查理和巧克力工厂Charlie.and.the.Chocolate.Factory.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (by Roald Dahl)

两小无猜儿童网da30a59e172ded630a1cb669

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (by Roald Dahl)

For Theo

Some reviews of

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

…One of the most popular children?s books of all times?

–Sunday Times

…Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake have made an important and lasting contribution to children?s

literatur e? –Guardian

…A book that requires no introduction as it is probably Dahl?s best-known and most-read

creation and deservedly so… Brilliant?

–Lovereading4Kids

Winner of the Millennium Children?s Book Award (UK, 2000) and nominated as one of the n ation?s favourite books in the BBC?s Big Read campaign, 2003

两小无猜儿童网da30a59e172ded630a1cb669

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (by Roald Dahl)

PUFFIN MODERN CLASSICS

Roald Dahl was born in 1916 in Wales of Norwegian parents. He was educated in England and went on to work for the Shell Oil Company in Africa. He began writin g after a …monumental bash on the head? sustained as an RAF fighter pilot during the Second World War. Roald Dahl is one of the most successful and well known of all children?s writers. His books, which are read by children the world over, include The BFG and The Witches, winner of the 1983 Whitbread Award. Roald Dahl died in 1990 at the age of seventy-four.

Quentin Blake is one of Britain?s most successful illustrators. His first drawings were published in Punch magazine when he was sixteen and still at school. Quentin Blake has illustrated over three hundred books and he was Roald Dahl?s favourite illustrator. He has won many awards and prizes, including the Whitbread Award and the Kate Greenaway Medal. In 1999 he was chosen to be the first ever Children?s Laureate and in 2005 he was awarded a CBE for services to children?s literature.

两小无猜儿童网da30a59e172ded630a1cb669

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (by Roald Dahl)

ROALD DAHL

Illustrated by

Quentin Blake

PUFFIN

两小无猜儿童网da30a59e172ded630a1cb669

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (by Roald Dahl)

Contents

Chapter 1 Here Comes Charlie (6)

Chapter 2 Mr Willy Wonka?s Factory (10)

Chapter 3 Mr Wonka and the Indian Prince (13)

Chapter 4 The Secret Workers (15)

Chapter 5 The Golden Tickets (17)

Chapter 6 The First Two Finders (18)

Chapter 7 Charlie?s Birthday (21)

Chapter 8 Two More Golden Tickets Found (23)

Chapter 9 Grandpa Joe Takes a Gamble (26)

Chapter 10 The Family Begins to Starve (27)

Chapter 11 The Miracle (29)

Chapter 12 What It Said on the Golden Ticket (31)

Chapter 13 The Big Day Arrives (34)

Chapter 14 Mr Willy Wonka (36)

Chapter 15 The Chocolate Room (39)

Chapter 16 The Oompa-Loompas (41)

Chapter 17 Augustus Gloop Goes up the Pipe (43)

Chapter 18 Down the Chocolate River (48)

Chapter 19 The Inventing Room – Everlasting Gobstoppers and Hair Toffee (51)

Chapter 20 The Great Gum Machine (53)

Chapter 21 Good-bye Violet (55)

Chapter 22 Along the Corridor (59)

Chapter 23 Square Sweets That Look Round (61)

Chapter 24 Veruca in the Nut Room (63)

Chapter 25 The Great Glass Lift (68)

Chapter 26 The Television-Chocolate Room (71)

Chapter 27 Mike Teavee is Sent by Television (74)

Chapter 28 Only Charlie Left (80)

Chapter 29 The Other Children Go Home (82)

Chapter 30 Charlie?s Chocolate Factory (84)

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (by Roald Dahl)

There are five children in this book:

AUGUSTUS GLOOP A greedy boy

VERUCA SALT A girl who is spoiled by her parents

VIOLET BEAUREGARDE A girl who chews gum all day long

MIKE TEAVEE A boy who does nothing but watch television and

CHARLIE BUCKET The hero

Chapter 1 Here Comes Charlie

These two very old people are the father and mother of Mr Bucket. Their names are Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine.

And these two very old people are the father and mother of Mrs Bucket. Their names are Grandpa George and Grandma Georgina.

两小无猜儿童网da30a59e172ded630a1cb669

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (by Roald Dahl)

This is Mr Bucket. This is Mrs Bucket.

