Алиса в стране чудес / Alice in Wonderland

Then she looked at the sides of the well and saw many book-shelves; here and there she saw different maps. She took a jar from one of the shelves as she passed. On it was a label “ORANGE MARMALADE”, but there was no marmalade in it, so she put it back on one of the shelves.

“I’m sure I am going to the centre of the earth,” Alice said aloud. “It is four thousand miles down, I think. But maybe I am falling right through the earth[5 - right through the earth – насквозь через всю Землю]! How funny! The people there walk with their heads downward! I shall ask them what the name of the country is, you know.

Please, Ma’am, is this New Zealand or Australia?”

Down, down, down. Nothing to do. Alice soon began to talk again. “Dinah[6 - Dinah – Дина] will miss me very much tonight, I think!” (Dinah was the cat.) “I hope they’ll give her milk. Dinah my dear! Where are you? Why not with me down here? There are no mice in the air, I’m afraid, but you can catch a bat.

But do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats? Dinah, tell me the truth: do you eat bats?”

Suddenly, thump! thump![7 - thump! thump! – хрясь! хрясь!] she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves. Alice jumped up on to her feet very fast: she looked up, but it was dark there. Before her was another long passage, and the White Rabbit went down it. Alice went like the wind. The Rabbit was saying, “Oh my ears and whiskers, how late, how late!” And he disappeared.

Alice stood in a long, low hall, a row of lamps was hanging from the roof. There were many doors on all sides, but they were all locked. She walked back and forth and tried to think how to get out. Suddenly she saw a little glass table; there was a tiny golden key on it. Alice thought that this was the key to one of the doors of the hall, but when she tried the key in each lock, she found that the locks were too large or the key was too small.

Then Alice noticed a little door about fifteen inches high[8 - about fifteen inches high – примерно пятнадцать дюймов в высоту].

She tried the key in the lock, and to her great joy it fitted. Alice opened the door and found a small passage, not larger than a rat-hole[9 - a rat-hole – крысиная нора]. But how to get there? She was too big for that passage. She knelt down and looked through it into a garden of flowers.