day68
Suddenly, on the day before Charlie Bucket's birthday, the newspapers announced that the second Golden Ticket had been found. The lucky person was a small girl called Veruca Salt who lived with her rich parents in a great city far away. Once again Mr Bucket's evening newspaper carried a big picture of the finder. She was sitting between her beaming father and mother in the living room of their house, waving the Golden Ticket above her head, and grinning from ear to ear.
Veruca's father, Mr Salt, had eagerly explained to the newspapermen exactly how the ticket was found. 'You see, boys,' he had said, 'as soon as my little girl told me that she simply had to have one of those Golden Tickets, I went out into the town and started buying up all the Wonka bars I could lay my hands on. Thousands of them, I must have bought. Hundreds of thousands! Then I had them loaded on to trucks and sent directly to my own factory. I'm in the peanut business, you see, and I've got about a hundred women working for me over at my place, shelling peanuts for roasting and salting. That's what they do all day long, those women, they sit there shelling peanuts. So I says to them, "Okay, girls," I says, "from now on, you can stop shelling peanuts and start shelling the wrappers off these chocolate bars instead!" And they did. I had every worker in the place yanking the paper off those bars of chocolate full speed ahead from morning till night.
'But three days went by, and we had no luck. Oh, it was terrible! My little Veruca got more and more upset each day, and every time I went home she would scream at me, "Where's my Golden Ticket! I want my Golden Ticket!" And she would lie for hours on the floor, kicking and yelling in the most disturbing way. Well, I just hated to see my little girl feeling unhappy like that, so I vowed I would keep up the search until I'd got her what she wanted. Then suddenly . . . on the evening of the fourth day, one of my women workers yelled, "I've got it! A Golden Ticket!" And I said, "Give it to me, quick!" and she did, and I rushed it home and gave it to my darling Veruca, and now she's all smiles, and we have a happy home once again.'
'That's even worse than the fat boy,' said Grandma Josephine.
'She needs a really good spanking,' said Grandma Georgina.
'I don't think the girl's father played it quite fair, Grandpa, do you?' Charlie murmured.
'He spoils her,' Grandpa Joe said. 'And no good can ever come from spoiling a child like that, Charlie, you mark my words.'
'Come to bed, my darling,' said Charlie's mother. 'Tomorrow's your birthday, don't forget that, so I expect you'll be up early to open your present.'
'A Wonka chocolate bar!' cried Charlie. 'It is a Wonka bar, isn't it?' 'Yes, my love,' his mother said. 'Of course it is.'
'Oh, wouldn't it be wonderful if I found the third Golden Ticket inside it?' Charlie said.
'Bring it in here when you get it,' Grandpa Joe said. 'Then we can all watch you taking off the wrapper.'
翻译
突然，就在查理·巴克特生日的前一天，报上又登出了第二张金参观券给发现的消息。这个幸运儿是个名叫韦鲁卡·索尔特的小姑娘，她和有钱的父母一起住在很远的一个大城市里。巴克特先生带回家的晚报上又一次登出了发现者的大幅照片。就在她家的客厅里，她正坐在得意洋洋的父母中间，举起金参观券在头上挥舞着，咧开嘴巴笑着。
韦鲁卡的父亲索尔特先生得意地把这张参观券发现的确切经过告诉了记者。“你们瞧，小伙子们，”他说道，”我的小女儿告诉我她一定要得到一张金参观券，我立刻就到城里买下了所有的旺卡巧克力。我想我一定买下了成千上万块，成千上万块！然后我叫人把它装上了卡车，直接送进了我的工厂。我经营的是花生业，你们瞧，我手下大约有一百名女工，这些女人整天欢坐在那儿干剥花生的活儿，把花生剥去壳，再送去烘制和盐渍。于是我吩咐她们说：‘好了，姑娘们，从现在起你们停止剥花生，开始剥这些巧克力的包装纸。’她们就干起来了。我要我的每一个工人从早到晚用最快速度把所有的巧克力的包装纸统统剥掉。
“然而三天过去了，我们运气很坏，唉，真太糟糕了！一天又一天我的小韦鲁卡变得越来越不安，每当我回到家里，她就朝我尖声叫嚷，‘我的金参观券在哪儿！我要我的金参观券！’然后她就一连几小时赖在地板上，拼命蹬踢，大哭大闹着，简直让人心烦意乱，不知所措。嗨，我最不愿意看见我的小女儿这么不愉快的模样，于是我发誓：不满足她的要求我誓不罢休。后来，突然间……就在第四天傍晚，我的一名女工尖叫起来：‘我找到了！一张金参观券！’我说：‘快把它给我！’我一拿到手就赶快回家把它给了我亲爱的韦鲁卡，这下她绽开了笑脸，我们家里又乐陶陶了。”
“这可比那个胖男孩更糟。”约瑟芬奶奶说。
“真该好好用鞋底揍她一顿屁股！”乔治娜外婆说。
“我觉得这个女孩的父亲这种做法实在不公正，爷爷，你说呢？”查理嘟囔道。
“他把她宠坏了，”乔爷爷回答道，“这样娇惯一个孩子没一点好处，查理。记住我的话。”
“睡觉去吧，亲爱的，”查理的妈妈说，“别忘了明天就是你的生日，我希望你能早些起床打开你的礼物。”
“一块旺卡巧克力！”查理喊起来。“是旺卡巧克力，对吗？”
“是的，我的宝贝，”他母亲说，“当然是！”
“啊，要是我在那里面发现了第三张金参观券，那不太美了吗？”查理说。
“你一得到巧克力就把它拿到这儿来，”乔爷爷说。“这样我们大家都能看着你剥开那张包装纸。”