第12章 THE WONDERFUL PUDDING 令人惊叹的布丁
Our Uncle Robert one day came to us, and asked us to dinner. He said he would give us a pudding, the materials of which had given work to more than a thousand men!
“A pudding that has taken a thousand men to make! Then it must be as large as a church!”
“Well, my boys,” said Uncle Robert, “to-morrow at dinner-time you shall see it.”
Scarcely had we taken our breakfast next day, when we prepared to go to our uncle's house.
When we got there, we were surprised to see everything as calm and quiet as usual.
At last we sat down to table. The first dishes were removed—our eyes were eagerly fixed on the door—in came the pudding! It was a plum-pudding of the usual kind—not a bit larger!
“This is not the pudding that you promised us,” said my brother.
“It is, indeed,” said Uncle Robert.
“O uncle! you do not mean to say that more than a thousand men have helped to make that little pudding?”
“Eat some of it first, my boy; and then take your slate and pencil, and help me to count the workmen,” said Uncle Robert.
“Now,” said Uncle Robert, “to make this pudding we must first have flour;and how many people must have laboured to procure it! The ground must have been ploughed, and sowed, and harrowed, and reaped. To make the plough, miners, smelters, and smiths, —wood-cutters, sawyers, and carpenters, —must have laboured.
“The leather of the harness for the horses had to be tanned, and prepared for the harness-maker. Then, we have the builders of the mill, and the men who quarried the mill-stones, and made the machine-work of the mill.
“Then think of the plums, the lemon-peel, the spices, the sugar; —all these come from distant countries; and to get them hither, ships, ship-builders, sail-makers, sailors, growers, merchants, and grocers have been employed.
“Then we need eggs, milk, and suet.”
“Oh, stop, stop, uncle!” cried I. “I am sure you have counted a thousand!”
“I have not reckoned all, my child. We must cook the pudding, and then we must reckon colliers who bring us coal, miners who dig for tin and iron for the sauce-pan. Then there is the linen of the cloth it was wrapped in. To make this we must reckon those who grow the flax, and gather it, and card it, and spin it, and weave it, and all the workmen who make the looms and machines.”
Robert and I both said we were quite satisfied that there were more than a thousand men employed.
Questions
To how many men had the pudding given work? What kind of pudding was it? What was its size? How could that pudding employ so many men? Were the boys satisfied?
Pronunciation
la'-boured pud'-ding un'-cle min'-ers ma-chine'-work
har'-rowed to-mor'-row qui'-et car'-pen-ters sat'-is-fied
quar'-ried break'-fast col'-liers build'-ers lin'-en
Write
promised laboured quarried
materials ploughed wrapped
to-morrow harrowed employed
有一天，我们的罗伯特叔叔到我家来，邀请我们共进晚餐。他说他会带我们吃布丁，而这布丁是由一千多人制作而成的！
“布丁竟然要一千多人制作！那么它一定大得像教堂一样吧！”
“哦，孩子们，”罗伯特叔叔说，“明天吃晚饭的时候，你们就会看到的。”
第二天，因为想着去叔叔家大吃一顿，我们几乎没怎么吃早餐。
到叔叔家的时候，我们非常惊奇地发现，所有的东西都和往常没什么区别。
终于坐在了餐桌旁。第一道菜撤掉之后，我们的眼睛都急切地盯着门口——布丁来了！这个布丁就是一个普通的葡萄干布丁——并没有多大啊！
“这不是你答应给我们吃的布丁。”我弟弟说道。
“这是我答应给你们吃的布丁，真的。”罗伯特叔叔说。
“哎，叔叔！你不会真的说这个小布丁是一千多个人做的吧？”
“先吃点，孩子们，然后拿出你们的写字板和笔，帮我数一下参与制作布丁的人数。”罗伯特叔叔说。
“现在，”罗伯特叔叔说，“要制作布丁，我们首先要有面粉，那么有多少人参与到制作面粉的劳动中呢？人们要犁地、播种、耙地、收割。单是犁地，就包含了矿工、冶炼工、铁匠、伐木工、锯木工，还有木匠的劳动。”
“制作马具的皮革需要先经过鞣革的程序，再交给皮匠处理。然后，我们需要有建造磨坊的人，这些人要挖出建造磨坊的石料，让磨坊的机器运转。”
“然后再想一下葡萄干、柠檬皮、调味料、糖——所有这些东西都来自遥远的外国，而且要把这些东西运来，那么造船的人、为运输提供保险服务的人、水手、种植者、商人、杂货店主，等等，都要参与进来。”
“然后，我们还需要鸡蛋、牛奶和牛脂。”
“哦，不要说了，不要说了，叔叔！”我喊道，“我确信你已经数了一千个了！”
“我还没有想全呢，我的孩子。我们还要把布丁做出来，这时我们就会想到把煤炭挖出来的矿工，把制作炖锅的锡和铁挖出来的矿工。还有，布丁做好后，要用亚麻布包裹起来。要获得这种亚麻布，我们就要种植和收割亚麻，再把它纺成线，织成布，就需要操作纺织机的工人。”
罗伯特和我都感到非常惊奇，真的有一千多人参与到这个布丁的制作中来。