32 Thirty-two

Thirty-two And when full daylight came at last, they all got to their feet and stretched their poor cramped bodies, and then the Centipede, who always seemed to see things first, shouted, 'Look! There's land below!' 'He's right!' they cried, running to the edge of the peach and peering over. 'Hooray! Hooray!' 'It looks like streets and houses!' 'But how enormous it all is!' A vast city, glistening in the early morning sunshine, lay spread out three thousand feet below them. At that height, the cars were like little beetles crawling along the streets, and people walking on the pavements looked no larger than tiny grains of soot. 'But what tremendous tall buildings!' exclaimed the Ladybird. 'I've never seen anything like them before in England. Which town do you think it is?'

等到天一亮，他们全都站了起来，伸展了一下他们可怜的、局促的身体。这时，似乎总是最先看到东西的蜈蚣喊道:“看!下面有陆地!“他说得对!”他们叫道，跑到桃子的边缘，朝上面看了看。 “万岁!”万岁!“看起来像街道和房子!”“可是这一切是多么巨大啊!”在他们脚下三千英尺的地方，一座在清晨的阳光下闪闪发光的大城市展开了。 在那个高度，汽车就像在街道上爬行的小甲虫，走在人行道上的人看起来也不过是微小的煤烟颗粒。 “可是多么高大的建筑物啊!”瓢虫叫道。 “我在英国从来没见过这样的东西。 你认为是哪个城镇?”

'This couldn't possibly be England,' said the Old-Green-Grasshopper. 'Then where is it?' asked Miss Spider. 'You know what those buildings are?' shouted James, jumping up and down with excitement. 'Those are skyscrapers! So this must be America! And that, my friends, means that we have crossed the Atlantic Ocean overnight!' 'You don't mean it!' they cried. 'It's not possible!' 'It's incredible! It's unbelievable!' 'Oh, I've always dreamed of going to America!' cried the Centipede. 'I had a friend once who –' 'Be quiet!' said the Earthworm. 'Who cares about your friend? The thing we've got to think about now is how on earth are we going to get down to earth?' 'Ask James,' said the Ladybird. 'I don't think that should be so very difficult,' James told them. 'All we'll have to do is to cut loose a few seagulls. Not too many, mind you, but just enough so that the others can't quite keep us

“这不可能是英国，”老绿蚱蜢说。 “那它在哪儿?”蜘蛛小姐问。 “你知道那些建筑是什么吗?”詹姆斯喊道，兴奋得跳上跳下。 “那些是摩天大楼!”所以这里一定是美国!朋友们，这意味着我们一夜之间就跨越了大西洋!“你不是这个意思吧!”他们叫道。 “这不可能!”“难以置信!”这是难以置信的!“哦，我一直梦想着去美国!”蜈蚣叫道。 “我以前有个朋友——”“安静!蚯蚓说。 “谁在乎你的朋友?” 我们现在要考虑的是我们到底要怎么脚踏实地呢?“问詹姆斯吧，”瓢虫说。 “我不认为这有多难，”詹姆斯告诉他们。 “我们所要做的就是放走几只海鸥。 注意，不要太多，但要足够让其他人不能留住我们

up in the air. Then down we shall go, slowly and gently, until we reach the ground. Centipede will bite through the strings for us one at a time.'

在空中。然后我们要慢慢地、轻轻地下去，直到我们到达地面。 蜈蚣会一次咬断一根绳子。”