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《爱丽丝漫游仙境》是一部写给小孩子的童话故事，书中的英文词汇相对简单，适合高中英语词汇量的读者。
《爱丽丝漫游仙境》讲述了小姑娘爱丽丝追赶一只揣着怀表、会说话的白兔，掉进了一个兔子洞，由此坠入了神奇的地下世界。在这个世界里，喝一口水就能缩得如同老鼠大小，吃一块蛋糕又会变成巨人，在这个世界里，似乎所有吃的东西都有古怪。她还遇到了一大堆人和动物。兔子洞里还另有乾坤，她在一扇小门后的大花园里遇到了一整副的扑克牌，牌里粗暴的红桃王后、老好人红桃国王和神气活现的红桃杰克（J）等等。在这个奇幻疯狂的世界里，似乎只有爱丽丝是唯一清醒的人，她不断探险，同时又不断追问“我是谁”，在探险的同时不断认识自我，不断成长，终于成长为一个“大”姑娘的时候，猛然惊醒，才发现原来这一切都是自己的一个梦境。
Lewis Carroll 的两部 Alice系列著作引起的回响颇大，可以说深深影响后来的儿童文学史。阅读本着作给儿童们带来一个无限的想象空间，而且在大人看来，本书也是饶富趣味，而且颇有深意，后世更认为本书是藉着一位小女孩的眼睛，来讽刺作者当时那个维多利亚时期的教育、社会、政治环境，如此既有童趣又隐含讥讽的高段童书著作，手法十分高明，让儿童文学也能跃登大雅之堂，也难怪能代代相传，深深影响后世的作家。
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CHAPTER I - Down the Rabbit-Hole
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister onthe bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peepedinto the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures orconversations in it, ‘and what is the use of a book,’ thought Alice‘without pictures or conversation?’
So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, forthe hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether thepleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble ofgetting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbitwith pink eyes ran close by her.
There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that; nor did Alice thinkit so VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself,‘Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!’ (when she thought it overafterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered atthis, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when theRabbit actually TOOK A WATCH OUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT- POCKET, andlooked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, forit flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbitwith either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, andburning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, andfortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-holeunder the hedge.
In another moment down went Alice after it, never once consideringhow in the world she was to get out again.
The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, andthen dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a momentto think about stopping herself before she found herself fallingdown a very deep well.
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she hadplenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonderwhat was going to happen next. First, she tried to look down andmake out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to seeanything; then she looked at the sides of the well, and noticedthat they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves; here andthere she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jarfrom one of the shelves as she passed; it was labelled ‘ORANGEMARMALADE’, but to her great disappointment it was empty: she didnot like to drop the jar for fear of killing somebody, so managedto put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.
‘Well!’ thought Alice to herself, ‘after such a fall as this, Ishall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they’ll allthink me at home! Why, I wouldn’t say anything about it, even if Ifell off the top of the house!’ (Which was very likely true.)
Down, down, down. Would the fall NEVER come to an end! ‘I wonderhow many miles I’ve fallen by this time?’ she said aloud. ‘I mustbe getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: thatwould be four thousand miles down, I think–’ (for, you see, Alicehad learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in theschoolroom, and though this was not a VERY good opportunity forshowing 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 theright distance–but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I’vegot to?’ (Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either,but thought they were nice grand words to say.)
Presently she began again. ‘I wonder if I shall fall right THROUGHthe earth! How funny it’ll seem to come out among the people thatwalk with their heads downward! The Antipathies, I think–’ (she wasrather glad there WAS no one listening, this time, as it didn’tsound at all the right word) ‘–but I shall have to ask them whatthe name of the country is, you know. Please, Ma’am, is this NewZealand or Australia?’ (and she tried to curtsey as she spoke–fancyCURTSEYING as you’re falling through the air! Do you think youcould manage it?) ‘And what an ignorant little girl she’ll think mefor asking! No, it’ll never do to ask: perhaps I shall see itwritten up somewhere.’
Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon begantalking again. ‘Dinah’ll miss me very much to-night, I shouldthink!’ (Dinah was the cat.) ‘I hope they’ll remember her saucer ofmilk 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 abat, 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 onsaying to herself, in a dreamy sort of way, ‘Do cats eat bats? Docats eat bats?’ and sometimes, ‘Do bats eat cats?’ for, you see, asshe couldn’t answer either question, it didn’t much matter whichway she put it. She felt that she was dozing off, and had justbegun to dream that she was walking hand in hand with Dinah, andsaying to her very earnestly, ‘Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: didyou ever eat a bat?’ when suddenly, thump! thump! down she cameupon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.
Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to her feet in amoment: she looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her wasanother long passage, and the White Rabbit was still in sight,hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost: away wentAlice like the wind, and was just in time to hear it say, as itturned a corner, ‘Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it’s getting!’She was close behind it when she turned the corner, but the Rabbitwas no longer to be seen: she found herself in a long, low hall,which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging from the roof.
There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked; andwhen Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other,trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle, wondering howshe was ever to get out again.
Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made ofsolid glass; there was nothing on it except a tiny golden key, andAlice’s first thought was that it might belong to one of the doorsof the hall; but, alas! either the locks were too large, or the keywas too small, but at any rate it would not open any of them.However, on the second time round, she came upon a low curtain shehad not noticed before, and behind it was a little door aboutfifteen inches high: she tried the little golden key in the lock,and to her great delight it fitted!
Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage,not much larger than a rat-hole: she knelt down and looked alongthe passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw. How she longedto get out of that dark hall, and wander about among those beds ofbright flowers and those cool fountains, but she could not even gether head through the
doorway; ‘and even if my head would go through,’ thought poorAlice, ‘it would be of very little use without my shoulders. Oh,how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if Ionly know how to begin.’ For, you see, so many out-of-the-waythings had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that veryfew things indeed were really impossible.
There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door, so shewent back to the table, half hoping she might find another key onit, or at any rate a book of rules for shutting people up liketelescopes: this time she found a little bottle on it, (‘whichcertainly was not here before,’ said Alice,) and round the neck ofthe bottle was a paper label, with the words ‘DRINK ME’ beautifullyprinted on it in large letters.
It was all very well to say ‘Drink me,’ but the wise little Alicewas not going to do THAT in a hurry. ‘No, I’ll look first,’ shesaid, ‘and see whether it’s marked “poison” or not’; for she hadread several nice little histories about children who had gotburnt, and eaten up by wild beasts and other unpleasant things, allbecause they WOULD not remember the simple rules their friends hadtaught them: such as, that a red-hot poker will burn you if youhold it too long; and that if you cut your finger VERY deeply witha knife, it usually bleeds; and she had never forgotten that, ifyou drink much from a bottle marked ‘poison,’ it is almost certainto disagree with you, sooner or later.
However, this bottle was NOT marked ‘poison,’ so Alice ventured totaste it, and finding it very nice, (it had, in fact, a sort ofmixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast turkey,toffee, and hot buttered toast,) she very soon finished it off.
‘What a curious feeling!’ said Alice; ‘I must be shutting up like atelescope.’
And so it was indeed: she was now only ten inches high, and herface brightened up at the thought that she was now the right sizefor going through the little door into that lovely garden. First,however, she waited for a few minutes to see if she was going toshrink any further: she felt a little nervous about this; ‘for itmight end, you know,’ said Alice to herself, ‘in my going outaltogether, like a candle. I wonder what I should be like then?’And she tried to fancy what the flame of a candle is like after thecandle is blown out, for she could not remember ever having seensuch a thing.
After a while, finding that nothing more happened, she decided ongoing into the garden at once; but, alas for poor Alice! when shegot to the door, she found she had forgotten the little golden key,and when she went back to the table for it, she found she could notpossibly reach it: she could see it quite plainly through theglass, and she tried her best to climb up one of the legs of thetable, but it was too slippery; and when she had tired herself outwith trying, the poor little thing sat down and cried.
‘Come, there’s no use in crying like that!’ said Alice to herself,rather sharply; ‘I advise you to leave off this minute!’ Shegenerally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldomfollowed it), and sometimes she scolded herself so severely as tobring tears into her eyes; and once she remembered trying to boxher own ears for having cheated herself in a game of croquet shewas playing against herself, for this curious child was very fondof pretending to be two people. ‘But it’s no use now,’ thought poorAlice, ‘to pretend to be two people! Why, there’s hardly enough ofme left to make ONE respectable person!’
Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under thetable: she opened it, and found in it a very small cake, on whichthe words ‘EAT ME’ were beautifully marked in currants. ‘Well, I’lleat it,’ said Alice, ‘and if it makes me grow larger, I can reachthe key; and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep under thedoor; so either way I’ll get into the garden, and I don’t carewhich happens!’
She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to herself, ‘Which way?Which way?’, holding her hand on the top of her head to feel whichway it was growing, and she was quite surprised to find that sheremained the same size: to be sure, this generally happens when oneeats cake, but Alice had got so much into the way of expectingnothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quitedull and stupid for life to go on in the common way.
So she set to work, and very soon finished off the cake.
