19 Nineteen

Nineteen 'Look!' cried the Centipede just as they were finishing their meal. 'Look at that funny thin black thing gliding through the water over there!' They all swung round to look. 'There are two of them,' said Miss Spider. 'There are lots of them!' said the Ladybird. 'What are they?' asked the Earthworm, getting worried. 'They must be some kind of fish,' said the Old-Green-Grasshopper. 'Perhaps they have come along to say hello.' 'They are sharks!' cried the Earthworm. 'I'll bet you anything you like that they are sharks and they have come along to eat us up!' 'What absolute rot!' the Centipede said, but his voice seemed suddenly to have become a little shaky, and he wasn't laughing.

19”看!他们刚吃完饭，蜈蚣叫道。 “看那边那个又细又黑的有趣的东西在水里滑行!”他们都转过身去看。 “有两只，”蜘蛛小姐说。 “有很多!”瓢虫说。 “是什么?”蚯蚓担心地问。 “它们一定是某种鱼，”老绿蚱蜢说。 “也许他们是来打声招呼的。“它们是鲨鱼!”蚯蚓叫道。 “我跟你打赌，它们一定是鲨鱼，它们是来吃掉我们的!”“胡说八道!”蜈蚣说，但他的声音似乎突然有些颤抖，他不再笑了。

'I am positive they are sharks!' said the Earthworm. T just know they are sharks!' And so, in actual fact, did everybody else, but they were too frightened to admit it. There was a short silence. They all peered down anxiously at the sharks who were cruising slowly round and round the peach. 'Just assuming that they are sharks,' the Centipede said, 'there still can't possibly be any danger if we stay up here.' But even as he spoke, one of those thin black fins suddenly changed direction and came cutting swiftly through the water right up to the side of the peach itself. The shark paused and stared up at the company with small evil eyes. 'Go away!' they shouted. 'Go away, you filthy beast!' Slowly, almost lazily, the shark opened his mouth (which was big enough to have swallowed a perambulator) and made a lunge at the peach.

“我肯定它们是鲨鱼!”蚯蚓说。 我只知道它们是鲨鱼!”事实上，其他人也都这么想，但他们太害怕了，不敢承认。 一阵短暂的沉默。 他们都焦急地注视着那些在桃子周围慢慢游来游去的鲨鱼。 “就算它们是鲨鱼，”蜈蚣说，“我们待在上面也不会有什么危险。”但就在他说话的时候，其中一条黑色的细鳍突然改变了方向，迅速地穿过水面，一直划到桃子的侧面。 鲨鱼停了下来，用邪恶的小眼睛盯着这群人。 “走开!”他们喊道。“走开，你这肮脏的畜生!”鲨鱼慢慢地，几乎是懒洋洋地张开它的嘴(它的嘴大得足以吞下一辆婴儿车)，向桃子扑去。

They all watched, aghast. And now, as though at a signal from the leader, all the other sharks came swimming in towards the peach, and they clustered around it and began to attack it furiously. There must have been twenty or thirty of them at least, all pushing and fighting and lashing their tails and churning the water into a froth. Panic and pandemonium broke out immediately on top of the peach. 'Oh, we are finished now!' cried Miss Spider, wringing her feet. 'They will eat up the whole peach and then there'll be nothing left for us to stand on and they'll start on us!' 'She is right!' shouted the Ladybird. 'We are lost for ever!' 'Oh, I don't want to be eaten!' wailed the Earthworm. 'But they will take me first of all because I am so fat and juicy and I have no bones!' 'Is there nothing we can do?' asked the Ladybird, appealing to James. 'Surely you can think of a way out of this.'

他们都目瞪口呆地看着。就在这时，仿佛听到了领头的信号，所有其他的鲨鱼都向桃子游来，围在它周围，开始猛烈地攻击它。 至少有二三十只，它们互相推搡着，互相厮打着，甩着尾巴，把水搅成泡沫。 桃子顶上立刻爆发了恐慌和混乱。 “哦，我们现在完了!”蜘蛛小姐叫道，绞着她的脚。 “他们会把整个桃子吃掉，然后我们就没有立足之地了，他们就会攻击我们!”“她说得对!”瓢虫喊道。 “我们永远迷路了!”“哦，我不想被吃掉!”蚯蚓哀号道。 “但他们会首先带走我，因为我又肥又多汁，而且我没有骨头!”“难道我们就无能为力吗?”小鸟儿向詹姆斯恳求道。 “你肯定能想出解决办法的。”

Suddenly they were all looking at James. 'Think!' begged Miss Spider. 'Think, James, think!' 'Come on,' said the Centipede. 'Come on, James. There must be something we can do.' Their eyes waited upon him, tense, anxious, pathetically hopeful.

突然，他们都看着詹姆斯。 “想!蜘蛛小姐恳求道。 “想一想，詹姆斯，想一想!”“来吧。”蜈蚣说。 “来吧，詹姆斯。我们一定能做点什么。”他们的眼睛盯着他，紧张、焦虑，却又可怜地抱着希望。