《愛麗絲夢游仙境》第一章：掉進兔子洞

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, "and what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations?"

愛麗絲靠著姐姐坐在河岸邊很久了，由于沒有什么事情可做，她開始感到厭倦，她一次又-次地瞧瞧姐姐正在讀的那本書，可是書里沒有圖畫，也沒有對話，愛麗絲想：“要是一本書里沒有圖畫和對話，那還有什么意思呢？”

So she was considering, in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.

天熱得她非常困，甚至迷糊了，但是愛麗絲還是認真地盤算著，做一只雛菊花環(huán)的樂趣，能不能抵得上摘雛菊的麻煩呢？就在這時，突然一只粉紅眼睛的白兔，貼著她身邊跑過去了。

There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!" (when she thought it over afterward, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but, when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and, burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.

愛麗絲并沒有感到奇怪，甚至于聽到兔子自言自語地說："哦，天哪！哦，天哪！我太遲了。"愛麗絲也沒有感到離奇，雖然過后，她認為這事應(yīng)該奇怪，可當(dāng)時她的確感到很自然，但是兔于竟然從背心口袋里襲里掏出一塊懷表看看，然后又匆匆忙忙跑了。這時，愛麗絲跳了起來，她突然想到：從來沒有見過穿著有口袋背心的兔子，更沒有見到過兔子還能從口袋里拿出一塊表來，她好奇地穿過田野，緊緊地追趕那只兔子，剛好看見兔子跳進了矮樹下面的一個大洞。

In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.

愛麗絲也緊跟著跳了進去，根本沒考慮怎么再出來。

The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep well.

這個兔子洞開始像走廊，筆直地向前，后來就突然向下了，愛麗絲還沒有來得及站住，就掉進了-個深井里。

Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything: then she looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves: here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed: it was labeled "ORANGE MARMALADE," but to her great disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar, for fear of killing somebody underneath, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.

也許是井太深了，也許是她自己感到下沉得太慢，因此，她有足夠的時間去東張西望，而且去猜測下一步會發(fā)生什么事，首先，她往下看，想知道會掉到什么地方。但是下面太黑了，什么都看不見，于是，她就看四周的井壁，只見井壁上排滿了碗櫥和書架，以及掛在釘子上的地圖和圖畫，她從一個架子上拿了一個罐頭，罐頭上寫著"桔子醬"，卻是空的，她很失望，她不敢把空罐頭扔下去，怕砸著下面的人，因此，在繼續(xù)往下掉的時候，她就把空罐頭放到另一個碗櫥里去了。

"Well!" thought Alice to herself. "After such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling downstairs! How brave they'll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!" (Which was very likely true.)

“好啊，”愛麗絲想，“經(jīng)過了這次鍛煉，我從樓梯上滾下來就不算回事。家里的人都會說我多么勇敢啊，嘿，就是從屋頂上掉下來也沒什么了不起！”（這點倒很可能是真的——屋頂上摔下來，會摔得說不出話的。）

Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end? "I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?" she said aloud. "I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think-" (for, you see, Alice had learned several things of this sort in her lessons in the school-room, and though this was not a very good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over) "-yes, that's about the right distance-but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I've got to?" (Alice had not the slightest idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but she thought they were nice grand words to say).

掉啊，掉啊，掉啊，難道永遠掉不到底了嗎？愛麗絲大聲說：“我很知道掉了多少英里了，我一定已經(jīng)靠近地球中心的一個地方啦！讓我想想：這就是說已經(jīng)掉了大約四千英里了，我想……”（你瞧，愛麗絲在學(xué)校里已經(jīng)學(xué)到了一點這類東西，雖然現(xiàn)在不是顯示知識的時機，因為沒一個人在聽她說話，但是這仍然是個很好的練習(xí)。）“……是的，大概就是這個距離。那么，我現(xiàn)在究竟到了什么經(jīng)度和緯度了呢？”（愛麗絲不明白經(jīng)度和緯度是什么意思，可她認為這是挺時髦的字眼，說起來怪好聽的。）

Presently she began again. "I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downward! The antipathies, I think-" (she was rather glad there was no one listening, this time, as it didn't sound at all the right word) "-but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know. Please, Ma'am, is this New Zealand? Or Australia?" (and she tried to curtsey as she spoke-fancy, curtseying as you're falling through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) "And what an ignorant little girl she'll think me for asking! No, it'll never do to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere."

不一會兒，她又說話了：“我想知道我會不會穿過地球，到那些頭朝下走路的人們那里，這該多么滑稽呀！我想這叫做‘對稱人’（注：19世紀中學(xué)地理教科書上流行個名洞，叫“對跖人”，意思是說地球直徑兩端的人，腳心對著腳心。愛麗絲對“地球?qū)γ娴娜恕钡母拍钅：?，以為他們是“頭朝下”走路的，而且把“對跖人”錯念成“對稱人”了。）吧？” 這次她很高興沒人聽她說話，因為“對稱人”這個名詞似乎不十分正確。"我想我應(yīng)該問他們這個國家叫什么名稱：太太，請問您知道這是新西蘭，還是澳大利亞？"（她說這話時，還試著行個屈膝禮，可是不成。你想想看，在空中掉下來時行這樣的屈膝禮，行嗎，）"如果我這樣問，人們一定會認為我是一個無知的小姑娘哩。不，永遠不能這樣問，也許我會看到它寫在哪兒的吧！"

Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began talking again. "Dinah'll miss me very much to-night, I should think!" (Dinah was the cat.) "I hope they'll remember her saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah, my dear! I wish you were down here with me! There are no mice in the air, I'm afraid, but you might catch a bat, and that's very like a mouse, you know. But do cats eat bats, I wonder?" And here Alice began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of way, "Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?" and sometimes, "Do bats eat cats?" for, you see, as she couldn't answer either question, it didn't much matter which way she put it. She felt that she was dozing off, and had just begun to dream that she was walking hand in hand with Dinah, and was saying to her, very earnestly, "Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: did you ever eat a bat?" when suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.

掉啊，掉啊，掉啊，除此之外，沒別的事可干了。因此，過一會兒愛麗絲又說話了：“我敢肯定，黛娜今晚一定非常想念我。”（黛娜是只貓）“我希望他們別忘了午茶時給她準備一碟牛奶。黛娜，我親愛的，我多么希望你也掉到這里來，同我在一起呀，我怕空中沒有你吃的小老鼠，不過你可能捉到一只蝙蝠，你要知道，它很像老鼠。可是貓吃不吃蝙蝠呢？” 這時，愛麗絲開始瞌睡了，她困得迷迷糊糊時還在說：“貓吃蝙蝠嗎？貓吃蝙蝠嗎？”有時又說成：“蝙蝠吃貓嗎？” 這兩個問題她哪個也回答不出來，所以，她怎么問都沒關(guān)系，這時候，她已經(jīng)睡著了，開始做起夢來了。她夢見正同黛娜手拉著手走著，并且很認真地問：“黛娜，告訴我，你吃過蝙蝠嗎？”就在這時，突然“砰”地一聲，她掉到了一堆枯枝敗葉上了，總算掉到了底了！

春暖花開 我們一起從頭學(xué)英語吧！