The Meeting 会议

The Meeting
Now that the Manager had gone, I was not particularly alarmed. What better than to be
imprisoned¹ in a room full of these splendid ladies? If I ever got talking to them, I might even suggest
that they come and do a bit of cruelty-to-children preventing at my school. We could certainly use
them there.
In they came, talking their heads off. They began milling round and choosing their seats, and
there was a whole lot of stuff like, "Come and sit next to me, Millie dear," and "Oh, hel-lo Beatrice! I
haven't seen you since the last meeting! What an adorable dress you have on!"
I decided² to stay where I was and let them get on with their meeting while I got on with my
mouse-training, but I watched them for a while longer through the crack in the screen, waiting for
them to settle down. How many were there? I guessed about two hundred. The back rows filled up
first. They all seemed to want to sit as far back from the platform as possible.
There was a lady wearing a tiny green hat in the middle of the back row who kept scratching
the nape of her neck. She couldn't leave it alone. It fascinated³ me the way her fingers kept scratching
away at the hair on the back of her neck. Had she known somebody was watching her from behind,
I'm sure she would have been embarrassed. I wondered if she had dandruff. All of a sudden, I noticed
that the lady next to her was doing the same thing!
And the next one!
And the next!
The whole lot of them were doing it. They were all scratching away like mad at the hair on
the backs of their necks!
Did they have fleas⁴ in their hair?
More likely it was nits.
A boy at school called Ashton had had nits in his hair last term and the matron had made him
dip his whole head in turpentine. It killed the nits all right, but it nearly killed Ashton as well. Half
the skin came away from his scalp.
I began to be fascinated by these hair-scratching ladies. It is always funny when you catch
someone doing something coarse and she thinks no one is looking. Nose-picking, for example, or
scratching her bottom. Hair-scratching is very nearly as unattractive, especially if it goes on and on.
I decided it had to be nits.
Then the most astonishing thing happened. I saw one lady pushing her fingers up underneath⁵
the hair on her head, and the hair, the entire head of hair lifted upwards⁶ all in one piece, and the hand
slid underneath the hair and went on scratching!
She was wearing a wig⁷! She was also wearing gloves! I glanced swiftly around at the rest of
the now seated audience. Every one of them was wearing gloves!
My blood turned to ice. I began to shake all over. I glanced frantically⁸ behind me for a back
door to escape through. There wasn't one.
Should I leap out from behind the screen and make a dash for the double-doors?
Those double-doors were already closed and I could see a woman standing⁹ in front of them.
She was bending forward and fixing some sort of a metal chain round the two door-handles.
Keep still, I told myself. No one has seen you yet. There's no reason in the world why they
should come and look behind the screen. But one false move, one cough, one sneeze, one nose-blow,
one little sound of any sort and it won't be just one witch that gets you. It'll be two hundred!
At that point, I think I fainted. The whole thing was altogether too much for a small boy to
cope with. But I don't believe I was out for more than a few seconds, and when I came to, I was lying
on the carpet and I was still, thank heavens, behind the screen. There was absolute silence all around
me.
Rather shakily, I got to my knees and peered¹⁰ once again through the crack in the screen.


会议
现在经理走了，我也就不那么害怕了。还有什么比关在一个挤满这些出色女士的房间里
更叫人高兴的呢？如果我有机会和她们说话，我甚至会建议她们到我的学校去做点事防止虐
待儿童。那里确实用得着她们。
她们嘁嘁喳喳地进来，开始转来转去找座位。大厅里充满了这样的说话声：“来坐到我旁
边吧，亲爱的米莉！”“噢，你好，比特丽丝！上次开会以来，我还没有见过你呢！你穿的衣
服多么好看啊！”
我决定待在原处不动，让她们去开她们的会好了，我只管训练我的小白鼠，但我想在夹
缝里再看一会儿，先等她们坐好。一共有多少人啊？我想约有两百人。后排先坐满了。她们
好像想坐得离讲坛尽量远些。
后排中间有一个戴小绿帽的太太不断地搔后颈。她停不下来。她的手指不停地抓着后颈
的头发，这使我呆住了。她如果知道后面有人看着她，我断定她会很尴尬的。我疑心她是不
是有头垢。忽然我发现她旁边的一位太太也在这样抓挠。
还有旁边的一位！
还有再旁边的一位！
所有的女士都这样抓挠。她们拼命地抓挠后颈的头发！
她们的头发里有跳蚤吗？
更可能是虱子。
上学期有个叫阿什顿的同学头发里长了虱子，女舍监让他把整个头浸在松节油里。这样
做的确杀死了虱子，但几乎把阿什顿也杀死了。他的一半头皮都掉了。
我开始被这些抓头发的女士们吸引住了。偷看到有人做不雅的事而她本人以为没有人在
看，那总是滑稽的，例如挖鼻孔，或者抓屁股。抓头发同样不美，特别是抓了又抓，抓个不
停。
我认定这是由于虱子。
但接着，最惊人的事发生了。我看见一位太太把她的手指插到头发底下，她的头发，整
个儿的头发被掀了起来。她的手伸到掀起的头发底下继续抓！
她戴着假发！她还戴着手套！我很快地转眼去看其他坐着的听众。个个戴着手套！
我的血凉了。我开始全身发抖。我赶紧回过头去想找后门逃出去，但是后面没有门。
我该从屏风后面跳出来向房门冲过去吗？
然而房门已经关上了，我看到一个女人站在门前。她正弯着腰在两扇门的门把手上拴铁
链子。
我命令自己不要动，还没有人看见我。她们没有理由要到屏风后面来看。只要一个错误
的举动、一声咳嗽、一个喷嚏、任何一点轻微的声音，都会引来不止一个女巫，是两百个！
这时候我想我昏过去了。这整个事情对于一个小孩子来说是根本应付不了的。但我昏了
不会多于几秒钟，醒来时我躺在地毯上，谢天谢地，是在屏风后面，一动也没动。我周围一
片死寂。
我发着抖跪起来，再一次从屏风夹缝往外面偷看。

1 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。

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 fascinated   

a.被强烈地吸引住，感到着迷的

参考例句：

• China has always fascinated me. 中国一直令我心驰神往。
• The children watched, fascinated, as the picture began to appear. 电影开始以后孩子们入迷地观看着。

4 fleas   

n.跳蚤( flea的名词复数 )；爱财如命；没好气地（拒绝某人的要求）

参考例句：

• The dog has fleas. 这条狗有跳蚤。
• Nothing must be done hastily but killing of fleas. 除非要捉跳蚤，做事不可匆忙。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

6 upwards   

adv.向上，在更高处...以上

参考例句：

• The trend of prices is still upwards.物价的趋向是仍在上涨。
• The smoke rose straight upwards.烟一直向上升。

7 wig   

n.假发

参考例句：

• The actress wore a black wig over her blond hair.那个女演员戴一顶黑色假发罩住自己的金黄色头发。
• He disguised himself with a wig and false beard.他用假发和假胡须来乔装。

8 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。

9 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。

10 peered   

去皮的

参考例句：

• He peeled away the plastic wrapping. 他去掉塑料包装。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The paint on the wall has peeled off. 墙上涂料已剥落了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》