In the vast regions of outer space, beyond the twinkling lights of a million stars, a murky¹, smog-covered Earth floats lonely and silent. The deepest oceans are all but dried and gone. What had once been blue sky is now a dust-choked brown that can still look almost golden when sunlight filters through it.

 

Beneath the thick atmosphere that surrounds the planet, mountains still rise up through the haze², and once-great cities filled with vacant, crumbling³ buildings share the landscape with towers of trash, neatly⁴ cubed and stacked as far as the eye can see. Only one thing moves along this bleak⁵ twenty-ninth-century skyline.

 

Day in and day out, for more than seven hundred years, he has worked to clean up the mess left by humankind. The scouring⁶ sands that sweep along the avenues seldom deter⁷ him as he thrusts his shovel-like hands into the heaps of trash and scoops⁸ it into the compacting unit in his chest. Once full, he closes the squeaky doors of his front panel, shakes a little, and produces yet another perfect cube ready to be stacked.

 

This is his directive.

 

It is what he has been programmed to do.

 

His name is WALL · E: Waste Allocation Load Lifter, Earth class.

 

He is a robot.

 

He is dented⁹, dirty, and rusted¹⁰ ...

 

And he is about to change the entire world.

 

在浩瀚的外太空中，在上百万颗闪闪发亮的星球的另一边，阴暗的地球笼罩在一团烟雾中，在孤单单、静悄悄地漂浮着。地球上最深的海洋都已干涸，不复存在。曾经蔚蓝的天空，而今被灰尘遮蔽，变成褐色，只有在阳光穿透它时，看上去才接近金色。

 

厚厚的大气层包裹着地球。在大气层下面，群山依旧挺拔，却是耸立在雾霾之上。曾经繁华的大城市空无一人，到处都是破损坍塌的大楼。风景中还有一座座高耸的垃圾堆—垃圾被压成一个个方块，整整齐齐地摞成高塔，一望无际。二十九世纪荒凉的地平线上只有一个物体在移动。

 

七百多年来，他日复一日地清理着人类遗留下的垃圾。粗糙的沙土横扫过街道，却没能阻挡他的工作。他将铁铲形的双手插入垃圾堆中，再将垃圾揽到他胸部的压缩部件内。等压缩部件满了，他就关上胸前面板上嘎吱作响的门，微微摇晃，将垃圾压缩成一个完美的方块，只等着被摞起来。

 

这是他的指令。

 

他的程序设定就是做这些。

 

他的名字叫作“瓦力”，是一台地球垃圾分装装置。

 

他是一个机器人。

 

他浑身遍布凹痕、污垢和锈迹……

 

他将要改变整个世界。

点击收听单词发音