The Witches 問題!! (送15分)

Author Roald Dahl
Original title The Witches
Illustrator Quentin Blake
Language English
Genre(s) Children's books
Publisher
Publication date 1983
Media type Print ()
ISBN 0141301104

Witches are a well-connected organization with, as a goal, the elimination of as many children as possible, ideally all of them. No motive is given, other than malice. Tired of the witches' habit of concocting elaborate schemes resulting in the removal of one child at a time, the Grand High Witch (alias Eva Ernst) comes up with a new plan: to buy up sweet shops across England and give away chocolate treated with a magic potion called Formula 86 which will turn the children into mice exactly two hours from ingestion. However, more than five doses can cause instant transformation.
Unfortunately for her, an old Norwegian witch expert named Helga and her grandson Luke are staying at the hotel where the congregation of witches at which she makes the announcement takes place, which is cleverly disguised as a "Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children" convention. By chance, Luke also happens to be hiding in the convention hall – where he is training his two white mice – at the time, and having received a thorough education about witches from his grandmother, he quickly realizes the truth. The doors are locked before Luke can escape the room. The witches unveil their true selves: removing wigs to reveal bald scalps; their gloves to reveal long, sharp claws; and shoes to reveal feet having square ends and hideous stumps where the toes should be. The Grand High Witch has a hideous face under her mask--revolting wrinkles, a long pointed nose, and fingers the size of pencils. She is also a hunchback.
The Grand High Witch turns a greedy and obese boy, Bruno Jenkins (lured there by the promise of six chocolate bars), into an anthropomorphic mouse as a demonstration of the method. The witches sniff out Luke, who manages to escape. He manages to get to his hotel room, but is captured by the Grand High Witch herself. She then pours an entire bottle of Formula 86 – all 500 doses of it – down Luke's throat, resulting in another mouse with a human mind. Bruno and Luke meet in a vent.
Luke and Bruno manage to reach Helga's room safely, (although part of Bruno's tail is cut off) and Luke manages to steal a bottle of the potion and use it against the witches by adding it to the soup reserved for the witches themselves. One of the hotel cooks is actually a witch, a proven by her purple eyes. She tastes the soup after the soup has been mixed with the formula, and turns into a mouse herself. She tries to warn the other witches of this, but is crushed and killed by them when they see her. A short time later they all start turning into mice.
Initially, panic ensues when mice suddenly appear in the dining room, but soon both hotel staff and guests are attacking and killing the rodents – unknowingly ridding England of its witches. The Grand High Witch herself is finally destroyed when Mr. Stringer, the hotel manager, chops her in two with a meat cleaver. One good witch, Miss Irvine, the Grand High Witch's former put-upon assistant, comes to Luke and Helga's house that night and uses her magic to restore him to human form, as well as returning his previously lost white mice. Seeing Miss Irvine outside, Luke shouts a reminder to her to also turn Bruno back into a human, to which Miss Irvine gives a reassuring smile before driving away. Her good deed also appears to change her fingers from clawed to human. With England's children now safe from the threat of witches, Luke and Helga begin making plans to return to the United States to destroy the witches there.

巫婆是一個有好親戚的組織與，當做一個目標，和孩子一樣多的除去當做可能的，理想地他們全部。 沒有動機有，除了惡意之外。 混合而製造成一次一個孩子的移動，壯觀的高巫婆的精細的方案的 witches' 習慣疲倦

sorry!I can't 翻亦 all ! --

2008-12-03 18:48:04 補充：
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