"WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!" WALL · E's charge-meter light flashed at a dangerously low level the next morning.

 

"Mmrrr," WALL · E groaned¹. It was hard to wake up! Still groggy², he made his way outside and crawled up a ramp³ of trash to the top of his truck. Once settled, he opened his solar panels to the hazy⁴ sun. He stretched his tiny arms and felt a surge of power run through his little cables. Finally feeling awake, he heard his solar panel chime, indicating that his electronics were fully⁵ charged for a day's work.

 

WALL · E happily got down from the roof and fastened his collection box to his back. He was ready to head out to work. As he rolled down the truck's ramp, suddenly—CRUNCH!

 

Horrified⁶, WALL · E realized that he had accidentally rolled over the cockroach⁷! WALL · E moved away and stared at his pet's flattened⁸ body.

 

"Ohhhh," WALL · E whined⁹. He looked down at his pet, searching for signs of life.

 

POP! The bug¹⁰ sprang up, happy as ever, and none the worse for wear! Relieved, WALL · E let his pet hop¹¹ onto his shoulder for a ride and started out again.

 

The day began with the usual task a WALL · E unit would expect to perform on a desolate¹², trash-filled planet: compacting trash. But for WALL · E, the garbage contained treasures. Thinking beyond his robotic programming, WALL · E was always looking for new things buried in the trash—things that he could add to his collections. Had there been any other robots or people on the planet, they might have thought it was a bit odd for a bot to be interested in anything other than his predetermined directive.

 

Today a set of car keys caught WALL · E's attention. Not knowing what they were, he went about inspecting them. He pushed the remote lock button, and somewhere deep in the trash heap a car alarm chirped¹³. That was interesting.

 

Next WALL · E came across a diamond ring in a little case. He closed the case with a snap. Open. Snap! Close. Snap! The case was fun! WALL · E tossed the ring back into the trash but carefully packed up the case to take home. He also found a rubber ducky, a bobble-head doll, and an old boot. They were definitely deserving of further attention—and possibly worthy¹⁴ of going into his collections.

 

He came upon a paddle with a ball attached to it by an elastic¹⁵ string. When he shook it, the ball rapidly bounced against the paddle. The bouncing action delighted WALL · E, until—POP!—the ball smacked¹⁶ him right between the eyes!

 

"Eee!" WALL · E beeped. He didn't like this thing at all. He quickly tossed the paddle aside and turned toward something else—a fire extinguisher, though WALL · E didn't know that. He simply saw something that was red and kind of heavy. WALL · E examined it until he found what he was looking for: a lever. Usually, levers activated¹⁷ something. WALL · E pulled it.

 

WHOOSH¹⁸! The blast from the extinguisher propelled WALL · E into a loop-the-loop, spinning him over and over until he finally crash-landed in the trash. WALL · E moaned. He couldn't figure out what use humans had found for this shiny red object. Perhaps it had been some sort of game, but he didn't like it. Time to move on.

 

Digging and digging, WALL · E soon saw an old white refrigerator. He activated a welding beam between his large binocular-like eyes and cut the door down the middle. With a clang, the two pieces of the door fell off the refrigerator. WALL · E looked inside and saw a small green object in a corner. It was sprouting¹⁹ from a pile of dark brown soil. WALL · E gazed at it in wonder. Now, this was something really unusual. He didn't know why, but he liked it. The object had a stem with flat green ovals hanging from it. Gently, he picked it up. Making sure that it was safely cushioned in its soil, he placed it inside the old boot he'd found earlier. He tucked the object inside his box to examine later.

 

WALL · E sensed that the green thing was special. What he didn't know was that it was a plant.

