英文阅读

“我们还学栗柿，”素甲鱼丽着手指头说，“栗柿有古代栗柿和现代栗柿，还学地梨，还学灰花。我们的灰花老师是一条老鳗鱼，一星期来一次，教我们水菜花和素苗花。”

Alice did not feel encouraged to ask any more questions about it, so she turned to the Mock Turtle, and said `What else had you to learn?'

`Well, there was Mystery,' the Mock Turtle replied, counting off the subjects on his flappers, `--Mystery, ancient and modern, with Seaography: then Drawling--the Drawling-master was an old conger-eel, that used to come once a week: HE taught us Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils.'

`What was THAT like?' said Alice.

`Well, I can't show it you myself,' the Mock Turtle said: `I'm too stiff. And the Gryphon never learnt it.'

`Hadn't time,' said the Gryphon: `I went to the Classics master, though. He was an old crab, HE was.'

`I never went to him,' the Mock Turtle said with a sigh: `he taught Laughing and Grief, they used to say.'

`So he did, so he did,' said the Gryphon, sighing in his turn; and both creatures hid their faces in their paws.

`And how many hours a day did you do lessons?' said Alice, in a hurry to change the subject.

`Ten hours the first day,' said the Mock Turtle: `nine the next, and so on.'

`What a curious plan!' exclaimed Alice.

`That's the reason they're called lessons,' the Gryphon remarked: `because they lessen from day to day.'

参考译文

爱丽丝不敢再谈论这个题目了，她转向素甲鱼问道：“你们还学些什么呢？”

“我们还学栗柿，”素甲鱼丽着手指头说，“栗柿有古代栗柿和现代栗柿，还学地梨，还学灰花。我们的灰花老师是一条老鳗鱼，一星期来一次，教我们水菜花和素苗花。”

“它们是什么样子的呢？”爱丽丝问道。

“我没法做给你看，我太迟钝了。而鹰头狮又没学过。”素甲鱼说。

“我没时间啊！”鹰头狮说，“不过我听过外语老师的课，它是一只老镑蟹，真的。”

“我从来没听过它的课，”素甲鱼叹息着说，“他们说它教的是拉钉子和洗腊子。”

“正是这样，正是这样，”鹰头狮也叹息了，于是他们两个都用爪子掩住了脸。

“你们每天上多少课呢？”爱丽丝想换个话题，急忙地问。

素甲鱼回答道：“第一天十小时，第二天九小时，这样下去。”

“真奇怪啊。”爱丽丝叫道。

“人们都说上‘多少课’，”素甲鱼解释说，“‘多少课’就是先多后少的意思。”