼起来，那声音就像嚼一块冰。
“真难吃！”他说话时嘴里塞满东西，咬碎的一大块一大块大鼻子瓜像子弹那样向索菲这
一边喷溅过来。索菲满桌子乱跳，低下头避开它们。
“太倒胃口了！”他发出呃呃声，“真恶心！真糟糕！真难受！你来尝尝看吧，这臭大鼻子
瓜！”
“不，谢谢。”索菲向后退着说。
“从今以后，你在这里就只有这东西吃了，因此你最好吃惯它。”好心眼儿巨人说，“吃
吧，你这没见过世面的小东西，尝一点儿试试看！”
索菲咬了一小口。“呃呃呃呃呃呃呃！”她一下子气急败坏起来，“噢，不！噢，受不了！
噢，救命啊！”她赶紧把它全吐出来。“它的味道像青蛙皮！”她喘着气说，“像臭鱼！”
“比那还糟！”好心眼儿巨人叫道，轰隆大笑着，“对我来说，它的味道像蟑螂，像鼻涕
虫！”
“我们当真得吃这个东西吗？”索菲说。
“当然，除非你想瘦得一阵风就把你吹得无影无踪，吹到公鸡里。”
“吹到空气里。”索菲说，“空气跟公鸡是两码事。”
好心眼儿巨人眼睛里又一次露出难过的神情。“用字，”他说，“是我一辈子最伤脑筋的问
题。因此你必须想办法耐心点，不要咬文嚼字。正像我已经跟你说过的，我心里很清楚想要
说什么字，可不知道怎么搞的，说出来的总是走样。”
“每一个人都会这样。”索菲说。
“可不像我，”好心眼儿巨人说，“我的阳文说得糟透了！”
“你是说英文……”可她马上改口，“我觉得你说话挺漂亮的。”
“是吗？”好心眼儿巨人叫起来，一下子红光满面，“你真的这么认为？”
“就是漂亮嘛。”索菲再说一遍。
“我这一辈子里，这是别人送给我的最好礼物！”好心眼儿巨人叫道，“你肯定不是在拍我
的马屁？”
“当然不是，”索菲说，“我就喜欢你说话的样子。”
“多么好啊！”好心眼儿巨人叫道，还是那么红光满面，“多么棒啊！多么呱呱跳得没话说
啊！我简直想都没想到。”
“你听我说，”索菲说道，“你用不着吃大鼻子瓜。在我们镇的周围有各种各样可爱的蔬
菜，像花菜和胡萝卜。下次你去，可以带点回来呀！”
好心眼儿巨人得意地仰起大脑袋。“我是一个非常忠厚的巨人，”他说，“我情愿啃难吃的
大鼻子瓜，也不偷别人的东西。”
“可你偷走了我。”索菲说。
“我不算偷走你。”好心眼儿巨人温柔地微笑着说，“再说，你只是一个小不点儿小妞。”

1 squelching   

v.发吧唧声，发扑哧声( squelch的现在分词 )；制止；压制；遏制

参考例句：

• I could hear his broken shoes squelching in the water. 我可以听到他的破鞋在水中格喳格喳作响。 来自辞典例句
• The armies got bogged down in the thick squelching mud. 军队都陷入泥沼中，行进时烂泥扑哧作声。 来自互联网

2 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

3 guzzling   

v.狂吃暴饮，大吃大喝( guzzle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The kids seem to be guzzling soft drinks all day. 孩子们似乎整天都在猛喝汽水。
• He's been guzzling beer all evening. 整个晚上他都在狂饮啤酒。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 groans   

n.呻吟，叹息( groan的名词复数 )；呻吟般的声音v.呻吟( groan的第三人称单数 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦

参考例句：

• There were loud groans when he started to sing. 他刚开始歌唱时有人发出了很大的嘘声。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• It was a weird old house, full of creaks and groans. 这是所神秘而可怕的旧宅，到处嘎吱嘎吱作响。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

6 muddled   

adj.混乱的；糊涂的；头脑昏昏然的v.弄乱，弄糟( muddle的过去式)；使糊涂；对付，混日子

参考例句：

• He gets muddled when the teacher starts shouting. 老师一喊叫他就心烦意乱。
• I got muddled up and took the wrong turning. 我稀里糊涂地拐错了弯。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 crumply   

易皱的，满是皱纹的

参考例句：

8 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

9 crunching   

v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼( crunch的现在分词 )；嘎吱作响；（快速大量地）处理信息；数字捣弄

参考例句：

• The horses were crunching their straw at their manger. 这些马在嘎吱嘎吱地吃槽里的草。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The dog was crunching a bone. 狗正嘎吱嘎吱地嚼骨头。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 hopped   

跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花

参考例句：

• He hopped onto a car and wanted to drive to town. 他跳上汽车想开向市区。
• He hopped into a car and drove to town. 他跳进汽车，向市区开去。

11 nibble   

n.轻咬，啃；v.一点点地咬，慢慢啃，吹毛求疵

参考例句：

• Inflation began to nibble away at their savings.通货膨胀开始蚕食他们的存款。
• The birds cling to the wall and nibble at the brickwork.鸟儿们紧贴在墙上，啄着砖缝。

12 spat   

n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声

参考例句：

• Her parents always have spats.她的父母经常有些小的口角。
• There is only a spat between the brother and sister.那只是兄妹间的小吵小闹。

13 gasped   

v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要

参考例句：

• She gasped at the wonderful view. 如此美景使她惊讶得屏住了呼吸。
• People gasped with admiration at the superb skill of the gymnasts. 体操运动员的高超技艺令人赞叹。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

14 winsome   

n.迷人的，漂亮的

参考例句：

• She gave him her best winsome smile.她给了他一个最为迷人的微笑。
• She was a winsome creature.她十分可爱。

15 honourable   

adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的

参考例句：

• I don't think I am worthy of such an honourable title.这样的光荣称号，我可担当不起。
• I hope to find an honourable way of settling difficulties.我希望设法找到一个体面的办法以摆脱困境。