Mr and Mrs Bucket have a small boy whose name is Charlie Bucket.

This is Charlie.

How d?you do? And how d?you do? And how d?you do again? He is pleased to meet you.

The whole of this family – the six grown-ups (count them) and little Charlie Bucket – live together in a small wooden house on the edge of a great town.

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (by Roald Dahl)

The house wasn?t nearly large enough for so many people, and life was extremely uncomfortable for them all. There were only two rooms in the place altogether, and there was only one bed. The bed was given to the four old grandparents because they were so old and tired. They were so tired, they never got out of it.

Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine on this side, Grandpa George and Grandma Georgina on this side.

Mr and Mrs Bucket and little Charlie Bucket slept in the other room, upon mattresses on the floor.

In the summertime, this wasn?t too bad, but in the winter, freezing cold draughts blew across the floor all night long, and it was awful.

There wasn?t any q uestion of them being able to buy a better house – or even one more bed to sleep in. They were far too poor for that.

Mr Bucket was the only person in the family with a job. He worked in a toothpaste factory, where he sat all day long at a bench and screwed the little caps on to the tops of the tubes of toothpaste after the tubes had been filled. But a toothpaste cap-screwer is never paid very much money, and poor Mr Bucket, however hard he worked, and however fast he screwed on the caps, was never able to make enough to buy one half of the things that so large a family needed. There wasn?t even enough money to buy proper food for them all. The only meals they could afford were bread and margarine for breakfast, boiled potatoes and cabbage for lunch, and cabbage soup for supper. Sundays were a bit better. They all looked forward to Sundays because then, although they had exactly the same, everyone was allowed a second helping.

The Buckets, of course, didn?t starve, but every one of them – the two old grandfathers, the two old grandmothers, Charlie?s father, Charlie?s mother, and especially little Charlie himself – went about from morning till night with a horrible empty feeling in their tummies.

Charlie felt it worst of all. And although his father and mother often went without their own share of lunch or supper so that they could give it to him, it still wasn?t nearly enough for a growing boy. He desperately wanted something more filling and satisfying than cabbage and cabbage soup. The

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (by Roald Dahl)

one thing he long ed for more than anything else was… CHOCOLATE.

Walking to school in the mornings, Charlie could see great slabs of chocolate piled up high in the shop windows, and he would stop and stare and press his nose against the glass, his mouth watering like mad. Many times a day, he would see other children taking bars of creamy chocolate out of their pockets and munching them greedily, and that, of course, was pure torture.

Only once a year, on his birthday, did Charlie Bucket ever get to taste a bit of chocolate. The whole family saved up their money for that special occasion, and when the great day arrived, Charlie was always presented with one small chocolate bar to eat all by himself. And each time he received it, on those marvellous birthday mornings, he would place it carefully in a small wooden box that he owned, and treasure it as though it were a bar of solid gold; and for the next few days, he would allow himself only to look at it, but never to touch it. Then at last, when he could stand it no longer, he would peel back a tiny bit of the paper wrapping at one corner to expose a tiny bit of chocolate, and then he would take a tiny nibble – just enough to allow the lovely sweet taste to spread out slowly over his tongue. The next day, he would take another tiny nibble, and so on, and so on. And in this way, Charlie would make his sixpenny bar of birthday chocolate last him for more than a month.

But I haven?t yet told you about the one awful thing that tortured little Charlie, the lover of chocolate, more than anything else. This thing, for him, was far, far worse than seeing slabs of chocolate in the shop windows or watching other children munching bars of creamy chocolate right in front of him. It was the most terrible torturing thing you could imagine, and it was this: In the town itself, actually within sight of the house in which Charlie lived, there was an ENORMOUS CHOCOLATE FACTORY!

Just imagine that!

And it wasn?t simply an ordinary enormous chocolate factory, either. It was the largest and most famous in the whole world! It was WONKA?S FACTORY, owned by a man called Mr Willy Wonka, the greatest inventor and maker of chocolates that there has ever been. And what a tremendous, marvellous place it was! It had huge iron gates leading into it, and a high wall surrounding it, and smoke belching from its chimneys, and strange whizzing sounds coming from deep inside it. And outside the walls, for half a mile around in every direction, the air was scented with the heavy rich smell of melting chocolate!

