双语读电影 《赛车总动员》第03章 :但是他的机遇却来自小小的除锈灵

“Hey, kid!” Mack called as Lightning headed toward him. “Congrats on the tie!”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” the rookie replied grumpily. “C’mon, let’s go, Mack. Saddle up. What’d you do with my trailer?”

“I parked it over at your sponsor’s tent,” Mack said. “You gotta make your personal appearance.”

Lightning groaned. His sponsor was Rust-eze Medicated Bumper Ointment, and the tent was always filled with rusty old cars. Lightning would have preferred something flashier, like Dinoco, but it was Rust-eze that had given him his big break. And a contract was a contract. He had to make a personal appearance, and that was that. He forced a smile and drove into the tent.

“Nothing soothes a rusty bumper like Rust-eze,” Lightning’s recorded image said over a plasma TV screen in the back of the tent. “Wow, look at that shine! Use Rust-eze and you, too, can look like me. Ka-chow!”

The race car heaved a sigh as he watched his bosses—two brothers who were the owners of Rust-eze—tell their usual bad jokes. The rusty cars who filled the tent laughed their bumpers off at everything the two brothers said.

“I remember this car from Swampscott,” one brother said to the crowd, “he was so rusty, he didn’t even cast a shadow!”

The assembled cars hooted and honked as soon as they saw their hero.

“Ecck … I hate rusty cars,” Lightning muttered under his breath. “This is not good for my image.” He slunk behind a cardboard cutout of himself, trying to hide.

“Hey, look, there he is!” one of the brothers cried, catching sight of Lightning.

“Our almost champ!” the other shouted. “Get your rear end in here, kid!”

A spotlight flashed onto Lightning. He made his way through the rusty cars, greeted the crowd, and forced himself to laugh at his bosses’ jokes. Finally, it was time for him to go.

“Aw, we love you,” his boss said as Lightning backed into his trailer, “and we’re lookin’ forward to another great year—just like this year!”

Lightning smiled. Then the gate crashed down. “Not on your life,” he grumbled.