Mr Wonka led the party over to a gigantic machine that stood in the very centre of the Inventing Room. It was a mountain of gleaming metal that towered high above the children and their parents. Out of the very top of it there sprouted hundreds and hundreds of thin glass tubes, and the glass tubes all curled downwards and came together in a bunch and hung suspended over an enormous round tub as big as a bath.
旺卡先生带领大家到发明室中央的一部巨型机器那里。这是一部像座山一样的金属机器，它亮光闪闪，高耸在孩子们和家长们的头顶上。从它的顶端伸出成百上千根细玻璃管，玻璃管全都弯向下面，合成一束，悬挂在一个像浴缸一样大的水槽上。
“Here we go!” cried Mr Wonka, and he pressed three different buttons on the side of the machine. A second later, a mighty rumbling sound came from inside it, and the whole machine began to shake most frighteningly, and steam began hissing out of it all over, and then suddenly the watchers noticed that runny stuff was pouring down the insides of all the hundreds of little glass tubes and squirting out into the great tub below. And in every single tube the runny stuff was of a different colour, so that all the colours of the rainbow (and many others as well) came sloshing and splashing into the tub. It was a lovely sight. And when the tub was nearly full, Mr Wonka pressed another button, and immediately the runny stuff disappeared, and a whizzing whirring noise took its place; and then a giant whizzer started whizzing round inside the enormous tub, mixing up all the different coloured liquids like an ice-cream soda. Gradually, the mixture began to froth. It became frothier and frothier, and it turned from blue to white to green to brown to yellow, then back to blue again.
“让我们来开动机器吧！”旺卡先生叫着，按了按机器旁边的三个按钮。一秒钟后，机器里面发出巨大的隆隆声，整部机器开始极其可怕地震动，蒸气也开始从整部机器里嘶嘶地喷出来。忽然，参观者看到成百上千根细玻璃管里都有流动的液体急速地流下来，喷射到下面那个大槽里。每根玻璃管里的流动液体颜色不同，因此彩虹般的色彩（还有别的很多色彩）同时落到大槽里，真是美丽的奇观。当大槽快满时，旺卡先生按了另一个按钮，流动液体马上停止喷射，代以一阵呜呜旋转的声音。这时候大槽里一部巨大的离心干燥机开始呜呜地旋转，把各种颜色的液体搅拌得像冰淇淋苏打那样。混合物开始逐渐起泡。泡沫愈来愈多，愈来愈多，从蓝色变成白色、绿色、棕色、黄色，然后又变回蓝色。
“Watch!” said Mr Wonka.
“看着！”旺卡先生说。
Click went the machine, and the whizzer stopped whizzing. And now there came a sort of sucking noise, and very quickly all the blue frothy mixture in the huge basin was sucked back into the stomach of the machine. There was a moment of silence. Then a few queer rumblings were heard. Then silence again. Then suddenly, the machine let out a monstrous mighty groan, and at the same moment a tiny drawer (no bigger than the drawer in a slot machine) popped out of the side of the machine, and in the drawer there lay something so small and thin and grey that everyone thought it must be a mistake. The thing looked like a little strip of grey cardboard.
机器咔哒一声，离心干燥机停止了呜呜旋转。这时传来一种吮吸声，大槽里所有蓝色起泡沫的混合物很快地重新被吸到机器的内部。静寂了一阵。接着听到几下奇怪的隆隆声。接着又静下来。接着忽然一下子，机器发出巨大有力的呻吟声，与此同时，一个小抽屉（不比自动售货机的小抽屉大）从机器旁边弹出来。抽屉里有一样东西，又小又细，灰色的，因此大家以为一定是出错了。这东西看上去像一张灰色的小厚纸条。
The children and their parents stared at the little grey strip lying in the drawer.
孩子们和他们的家长看着抽屉里那张灰色小纸条。
“Right you are!” cried Mr Wonka, slapping Violet hard on the back. “It’s a stick of gum! It’s a stick of the most amazing and fabulous and sensational gum in the world!”
“你说得对！”旺卡先生用力拍拍维奥莉特的背叫道，“这是一片口香糖！这是一片世界上最惊人、最难以置信、最令人兴奋的口香糖！”
“That’s all,” answered Mr Wonka, gazing proudly at the result. “Don’t you know what it is?”
“这就完了。”旺卡先生回答说，看着这成果觉得很自豪，“你不知道这是什么吗？”
“You mean that’s all?” said Mike Teavee, disgusted.
“你是说这就完了吗？”迈克·蒂维感到扫兴地问道。
There was a pause. Then suddenly, Violet Beau-regarde, the silly gum-chewing girl, let out a yell of excitement. “By gum, it’s gum!” she shrieked. “It’s a stick of chewing-gum!”
大家沉默了一阵。接着嚼口香糖的傻姑娘维奥莉特·博雷加德忽然发出一声兴奋的大叫。“以口香糖的名义说，这是口香糖！”她尖叫道，“这是一片口香糖！”
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