Twice a day, on his way to and from school, little Charlie Bucket had to walk right past the gates of the factory. And every time he went by, he would begin to walk very, very slowly, and he would hold his nose high in the air and take long deep sniffs of the gorgeous chocolatey smell all around him.

Oh, how he loved that smell!

And oh, how he wished he could go inside the factory and see what it was like!

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (by Roald Dahl)

Chapter 2Mr Willy Wonka’s Factory

In the evenings, after he had finished his supper of watery cabbage soup, Charlie always went into the room of his four grandparents to listen to their stories, and then afterwards to say good night.

Every one of these old people was over ninety. They were as shrivelled as prunes, and as bony as skeletons, and throughout the day, until Charlie made his appearance, they lay huddled in their one bed, two at either end, with nightcaps on to keep their heads warm, dozing the time away with nothing to do. But as soon as they heard the door opening, and heard Char lie?s voice saying, …Good evening, Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine, and Grandpa George and Grandma Georgina,? then all four of them would suddenly sit up, and their old wrinkled faces would light up with smiles of pleasure – and the talking would begin. For they loved this little boy. He was the only bright thing in their lives, and his evening visits were something that they looked forward to all day long. Often, Charlie?s mother and father would come in as well, and stand by the door, listening to the stories that the old people told; and thus, for perhaps half an hour every night, this room would become a happy place, and the whole family would forget that it was hungry and poor.

One evening, when Charlie went in to see his grandparents, he said to th em, …Is it really true that Wonka?s Chocolate Factory is the biggest in the world??

…True?? cried all four of them at once. …Of course it?s true! Good heavens, didn?t you know that? It?s about fifty times as big as any other!?

…And is Mr Willy Wonka really the cleverest chocolate maker in the world??

…My dear boy,? said Grandpa Joe, raising himself up a little higher on his pillow, …Mr Willy Wonka is the most amazing, the most fantastic, the most extraordinary chocolate maker the world has ever seen! I thought everybody knew that!?

…I knew he was famous, Grandpa Joe, and I knew he was very clever…?

…Clever!? cried the old man. …He?s more than that! He?s a magician with chocolate! He can make anything–anything he wants! Isn?t that a fact, my dears??

The other three old people nodded their heads slowly up and down, and said, …Absolutely true. Just as true as can be.?

And Grandpa Joe said, …You mean to say I?ve never told you about Mr Willy Wonka and his factory??

…Never,? answered little Charlie.

…Good heavens above! I don?t know what?s the matter with me!?

…Will you tell me now, Grandpa Joe, please??

…I certainly will. Sit down beside me on the bed, my dear, and listen carefully.?

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (by Roald Dahl)

Grandpa Joe was the oldest of the four grandparents. He was ninety-six and a half, and that is just about as old as anybody can be. Like all extremely old people, he was delicate and weak, and throughout the day he spoke very little. But in the evenings, when Charlie, his beloved grandson, was in the room, he seemed in some marvellous way to grow quite young again. All his tiredness fell away from him, and he became as eager and excited as a young boy.

…Oh, what a man he is, this Mr Willy Wonka!? cried Grandpa Joe. …Did you know, for example, that he has himself invented more than two hundred new kinds of chocolate bars, each with a different centre, each far sweeter and creamier and more delicious than anything the other chocolate factories can make!?

…Perfectly true!? cried Grandma Josephine. …And he sends them to all the four corners of the earth! Isn?t that so, Grandpa Joe??

…It is, my dear, it is. And to all the kings and presidents of the world as well. But it isn?t only chocolate bars that he makes. Oh, dear me, no! He has some really fantastic inventions up his sleeve, Mr Willy Wonka has! Did you know that he?s invented a way of making chocolate ice cream so that it stays cold for hours and hours without being in the refrigerator? You can even leave it lying in the sun all morning on a ho t day and it won?t go runny!?

…But that?s impossible!? said little Charlie, staring at his grandfather.

…Of course it?s impossible!? cried Grandpa Joe. …It?s completely absurd! But Mr Willy Wonka has done it!?

…Quite right!? the others agreed, nodding their heads. …Mr Wonka has done it.?

