“I just knew Augustus would find a Golden Ticket,” his mother had told the newspapermen. “He eats so many bars of chocolate a day that it was almost impossible for him not to find one. Eating is his hobby, you know. That’s all he’s interested in. But still, that’s better than being a hooligan and shooting off zip guns and things like that in his spare time, isn’t it? And what I always say is, he wouldn’t go on eating like he does unless he needed nourishment, would he? It’s all vitamins, anyway. What a thrill it will be for him to visit Mr Wonka’s marvellous factory! We’re just as proud as anything!”
“我就知道奥古斯塔斯会找到一张金奖券，”他的妈妈告诉新闻记者，“他一天吃那么多块巧克力糖，要他不找到一张根本不可能。你们要知道，吃是他的嗜好。这是他唯一的乐趣。不过这样总胜过做小流氓，闲下来开手枪之类，不是吗？我一直说，如果不是需要营养，他是不会像现在这样吃的，对不对？无论如何，吃进去的全是维生素。参观旺卡先生那家奇异工厂对他来说将是多么刺激啊！我们感到无比自豪！”
The very next day, the first Golden Ticket was found. The finder was a boy called Augustus Gloop, and Mr Bucket’s evening newspaper carried a large picture of him on the front page. The picture showed a nine-year-old boy who was so enormously fat he looked as though he had been blown up with a powerful pump. Great flabby folds of fat bulged out from every part of his body, and his face was like a monstrous ball of dough with two small greedy curranty eyes peering out upon the world. The town in which Augustus Gloop lived, the newspaper said, had gone wild with excitement over their hero. Flags were flying from all the windows, children had been given a holiday from school, and a parade was being organized in honour of the famous youth.
就在第二天，第一张金奖券被找到了。得主是个男孩，叫奥古斯塔斯·格卢普，巴克特先生带回来的晚报上，头版就印着他的大幅照片。照片上是个九岁男孩，胖得像用强力打气筒打足了气一样。他浑身都是鼓出来的松软肥肉，脸像一个大面团，上面有两只小葡萄干似的贪婪眼睛窥视着外面的世界。报上说，奥古斯塔斯·格卢普所居住的市镇由于出了这位英雄而大喜若狂。所有的窗户飘扬着旗帜，小学生放假一天，还要举行大游行来祝贺这个出了名的小朋友。
“What a revolting woman,” said Grandma Josephine.
“真是一个叫人恶心的女人。”约瑟芬奶奶说。
“And what a repulsive boy,” said Grandma Georgina.
“真是一个叫人讨厌的孩子。”乔治娜姥姥说。
“Only four Golden Tickets left,” said Grandpa George. “I wonder who’ll get those.”
“现在只剩下四张金奖券了，”乔治姥爷说，“不知道谁会找到它们。”
And now the whole country, indeed, the whole world, seemed suddenly to be caught up in a mad chocolate-buying spree, everybody searching frantically for those precious remaining tickets. Fully grown women were seen going into sweet shops and buying ten Wonka bars at a time, then tearing off the wrappers on the spot and peering eagerly underneath for a glint of golden paper. Children were taking hammers and smashing their piggy banks and running out to the shops with handfuls of money. In one city, a famous gangster robbed a bank of a thousand pounds and spent the whole lot on Wonka bars that same afternoon. And when the police entered his house to arrest him, they found him sitting on the floor amidst mountains of chocolate, ripping off the wrappers with the blade of a long dagger. In far-off Russia, a woman called Charlotte Russe claimed to have found the second ticket, but it turned out to be a clever fake. The famous English scientist, Professor Foulbody, invented a machine which would tell you at once, without opening the wrapper of a bar of chocolate, whether or not there was a Golden Ticket hidden underneath it. The machine had a mechanical arm that shot out with tremendous force and grabbed hold of anything that had the slightest bit of gold inside it, and for a moment, it looked like the answer to everything. But unfortunately, while the Professor was showing off the machine to the public at the sweet counter of a large department store, the mechanical arm shot out and made a grab for the gold filling in the back tooth of a duchess who was standing near by. There was an ugly scene, and the machine was smashed by the crowd.
现在全国，说实在的，全世界好像一下子掀起了购买巧克力糖的热潮，人人在发狂似的寻找余下的四张珍贵奖券。可以看到女士走进糖果店，一次买下十块旺卡工厂出品的巧克力糖，当场撕掉包糖纸，焦急地看里面有没有闪闪发光的金纸。孩子们拿起锤子打破他们的储蓄罐，拿着一把把零钱跑到商店去。在某个城市里，一个出名的大盗走进一家银行抢劫了一千英镑，当天下午全用来买了旺卡工厂出品的巧克力糖。当警察走进他家逮捕他的时候，发现他正坐在地板上，周围巧克力糖堆积如山，他正用一把长匕首的刀刃在剥包糖纸。远在俄国，一个叫夏洛特·俄罗斯的女人声称已经找到第二张奖券，但是那只是一张伪造得很巧妙的假奖券。英国著名科学家福尔博迪教授发明了一种仪器，它不用撕开巧克力糖的包糖纸就能马上告诉你里面是不是藏着金奖券。这仪器有一条机械臂，能猛力弹出来，抓住任何只含一点点金子的东西。这仪器一时好像能解决一切问题了。不过很可惜，当教授在一家大百货商店的糖果柜台前当众炫耀他的仪器时，它的机械臂一下子弹了出来，去抓旁边站着的一位公爵夫人嘴里镶的金牙。结果大出洋相，仪器被观众当场捣毁了。
Suddenly, on the day before Charlie Bucket’s birthday, the newspapers announced that the second Golden Ticket had been found. The lucky person was a small girl called Veruca Salt who lived with her rich parents in a great city far away. Once again Mr Bucket’s evening newspaper carried a big picture of the finder. She was sitting between her beaming father and mother in the living room of their house, waving the Golden Ticket above her head, and grinning from ear to ear.