 

“警告！警告！警告！”第二天早上，瓦力的电量灯不停闪烁着，提示其电量过低。

 

“唉——”瓦力呻吟道。醒来太痛苦！虚弱无力的他摇摇摆摆地驶到车外，沿着垃圾铺成的坡道爬到货车顶部。停妥后，他迎着朦胧的太阳打开了他的太阳能电池板。他伸展开他的小胳膊，感到一阵电流在他细细的电线间涌动。他终于觉得自己清醒了，听到他的太阳能电池板发出铃声，提示他的电子设备电量都已充满，足够支撑他一天的工作。

 

瓦力开心地从车顶驶下来，将他的百宝箱固定在他背上。他已准备好出发去工作。当他沿着货车的坡道驶下去的时候，突然传来“嘎吱”一声！

 

惊吓之下，瓦力意识到他无意中从蟑螂身上压了过去！瓦力挪开身子，盯着他宠物那被压扁了的身体。

 

“嗷——”瓦力不禁哀嚎。他低头看着他的宠物，试图寻找生命的迹象。

 

“砰”的一声，蟑螂跳了起来，和原来一样快活，毫发无伤！瓦力松了一大口气，让他的宠物跳上他的肩头，坐在那里，就又出发了。

 

这一天的工作以压缩垃圾开始，这是每一台地球垃圾分装装置在一个荒无人烟、垃圾遍地的星球上的常规任务。但是对于瓦力而言，垃圾中藏着宝藏。瓦力的思维已经超出他作为机器人的程序设定，他总是在垃圾中寻找被埋藏的新事物——那些他可以加入他的藏品中的东西。如果这个星球上有其他机器人或者人类，他们可能会认为机器人对其预设的指令之外的事情感兴趣有点古怪。

 

今天一串汽车钥匙吸引了瓦力的注意力。他不知道它们是什么，就仔细地查看了它们。他按了一下遥控钥匙上的锁车键，垃圾堆深处就传来了汽车防盗报警器发出的“啾啾”声。这真有趣。

 

接着瓦力发现了一枚在小盒子里放着的钻戒。他“啪”的一声合上了盒子，又“啪”的一声打开了。“啪”的一声他又合上了。这个盒子太有趣了！瓦力将钻戒扔回垃圾堆，却小心翼翼地将盒子装好准备带回家。他还找到了一只橡皮鸭、一个会摇头的娃娃和一只旧靴子。它们绝对值得进一步研究——也许还值得放进他的藏品中。

 

他发现了一个球拍，一根橡皮筋把它和一个球连在了一起。他摇了摇球拍，球快速地在球拍上来回弹跳。球的弹跳让瓦力很开心，直到球“砰”的一声正砸在他两眼之间。

 

“哔——”瓦力叫道。他一点都不喜欢这个东西。他迅速地将球拍抛到一边，转向另一样东西——一个灭火器，虽然他不知道它是什么。他只是看见了一样红色的、有点沉的东西。瓦力细细查看它，直到找到了他要找的东西：一根拉杆。拉杆通常都能启动什么东西。瓦力拉动了拉杆。

 

“呼”的一声，灭火器喷出一股泡沫，撞得瓦力在半空中连翻了几个跟头，一阵天旋地转之后终于摔落在垃圾堆中。瓦力呻吟一声。他想象不出人类能拿这个闪亮的红色物品派什么用处。也许这是用来玩某种游戏的，但他不喜欢这个游戏。该继续干活了。

 

挖呀，挖呀，不久之后瓦力看见一台白色的旧冰箱。他那像双筒望远镜的大眼睛间发射出一道焊接激光，将冰箱门从中间截断变成两片。“当啷”一声，这两片门从冰箱上脱落下来。瓦力向冰箱内看去，只见在角落里有一个小小的绿色物品。它正从一堆深褐色的泥土中抽出芽来。瓦力好奇地盯着它。嗯，这东西真不同寻常。他不知道为什么，但就是喜欢它。这个物品的茎上悬着几个绿色的椭圆薄片。他轻轻将它拿起，确保它被完好地包裹在泥土中，然后将它放在了他之前发现的旧靴子里。他将这个物品收在他的百宝箱里准备以后再查看。

 

瓦力意识到这个绿色物品很特别。他所不知道的是它是一株植物。

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