…And then again,? Grandpa Joe went on speaking very slowly now so that Charlie wouldn?t miss a word, …Mr Willy Wonka can make marshmallows that taste of violets, and rich caramels that change colour every ten seconds as you suck them, and little feathery sweets that melt away deliriously the moment you put them between your lips. He can make chewing-gum that never loses its taste, and sugar balloons that you can blow up to enormous sizes before you pop them with a pin and gobble them up. And, by a most secret method, he can make lovely blue birds? eggs with black spots on them, and when you put one of these in your mouth, it gradually gets smaller and smaller until suddenly there is nothing left except a tiny little p ink sugary baby bird sitting on the tip of your tongue.?Grandpa Joe paused and ran the point of his tongue slowly over his lips. …It makes my mouth water just thinking about it,? he said.

…Mine, too,? said little Charlie. …But please go on.?

While t hey were talking, Mr and Mrs Bucket, Charlie?s mother and father, had come quietly into the room, and now both were standing just inside the door, listening.

…Tell Charlie about that crazy Indian prince,? said Grandma Josephine. …He?d like to hear that.?…You mean Prince Pondicherry?? said Grandpa Joe, and he began chuckling with laughter.

…Completely dotty!? said Grandpa George.

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (by Roald Dahl)

…But very rich,? said Grandma Georgina.

…What did he do?? asked Charlie eagerly.

…Listen,? said Grandpa Joe, …and I?ll tell you.?

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (by Roald Dahl)

Chapter 3Mr Wonka and the Indian Prince

…Prince Pondicherry wrote a letter to Mr Willy Wonka,? said Grandpa Joe, …and asked him to come all the way out to India and build him a colossal palace entirely out of chocolate.?…Did Mr Wonka do it, Grandpa??

…He did, indeed. And what a palace it was! It had one hundred rooms, and everything was made of either dark or light chocolate! The bricks were chocolate, and the cement holding them together was chocolate, and the windows were chocolate, and all the walls and ceilings were made of chocolate, so were the carpets and the pictures and the furniture and the beds; and when you turned on the taps in the bathroom, hot chocolate came pouring out.

…When it was all finished, Mr Wonka said to Prince Pondicherry, “I warn you, though, it won?t last very long, so you?d better start eating it right away.”

… “Nonsense!” shouted the Prince. “I?m not going to eat my palace! I?m not even going to nibble the staircase or lick the walls! I?m going to live in it!”

…But Mr Wonka was right, of course, because soon after this, there came a very hot day with a boiling sun, and the whole palace began to melt, and then it sank slowly to the ground, and the crazy prince, who was dozing in the living room at the time, woke up to find himself swimming around in a huge brown sticky lake of chocolate.?

Little Charlie sat very still on the edge of the bed, staring at his grandfather. Charlie?s face was bright, and his eyes were stretched so wide you could see the wh ites all around. …Is all this really true?? he asked. …Or are you pulling my leg??

…It?s true!? cried all four of the old people at once. …Of course it?s true! Ask anyone you like!?

…And I?ll tell you something else that?s true,? said Grandpa Joe, and now he leaned closer to Charlie, and lowered his voice to a soft, secret whisper. …Nobody… ever… comes… out!?…Out of where?? asked Charlie.

…And… nobody… ever… goes… in!?

…In where?? cried Charlie.

…Wonka?s factory, of course!?

…Grandpa, what do you mean??

…I mean workers,Charlie.?

…Workers??

…All factories,? said Grandpa Joe, …have workers streaming in and out of the gates in the mornings and evenings –except Wonka?s! Have you ever seen a single person going into that place –or coming o ut??

Little Charlie looked slowly around at each of the four old faces, one after the other, and they all looked back at him. They were friendly smiling faces, but they were also quite serious. There was no sign of joking or leg-pulling on any of them.

…Well? Have you?? asked Grandpa Joe.

…I… I really don?t know, Grandpa,? Charlie stammered. …Whenever I walk past the factory, the gates seem to be closed.?

…Exactly!? said Grandpa Joe.

…But there must be people working there…?

…Not people, Charlie. Not ordinary people, anyway.?

…Then who?? cried Charlie.

…Ah-ha… That?s it, you see… That?s another of Mr Willy Wonka?s clevernesses.?

…Charlie, dear,? Mrs Bucket called out from where she was standing by the door, …it?s time for bed. That?s enough for tonight.?

…But, Mother, I must hear…?

