4 THE ONCE-UPON-A-TIME MACHINE

CHAPTER 4 THE ONCE-UPON-A-TIME MACHINE After Bill leaves, Terry opens the package and installs the switch. 'Okay,' he says. 'The Once-upon-a-time machine is ready to write our book for us. All we have to do now is decide what sort of book we want it to write.' 'A funny one,' I say. 'Good idea,' says Terry, 'but exactly how funny would you like it?'

第4章从前的机器比尔离开后，特里打开包裹，装上了开关。 “好吧，”他说。“《童话镇》机器已经准备好为我们写书了。 我们现在要做的就是决定我们想让它写什么样的书。“很有趣，”我说。 “好主意，”特里说，“但你到底想要多有趣呢？”

'So funny,' I say, 'that if you were reading it and drinking a glass of milk at the same time, you would laugh so hard that you would snort milk out of your nose.' 'No problem,' says Terry, 'I'll just set the FUNNY dial to MILK-SNORTINGLY FUNNY and the machine will take care of the rest!'

“太有趣了，”我说，“如果你一边读，一边喝牛奶，你会笑得很厉害，甚至会把牛奶从鼻子里喷出来。“没问题，”特里说，“我只要把‘搞笑’键调到‘牛奶——哼哼式搞笑’，机器就会处理好剩下的事情！”

'Cool!' I say. 'This is going to be the easiest book we've ever written!' 'You mean the easiest book we've never written!' says Terry. 'What else would you like in it?' 'Lots of action!' I say. 'One action-packed book coming up!' says Terry, turning the ACTION dial as far to the right as possible.

“酷!”我说。“这将是我们写过的最简单的书！”“你是说我们从未写过的最简单的书！”特里说。 “你还想要点什么？”“有很多动作！”我说。 “一本充满动感的书即将出版！”特里说着，把动作旋钮尽可能地向右转。

'What about characters?' says Terry. 'I guess we want all the regulars,' I say, 'like you, me and Jill, and also a few new ones, just to keep things interesting.' 'You got it,' says Terry.

“人物呢？”特里说。 “我想我们需要所有的常客，”我说，“像你、我和吉尔，再加上几个新人，让事情有趣一点。“你说对了，”特里说。