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I begin with a conversation between a giant and a little girl:
“You mean you can hear things I can't hear?” Sophie said.
“You is deaf as a dumpling compared with me,” cried the BFG [Big Friendly Giant]. “You is hearing only thumping loud noises with those little earwigs of yours. But I am hearing all the secret whisperings of the world.”
“Such as what?” Sophie asked.
“When a ladybug is walking across a leaf, I is hearing her feet going clumpety-clumpety clump like giant's footsteps.”
“Good gracious me,” Sophie said. “What else can you hear?”
“Sometimes, on a very clear night,” the BFG said, “I is sometimes hearing faraway music coming from stars in the sky. Or if I is twisting the stem of a flower till it breaks, then the plant is screaming. I can hear it screaming and screaming very clear.”
“You don't mean it,” Sophie cried. “How awful.”
“It is screaming just like you would be screaming if someone was twisting your arm right off.”
“Is that really true?” Sophie asked.