…Tomorrow, my darling…?

…That?s right,? said Grandpa Joe, …I?ll tell you the rest of it tomorrow evening.?

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (by Roald Dahl)

两小无猜儿童网da30a59e172ded630a1cb669

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (by Roald Dahl)

两小无猜儿童网 da30a59e172ded630a1cb669 Chapter 4 The Secret Workers

The next evening, Grandpa Joe went on with his story.

…You see, Charlie,? he said, …not so very long ago there used to be thousands of people working in Mr Willy Wonka?s factory. Then one day, all of a sudden, Mr Wonka had to ask every single one of them to leave, to go home, never to come back.?

…But why?? asked Cha rlie.

…Because of spies.?

…Spies??

…Yes. All the other chocolate makers, you see, had begun to grow jealous of the wonderful sweets that Mr Wonka was making, and they started sending in spies to steal his secret recipes. The spies took jobs in the Wonka factory, pretending that they were ordinary workers, and while they were there, each one of them found out exactly how a certain special thing was made.?

…And did they go back to their own factories and tell?? asked Charlie.

…They must have,? answered Grandpa Joe, …because soon after that, Fickelgruber?s factory started making an ice cream that would never melt, even in the hottest sun. Then Mr Prodnose?s factory came out with a chewing-gum that never lost its flavour however much you chewed it. And then Mr Slugworth?s factory began making sugar balloons that you could blow up to huge sizes before you popped them with a pin and gobbled them up. And so on, and so on. And Mr Willy Wonka tore his beard and shouted, “This is terrible! I shall be ruined! There are spies everywhere! I shall have to close the factory!” ?

…But he didn?t do that!? Charlie said.

…Oh, yes he did. He told all the workers that he was sorry, but they would have to go home. Then, he shut the main gates and fastened them with a c hain. And suddenly, Wonka?s giant chocolate factory became silent and deserted. The chimneys stopped smoking, the machines stopped whirring, and from then on, not a single chocolate or sweet was made. Not a soul went in or out, and even Mr Willy Wonka himself disappeared completely.

…Months and months went by,? Grandpa Joe went on, …but still the factory remained closed. And everybody said, “Poor Mr Wonka. He was so nice. And he made such marvellous things. But he?s finished now. It?s all over.”

…Then something astonishing happened. One day, early in the morning, thin columns of white smoke were seen to be coming out of the tops of the tall chimneys of the factory! People in the town stopped and stared. “What?s going on?” they cried. “Someone?s lit the furnaces! Mr Wonka must be opening up again!” They ran to the gates, expecting to see them wide open and Mr Wonka standing there to welcome his workers back.

…But no! The great iron gates were still locked and chained as securely as ever, and Mr Won ka was nowhere to be seen.

… “But the factory is working!” the people shouted. “Listen! You can hear the machines! They?re all whirring again! And you can smell the smell of melting chocolate in the air!” ?

Grandpa Joe leaned forward and laid a long bo

ny finger on Charlie?s knee, and he said softly,

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (by Roald Dahl)

…But most mysterious of all, Charlie, were the shadows in the windows of the factory. The people standing on the street outside could see small dark shadows moving about behind the frosted glass windows.?

…Shadows of whom?? said Charlie quickly.

…That?s exactly what everybody else wanted to know.

… “The place is full of workers!” the people shouted. “But nobody?s gone in! The gates are locked! It?s crazy! Nobody ever comes out, either!”

…But there was no question at all,? said Grandpa Joe, …that the factory was running. And it?s gone on running ever since, for these last ten years. What?s more, the chocolates and sweets it?s been turning out have become more fantastic and delicious all the time. And of course now when Mr Wonka invents some new and wonderful sweet, neither Mr Fickelgruber nor Mr Prodnose nor Mr Slugworth nor anybody else is able to copy it. No spies can go into the factory to find out how it is made.?…But Grandpa, who,? cried Charlie,…who is Mr Wonka using to do all the work in the factory??…Nobody knows, Charlie.?

…But that?s ahsurd! Hasn?t someone asked Mr Wonka??

…Nobody sees him any more. He never comes out. The only things that come out of that place are chocolates and sweets. They come out through a special trap door in the wall, all packed and addressed, and they are picked up every day by Post Office trucks.?

…But Grandpa, what sort of people are they that work in there??

