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Gwen陪你读英文原版书 《玛蒂尔达》   作者：Roald Dahl  朗读：Gwen
The Trunchbull, her face more like a boiled ham than ever, was standing before the class quivering with fury. Her massive bosom was heaving in and out and the splash of water down the front of it made a dark wet patch that had probably soaked right through to her skin. 'Who did it?' she roared. 'Come on! Own up! Step forward! You won't escape this time! Who is responsible for this dirty job? Who pushed over this glass?' Nobody answered. The whole room remained silent as a tomb. 'Matilda!' she roared. 'It was you! I know it was you!' Matilda, in the second row, sat very still and said nothing. A strange feeling of serenity and confidence was sweeping over her and all of a sudden she found that she was frightened by nobody in the world. With the power of her eyes alone she had compelled a glass of water to tip and spill its contents over the horrible Headmistress, and anybody who could do that could do anything. 'Speak up, you clotted carbuncle!' roared the Trunchbull. 'Admit that you did it!' Matilda looked right back into the flashing eyes of this infuriated female giant and said with total calmness, 'I have not moved away from my desk, Miss Trunchbull, since the lesson began. I can say no more.' Suddenly the entire class seemed to rise up against the Headmistress. 'She didn't move!' they cried out. 'Matilda didn't move! Nobody moved! You must have knocked it over yourself!' 'I most certainly did not knock it over myself!' roared the Trunchbull. 'How dare you suggest a thing like that! Speak up, Miss Honey! You must have seen everything! Who knocked over my glass?' 'None of the children did, Miss Trunchbull,' Miss Honey answered. 'I can vouch for it that nobody has moved from his or her desk all the time you've been here, except for Nigel and he has not moved from his corner.' Miss Trunchbull glared at Miss Honey. Miss Honey met her gaze without flinching. 'I am telling you the truth, Headmistress,' she said. 'You must have knocked it over without knowing it. That sort of thing is easy to do.' 'I am fed up with you useless bunch of midgets!' roared the Trunchbull. 'I refuse to waste any more of my precious time in here!' And with that she marched out of the class-room, slamming the door behind her. In the stunned silence that followed, Miss Honey walked up to the front of the class and stood behind her table. 'Phew!' she said. 'I think we've had enough school for one day, don't you? The class is dismissed. You may all go out into the playground and wait for your parents to come and take you home.' The Second Miracle Matilda did not join the rush to get out of the classroom. After the other children had all disappeared, she remained at her desk, quiet and thoughtful. She knew she had to tell somebody about what had happened with the glass. She couldn't possibly keep a gigantic secret like that bottled up inside her. What she needed was just one person, one wise and sympathetic grown-up who could help her to understand the meaning of this extraordinary happening. Neither her mother nor her father would be of any use at all. If they believed her story, and it was doubtful they would, they almost certainly would fail to realise what an astounding event it was that had taken place in the classroom that afternoon. On the spur of the moment, Matilda decided that the one person she would like to confide in was Miss Honey. Matilda and Miss Honey were now the only two left in the class-room. Miss Honey had seated herself at her table and was riffling through some papers. She looked up and said, 'Well, Matilda, aren't you going outside with the others?' Matilda said, 'Please may I talk to you for a moment?' 'Of course you may. What's troubling you?' 'Something very peculiar has happened to me, Miss Honey.' Miss Honey became instantly alert. Ever since the two disastrous meetings she had had recently about Matilda, the first with the Headmistress and the second with the dreadful Mr and Mrs Wormwood, Miss Honey had been thinking a great deal about this child and wondering how she could help her. And now, here was Matilda sitting in the classroom with a curiously exalted look on her face and asking if she could have a private talk. Miss Honey had never seen her looking so wide-eyed and peculiar before. 'Yes, Matilda,' she said. 'Tell me what has happened to you that is so peculiar.' 'Miss Trunchbull isn't going to expel me, is she?' Matilda asked. 'Because it wasn't me who put that creature in her jug of water. I promise you it wasn't.' 'I know it wasn't,' Miss Honey said. 'Am I going to be expelled?' 'I think not,' Miss Honey said. 'The Headmistress simply got a little over-excited, that's all.' 'Good,' Matilda said. 'But that isn't what I want to talk to you about.' 'What do you want to talk to me about, Matilda?' 'I want to talk to you about the glass of water with the creature in it,' Matilda said. 'You saw it spilling all over Miss Trunchbull, didn't you?' 'I did indeed.' 'Well, Miss Honey, I didn't touch it. I never went near it.' 'I know you didn't,' Miss Honey said. 'You heard me telling the Headmistress that it couldn't possibly have been you.' 'Ah, but it was me, Miss Honey,' Matilda said. 'That's exactly what I want to talk to you about.' Miss Honey paused and looked carefully at the child. 'I don't think I quite follow you,' she said. 'I got so angry at being accused of something I hadn't done that I made it happen.' 'You made what happen, Matilda?' 'I made the glass tip over.' 'I still don't quite understand what you mean,' Miss Honey said gently. 'I did it with my eyes,' Matilda said. 'I was staring at it and wishing it to tip and then my eyes went all hot and funny and some sort of power came out of them and the glass just toppled over.' Miss Honey continued to look steadily at Matilda through her steel-rimmed spectacles and Matilda looked back at her just as steadily. 'I am still not following you,' Miss Honey said. 'Do you mean you actually willed the glass to tip over?' 'Yes,' Matilda said. 'With my eyes.' Miss Honey was silent for a moment. She did not think Matilda was meaning to tell a lie. It was more likely that she was simply allowing her vivid imagination to run away with her. 'You mean you were sitting where you are now and you told the glass to topple over and it did?' 'Something like that, Miss Honey, yes.' 'If you did that, then it is just about the greatest miracle a person has ever performed since the time of Jesus.' 'I did it, Miss Honey.' It is extraordinary, thought Miss Honey, how often small children have flights of fancy like this. She decided to put an end to it as gently as possible. 'Could you do it again?' she asked, not unkindly. 'I don't know,' Matilda said, 'but I think I might be able to.' Miss Honey moved the now empty glass to the middle of the table. 'Should I put water in it?' she asked, smiling a little. 'I don't think it matters,' Matilda said. 'Very well, then. Go ahead and tip it over.' 'It may take some time.' Take all the time you want,' Miss Honey said. I'm in no hurry.' |
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