03 The Snatch

The Snatch Under the blanket, Sophie waited. After a minute or so, she lifted a corner of the blanket and peeped out. For the second time that night her blood froze to ice and she wanted to scream, but no sound came out. There at the window, with the curtains pushed aside, was the enormous long pale wrinkly face of the Giant Person, staring in. The flashing black eyes were fixed on Sophie's bed. The next moment, a huge hand with pale fingers came snaking in through the window. This was followed by an arm, an arm as thick as a treetrunk, and the arm, the hand, the fingers were reaching out across the room towards Sophie's bed.

在毯子下面，索菲等待着。 过了一分钟左右，她掀起毯子的一角向外张望。 那天晚上，她的血液第二次结冰了，她想尖叫，但什么声音也发不出来。 就在窗前，拉开窗帘的是巨人那张苍白的、满脸皱纹的长脸，正盯着窗外看。 那双炯炯有神的黑眼睛盯着索菲的床。 不一会儿，一只手指苍白的大手从窗口伸了进来。 接着是一只胳膊，像树干一样粗的胳膊，那只胳膊，那只手，那几根手指，正穿过房间伸向索菲的床。

This time Sophie really did scream, but only for a second because very quickly the huge hand clamped down over her blanket and the scream was smothered by the bedclothes. Sophie, crouching underneath the blanket, felt strong fingers grasping hold of her, and then she was lifted up from her bed, blanket and all, and whisked out of the window. If you can think of anything more terrifying than that happening to you in the middle of the night, then let's hear about it. The awful thing was that Sophie knew exactly what was going on although she couldn't see it happening. She knew that a Monster (or Giant) with an enormous long pale wrinkly face and dangerous eyes had plucked her from her bed in

这一次索菲真的尖叫了起来，但只尖叫了一秒钟，因为那只大手很快就抓住了她的毯子，尖叫被被褥盖住了。 索菲蜷缩在毯子下面，感觉有几根粗大的手指在抓她。接着，她连毯子都从床上被拎起来，被飞快地带出了窗外。 如果你能想到什么比半夜发生在你身上更可怕的事，那就告诉我们吧。 可怕的是，索菲清楚地知道发生了什么，尽管她看不见。 她知道是一个怪物(或巨人)把她从床上拽了起来，他长着一张巨大的、苍白的、布满皱纹的长脸和一双危险的眼睛

the middle of the witching hour and was now carrying her out through the window smothered in a blanket. What actually happened next was this. When the Giant had got Sophie outside, he arranged the blanket so that he could grasp all the four corners of it at once in one of his huge hands, with Sophie imprisoned inside. In the other hand he seized the suitcase and the long trumpet thing and off he ran. Sophie, by squirming around inside the blanket, managed to push the top of her head out through a little gap just below the Giant's hand. She stared around her. She saw the village houses rushing by on both sides. The Giant was sprinting down the High Street. He was running so fast his black cloak was streaming out behind him like the wings of a bird. Each stride he took was as long as a tennis court. Out of the village he ran, and soon they were racing across the moonlit fields. The hedges dividing the fields were no problem to the Giant. He simply strode over them. A wide river appeared in his path. He crossed it in one flying stride.

这是一个可怕的时刻，他正把她裹在毯子里从窗口抱出去。 接下来发生的事情是这样的。 巨人把索菲领到外面后，把毯子整理好，这样他就可以用一只大手同时抓住毯子的四个角，而索菲则被囚禁在毯子里。 他另一只手抓起手提箱和那只长长的小号，就跑开了。 索菲在毯子里扭动着身子，把头从巨人手下面的一个小缝里探了出来。 她环顾四周。她看见村里的房子从两边匆匆而过。 巨人在大街上狂奔。 他跑得飞快，他的黑斗篷像鸟的翅膀一样在身后飘动。 他的每一步都有一个网球场那么长。 他跑出了村子，很快他们就在月光下的田野上奔跑了。 把田地隔开的树篱对巨人来说不是问题。 他只是大步跨过他们。 一条宽阔的河流挡住了他的去路。 他一步走过去。

Sophie crouched in the blanket, peering out. She was being bumped against the Giant's leg like a sack of potatoes. Over the fields and hedges and rivers they went, and after a while a frightening thought came into Sophie's head. The Giant is running fast, she told herself, because he is hungry and he wants to get home as quickly as possible, and then he'll have me for breakfast.

索菲蜷缩在毯子里，向外张望。 她像一袋土豆一样撞在巨人的腿上。 他们越过田野、树篱和河流，过了一会儿，一个可怕的念头出现在索菲的脑海里。 巨人跑得很快，她告诉自己，因为他饿了，他想尽快回家，然后他会把我当早餐吃。