…My dear boy,? said Grandpa Joe, …that is one of the great mysteries of the chocolate-making world. We know only one thing about them. They are very small. The faint shadows that sometimes appear behind the windows, especially late at night when the lights are on, are those of tiny people, people no taller than my knee…?

…There aren?t any such people,? Charlie said.

Just then, Mr Bucket, Charlie?s father, came into the room. He was home from the toothpaste factory, and he was waving an evening newspaper rather excitedly. …Have you heard the news?? he cried. He held up the paper so that they could see the huge headline. The headline said: WONKA FACTORY TO BE OPENED AT LAST TO LUCKY FEW

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (by Roald Dahl)

Chapter 5 The Golden Tickets

…You mean people are actually going to be allowed to go inside the factory?? cr ied Grandpa Joe. …Read us what it says –quickly!?

…All right,? said Mr Bucket, smoothing out the newspaper. …Listen.?

Evening Bulletin

Mr Willy Wonka, the confectionery genius whom nobody has seen for the last tenyears, sent out the following notice today:

I, Willy Wonka, have decided to allow five children – just five, mind you, and no more –

to visit my factory this year. These lucky five will be shown around personally by me, and they will be allowed to see all the secrets and the magic of my factory. Then, at the end of the tour, as a special present, all of them will be given enough chocolates and sweets to last them for the rest of their lives! So watch out for the Golden Tickets! Five Golden Tickets have beenprinted on golden paper, and these five Golden Tickets have been hidden underneath the ordinary wrapping paper of five ordinary bars of chocolate. These five chocolate bars may be anywhere –in any shop in any street in any town in any country in the world – upon any counter where Wonka’s Sweets are sold. And the five lucky finders of these five Golden Tickets are the only ones who will be allowed to visit my factory and see what it’s like now inside! Good luck to you all, and happy hunting! (Signed Willy Wonka.)

…The man?s dotty!? mutter ed Grandma Josephine.

…He?s brilliant!? cried Grandpa Joe. …He?s a magician! Just imagine what will happen now! The whole world will be searching for those Golden Tickets! Everyone will be buying Wonka?s chocolate bars in the hope of finding one! He?ll s ell more than ever before! Oh, how exciting it would be to find one!?

…And all the chocolate and sweets that you could eat for the rest of your life –free!? said Grandpa George. …Just imagine that!?

…They?d have to deliver them in a truck!? said Grand ma Georgina.

…It makes me quite ill to think of it,? said Grandma Josephine.

…Nonsense!? cried Grandpa Joe. …Wouldn?t it be something, Charlie, to open a bar of chocolate and see a Golden Ticket glistening inside!?

…It certainly would, Grandpa. But there isn?t a hope,? Charlie said sadly. …I only get one bar a year.?

…You never know, darling,? said Grandma Georgina. …It?s your birthday next week. You have as much chance as anybody else.?

…I?m afraid that simply isn?t true,? said Grandpa George. …T he kids who are going to find the Golden Tickets are the ones who can afford to buy bars of chocolate every day. Our Charlie gets only one a year. There isn?t a hope.?

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (by Roald Dahl)

Chapter 6 The First Two Finders

The very next day, the first Golden Ticket was found. The finder was a boy called Augustus Gloop, and Mr Bucket?s evening newspaper carried a large picture of him on the front page. The picture showed a nine-year-old boy who was so enormously fat he looked as though he had been blown up with a powerful pump. Great flabby folds of fat bulged out from every part of his body, and his face was like a monstrous ball of dough with two small greedy curranty eyes peering out upon the world. The town in which Augustus Gloop lived, the newspaper said, had gone wild with excitement over their hero. Flags were flying from all the windows, children had been given a holiday from school, and a parade was being organized in honour of the famous youth.

…I just knew Augustus would find a Golden Ticket,? his mother had told the newspapermen. …He eats so many bars of chocolate a day that it was almost impossible for him not to find one. Eating is his hobby, you know. That?s all he?s interested in. But still, that?s better than being a hooligan and shooting off zip guns and thi ngs like that in his spare time, isn?t it? And what I always say is, he wouldn?t go on eating like he does unless he needed nourishment, would he? It?s all vitamins, anyway. What a thrill it will be for him to visit Mr Wonka?s marvellous factory! We?re jus t as proud as anything!?