忽然，就在查理·巴克特过生日的前一天，报上宣布说第二张金奖券找到了。这次幸运儿是个小女孩，名字叫维鲁卡·索尔特，她和富有的爸爸妈妈住在很远的一座大城市里。巴克特先生带回家的晚报上又刊登了得主的一幅大照片。她在他们家的客厅里，坐在满面红光的爸爸妈妈中间，把金奖券高举在头顶上挥来挥去，咧着嘴大笑。
Veruca’s father, Mr Salt, had eagerly explained to the newspapermen exactly how the ticket was found. “You see, boys,” he had said, “as soon as my little girl told me that she simply had to have one of those Golden Tickets, I went out into the town and started buying up all the Wonka bars I could lay my hands on. Thousands of them, I must have bought. Hundreds of thousands! Then I had them loaded on to trucks and sent directly to my own factory. I’m in the peanut business, you see, and I’ve got about a hundred women working for me over at my place, shelling peanuts for roasting and salting. That’s what they do all day long, those women, they sit there shelling peanuts. So I says to them, ‘Okay, girls,’ I says, ‘from now on, you can stop shelling peanuts and start shelling the wrappers off these chocolate bars instead!’ And they did. I had every worker in the place yanking the paper off those bars of chocolate full speed ahead from morning till night.”
维鲁卡的爸爸索尔特先生起劲地告诉记者这张奖券到底是怎么找到的。“你们知道吗？朋友们，”他说，“我的小女儿一对我说一定要得到一张金奖券，我就进城把我能买到的所有旺卡工厂出品的巧克力糖全部买了下来。我准是买了成千上万块，几十万块！接着我用几辆货车装上，直接运到我自己的工厂。你们知道，我是做盐烤花生米生意的，我的工厂有上百个女工，整天在剥花生做盐烤花生米。她们整天就做这件事，坐在那里剥花生。于是我对她们说：‘好了，姑娘们，我说，从现在起你们暂时停止剥花生，动手剥掉这些巧克力糖的包糖纸吧！’她们照办了。我让每个女工坐在她的位子上，从早到晚用最快的速度撕掉一块块巧克力糖的包糖纸。”
“She needs a really good spanking,” said Grandma Georgina.
“她真得好好挨一顿揍。”乔治娜姥姥说。
“That’s even worse than the fat boy,” said Grandma Josephine.
“她比那个胖男孩还要坏。”约瑟芬奶奶说。
“But three days went by, and we had no luck. Oh, it was terrible! My little Veruca got more and more upset each day, and every time I went home she would scream at me, ‘Where’s my Golden Ticket! I want my Golden Ticket!’ And she would lie for hours on the floor, kicking and yelling in the most disturbing way. Well, I just hated to see my little girl feeling unhappy like that, so I vowed I would keep up the search until I’d got her what she wanted. Then suddenly… on the evening of the fourth day, one of my women workers yelled, ‘I’ve got it! A Golden Ticket!’ And I said, ‘Give it to me, quick!’ and she did, and I rushed it home and gave it to my darling Veruca, and now she’s all smiles, and we have a happy home once again.”
“但是三天过去了，我们还没有如愿以偿。噢，太可怕了！我的小维鲁卡一天比一天难过，每次我回家她就对着我尖声大叫：‘我的金奖券在哪里？我要我的金奖券！’她会在地板上躺上几个小时，用最吓人的样子又踢又叫，吵个没完。唉，我就怕看到我的小女儿这么难过，于是我发誓要继续找，直到给她找到她所要的东西为止。接着，忽然之间…就在第四天的晚上，我的一个女工大叫起来：‘我找到了！一张金奖券！’我说：‘快给我！’她把奖券交给我，我拿了就赶回家，把它交给我的小宝贝维鲁卡。现在她又满脸笑容了，我们重新有了一个快乐的家庭。”
“I don’t think the girl’s father played it quite fair, Grandpa, do you?” Charlie murmured.
“我认为那女孩的爸爸做得不够公正。爷爷，你说呢？”查理喃喃地说。
“He spoils her,” Grandpa Joe said. “And no good can ever come from spoiling a child like that, Charlie, you mark my words.”
“他宠坏了她，”约瑟夫爷爷说，“这样宠坏一个孩子不会有好结果的，查理，你记住我的话好了。”
“A Wonka chocolate bar!” cried Charlie. “It is a Wonka bar, isn’t it?”
“一块旺卡的巧克力糖！”查理叫道，“是一块旺卡的巧克力糖，对吗？”
“Come to bed, my darling,” said Charlie’s mother. “Tomorrow’s your birthday, don’t forget that, so I expect you’ll be up early to open your present.”
“睡觉去吧，我的小宝贝，”查理的妈妈说，“明天是你的生日，别忘了，我希望你早点起来打开你的礼物。”
“Yes, my love,” his mother said. “Of course it is.”
“是的，我的小心肝，”他的妈妈说，“当然是的。”
“Oh, wouldn’t it be wonderful if I found the third Golden Ticket inside it?” Charlie said.
“噢，如果我在糖里找到第三张金奖券，那不是好极了吗？”查理说。
“Bring it in here when you get it,” Grandpa Joe said. “Then we can all watch you taking off the wrapper.”
“你拿到巧克力糖就把它拿到这里来，”约瑟夫爷爷说，“那么我们可以一起看着你把包糖纸剥下来。”
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