16 Sixteen

Sixteen And now the peach had broken out of the garden and was over the edge of the hill, rolling and bouncing down the steep slope at a terrific pace. Faster and faster and faster it went, and the crowds of people who were climbing up the hill suddenly caught sight of this terrible monster plunging down upon them and they screamed and scattered to right and left as it went hurtling by. At the bottom of the hill it charged across the road, knocking over a telegraph pole and flattening two parked cars as it went by. Then it rushed madly across about twenty fields, breaking down all the fences and hedges in its path. It went right through the middle of a herd of fine Jersey cows, and then through a flock of sheep, and then through a paddock full of horses, and then through a yard full of pigs, and soon the

现在，桃子已经冲出花园，越过山崖，以惊人的速度滚下陡峭的山坡。 它跑得越来越快，越来越快，爬上山的人群突然看到这个可怕的怪物向他们扑来，当它疾驰而过时，他们尖叫着四处逃散。 在山脚下，它冲过马路，撞倒了一根电线杆，撞倒了两辆停着的汽车。 然后，它疯狂地冲过了大约二十块田地，撞坏了路上所有的篱笆和树篱。 它穿过一群漂亮的泽西牛，然后穿过一群羊，然后穿过一个满是马的围场，然后穿过一个满是猪的院子，很快

whole countryside was a seething mass of panicstricken animals stampeding in all directions. The peach was still going at a tremendous speed with no sign of slowing down, and about a mile farther on it came to a village. Down the main street of the village it rolled, with people leaping frantically out of its path right and left, and at the end of the street it went crashing right through the wall of an enormous building and out the other side, leaving two gaping round holes in the brickwork. This building happened to be a famous factory where they made chocolate, and almost at once a great river of warm melted chocolate came pouring out of the holes in the factory wall. A minute later, this brown sticky mess was flowing through every street in the village, oozing under the doors of houses and into people's shops and gardens. Children were wading in it up to their knees, and some were even trying to swim in it and all of them were sucking it into their mouths in great greedy gulps and shrieking with joy.

整个乡村都是一群惊慌失措的动物，到处乱窜。 桃子还在以惊人的速度前进，丝毫没有放慢的迹象，大约又向前走了一英里，来到了一个村庄。 它在村里的主要街道上滚来滚去，人们疯狂地从它的路径上跳来跳去，在街道的尽头，它撞穿了一座巨大建筑物的墙壁，从另一边滚了出去，在砖墙上留下了两个圆洞。 这座建筑碰巧是一家著名的巧克力工厂，他们在那里生产巧克力，顷刻之间，从工厂墙上的洞里涌出了融化的巧克力。 一分钟后，这棕色的黏糊糊的东西流遍了村里的每条街道，渗进了房屋的门缝里，渗进了人们的商店和花园。 孩子们在水里涉水，水没到膝盖，有些孩子甚至想在水里游泳，所有的孩子都贪婪地大口大口地把水吸进嘴里，高兴得尖叫起来。

But the peach rushed on across the countryside – on and on and on, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Cowsheds, stables, pigsties, barns, bungalows, hayricks, anything that got in its way went toppling over like a ninepin. An old man sitting quietly beside a stream had his fishing rod whisked out of his hands as it went dashing by, and a woman called Daisy Entwistle was standing so close to it as it passed that she had the skin taken off the tip of her long nose. Would it ever stop? Why should it? A round object will always keep on rolling as long as it is on a downhill slope, and in this case the land sloped downhill all the way until it reached the ocean – the same ocean that James had begged his aunts to be allowed to visit the day before. Well, perhaps he was going to visit it now. The peach was rushing closer and closer to it every second, and closer also to the towering white cliffs that came first. These cliffs are the most famous in the whole of England, and they are hundreds of feet high.

但桃树却在乡间疾驰而过——不停地、不停地、不停地，在它的身后留下了毁灭的痕迹。 牛棚、马厩、猪圈、谷仓、平房、干草堆，任何挡道的东西都像九柱球一样倒下了。 一位老人安静地坐在小溪边，他的钓鱼竿在小溪奔流而过的时候被人从手中拿走了，一个叫黛西·恩特威斯尔的女人站得离小溪很近，河水经过的时候，她的长鼻尖上的皮都被人剥掉了。 它会停止吗?为什么呢? 一个圆形物体只要在下坡上，就会一直滚动下去，在这种情况下，陆地一直往下坡，直到它到达海洋——詹姆斯前一天恳求他的姨妈们允许他去参观的海洋。 好吧，也许他现在就要去参观了。 桃子每一秒都在向它靠近，也越来越靠近最先出现的高耸的白色悬崖。 这些悬崖是全英国最有名的，它们有几百英尺高。

Below them, the sea is deep and cold and hungry. Many ships have been swallowed up and lost for ever on this part of the coast, and all the men who were in them as well. The peach was now only a hundred yards away from the cliff – now fifty – now twenty – now ten – now five – and when it reached the edge of the cliff it seemed to leap up into the sky and hang there suspended for a few seconds, still turning over and over in the air. Then it began to fall… Down…

在他们下面，海水又深又冷又饥饿。 在这片海岸上，许多船只和船上的人都被吞没了，永远消失了。 桃子现在离悬崖只有一百码远了——一会儿五十码，一会儿二十码，一会儿十码，一会儿五码——当它到达悬崖边缘时，它似乎跃上了天空，在那里悬浮了几秒钟，仍然在空中翻来复去。 然后它开始掉下来……掉下来……

Down… Down… Down… Down… SMACK! It hit the water with a colossal splash and sank like a stone. But a few seconds later, up it came again, and this time, up it stayed, floating serenely upon the surface of the water.

下……下……下……下……啪!它扑通一声落入水中，像一块石头一样沉了下去。 但几秒钟后，它又浮了上来，这一次，它停留在水面上，平静地漂浮着。