…What a revolting woman,? said Grandma Josephine.

…And what a repulsive boy,? said Grandma Georgina.

…Only four Golden Tickets left,? said Grandpa George. …I wonder who?ll get those.?

And now the whole country, indeed, the whole world, seemed suddenly to be caught up in a mad chocolate-buying spree, everybody searching frantically for those precious remaining tickets. Fully grown women were seen going into sweet shops and buying ten Wonka bars at a time, then tearing off the wrappers on the spot and peering eagerly underneath for a glint of golden paper. Children were taking hammers and smashing their piggy banks and running out to the shops with handfuls of money. In one city, a famous gangster robbed a bank of a thousand pounds and spent the whole lot on Wonka bars that same afternoon. And when the police entered his house to arrest him, they found him sitting on the floor amidst mountains of chocolate, ripping off the wrappers with the

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (by Roald Dahl)

blade of a long dagger. In far-off Russia, a woman called Charlotte Russe claimed to have found the second ticket, but it turned out to be a clever fake. The famous English scientist, Professor Foulbody, invented a machine which would tell you at once, without opening the wrapper of a bar of chocolate, whether or not there was a Golden Ticket hidden underneath it. The machine had a mechanical arm that shot out with tremendous force and grabbed hold of anything that had the slightest bit of gold inside it, and for a moment, it looked like the answer to everything. But unfortunately, while the Professor was showing off the machine to the public at the sweet counter of a large department store, the mechanical arm shot out and made a grab for the gold filling in the back tooth of a duchess who was standing near by. There was an ugly scene, and the machine was smashed by the crowd.

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 o n 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 o f 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.

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (by Roald Dahl)

…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 fro m 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 yo u taking off the wrapper.?

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (by Roald Dahl)

Chapter 7Charlie’s Birthday

…Happy birthday!? cried the four old grandparents, as Charlie came into their room early the next morning.

Charlie smiled nervously and sat down on the edge of the bed. He was holding his present, his only present, very carefully in his two hands. WONKA?S WHIPPLE-SCRUMPTIOUS FUDGEMALLOW DELIGHT, it said on the wrapper.

The four old people, two at either end of the bed, propped themselves up on their pillows and stared with anxious eyes at the bar of chocolate in Charlie?s hands.

Mr and Mrs Bucket came in and stood at the foot of the bed, watching Charlie.

The room became silent. Everybody was waiting now for Charlie to start opening his present. Charlie looked down at the bar of chocolate. He ran his fingers slowly back and forth along the length of it, stroking it lovingly, and the shiny paper wrapper made little sharp crackly noises in the quiet room.

Then Mrs Bucket said gently, …You mustn?t be too disappointed, my darling, if you don?t find what you?re looking for underneath that wrapper. You really can?t expect to be as lucky as all that.?…She?s quite right,? Mr Bucket said.

Charlie didn?t say anything.

…After all,? Grandma Josephine said, …in the whole wide world there are only three tickets left to be found.?

…The thing to remember,? Grandma Georgina said, …is that whatever happens, you?ll still have the bar of chocolate.?

…Wonka?s Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight!? cried Grandpa George. …It?s the best of them all! Y ou?ll just love it!?

…Yes,? Charlie whispered. …I know.?

…Just forget all about those Golden Tickets and enjoy the chocolate,? Grandpa Joe said. …Why don?t you do that??

They all knew it was ridiculous to expect this one poor little bar of chocolate to have a magic ticket inside it, and they were trying as gently and as kindly as they could to prepare Charlie for the disappointment. But there was one other thing that the grown-ups also knew, and it was this: that however small the chance might be of striking lucky, the chance was there.

The chance had to be there.

This particular bar of chocolate had as much chance as any other of having a Golden Ticket.

And that was why all the grandparents and parents in the room were actually just as tense and excited as Charlie was, although they were pretending to be very calm.

…You?d better go ahead and open it up, or you?ll be late for school,? Grandpa Joe said.

…You might as well get it over with,? Grandpa George said.

…Open it, my dear,? Grandma Georgina said. …Please open it. You?re making me jumpy.?

Very slowly, Charlie?s fingers began to tear open one small corner of the wrapping paper.

The old people in the bed all leaned forward, craning their scraggy necks.

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