2“问答”的原文是 conver-sation，这个普通字却有特殊的含义，长久被读者和译界忽略了。根据 Ronald
Reichertz 在《爱丽丝故事创作资料来源》（The Making of the Alice
Books）p．113说明，维多利亚时代深信问答式教学法对儿童的记忆特别有效，这类教科书称为conversation或catechism（问答集），例见本章注
7。
In another moment down went Alice after it, never once
considering how in the world she was to get out again.
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.
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 labelled “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.
“Well!”thought Alice to herself. “After such a fall as this, I
shall think nothing of tumbling down-stairs! 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.
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 learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the
school-room, and though this was not a very good opportunity
for
它钻进篱笆底下一个大兔子洞。
爱丽丝跟着也往下跳，想都没想过这辈子怎么出得来。
兔子洞前段是直的，像隧道一样，过不久忽然往下急弯，爱丽丝还来不及想，人已往下掉，像掉进一口很深很深的井。
要不是井很深，就是爱丽丝掉得很慢3，因为她一面下降，一面还可以从容地往四面看，猜想接下来会发生什么事。她想看底下是什么地方，可是底下太暗，看不出来；再看四周的墙壁，满是橱柜和书架，这里那里还挂着地图和图画。经过一个架子的时候，她随手拿下一个瓶子，标签写着“带皮橙子酱”，可惜是空的，使她非常失望。她不敢扔掉瓶子，怕会砸死底下什么人4，所以趁着飘过一个橱柜的时候，设法把瓶子放进去。
爱丽丝心想：这下可好了！跌得这么深，下次滚下楼梯5就没什么大不了啦！家里人会想我多勇敢啊！不过，哪怕从屋顶上掉下来，我也会一声都不吭！（这倒很可能是真的。）6
掉呀掉呀掉，难道会永远掉个没完？她高声地说：“不知道现在掉了几英里了？我一定快掉到地中心了，让我想想看：应该有四千英里7，（爱丽丝在教室的课本里学到这一类东西8，虽然现在没有人在听，不是卖弄学问的好机会，可是背一遍还是一个很好的练习。）对，应该有这么远，不过不知道到了什
3当时流行“重力火车”（gravity train）话题，Gardner
p.13指出，卡罗尔在《希薇亚及布兰诺结局》（Sylvia and Bruno
Concluded）一书第七章也提过，即挖一条笔直的隧道通过地球，火车开始时借重力往下走，过了地心以相同力量往上冲，根本不需燃料。这想法甚至有人在19
世纪正式向法国科学院提出计划，详见《维基百科》gravity
train条。爱丽丝在隧道里先平走再垂直往下落，大致是模拟重力火车进入隧道的情况；而下降速度缓慢，也可用重力加速度越接近地心越小来解释。根据计算，若地球是正球形，且不考虑空气摩擦力和地球自转偏向力，单程时间要42分钟稍多。
4
Gardnerp．p.13指出，在正常自由落体情况下，爱丽丝无法把瓶子往下丢，因为瓶子会停在她面前。卡罗尔在《希薇亚及布兰诺》（Sylvia
and Bruno） 一书第八章也讨论过相同的课题。
5爱丽丝家的楼梯很高，很堂皇。她的父亲Henry George Liddell 在1843 年和 Robert Scott
合编了一本《希英辞典》（A Greek-English Lexicon），非常权威，修正第 9
版从亚马逊网络书店还可以买到。他用版税所得建了这座楼梯，名叫“辞典楼梯”（the Lexicon
Staircase），这座楼梯也在《镜子》中出现，图见 Gray p.73。
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 thought they were nice grand words to
say.
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 downwards! 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.”
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
saying to her, very earnestly, “Now,Dinah, tell me the truth:
么‘经度’、‘纬度’？”（爱丽丝根本不知道什么是“经度”、“纬度”，只觉得这些字眼说起来很伟大。）
过了没多久，她又说话了：“不知道会不会穿过地球！要是从一群头下脚上走路的人里冒出来，那才好玩呢！我想他们叫‘倒遮人’9，（这回她很高兴没有人在听，因为好像有点不对劲）不过，总得问问他们这里是什么国家。‘请问太太，这里是新西兰、还是澳洲？’”（说着就想屈膝行礼。想想看，一面在空中往下掉，一面行屈膝礼！你做得到吗？）“可是这样问，她会认为我是个没知识的小孩！不行，不能问，还是自己找找看什么地方写着国家的名字好了。”
掉呀掉呀掉，爱丽丝闲着没事，过不久又说起话来：“黛娜今晚一定很想我！（黛娜是她家的猫。）10希望他们到了喝茶时间11，会记得倒一盘牛奶给它喝。黛娜，亲爱的猫咪！真希望你和我一块儿下来！半空中虽然没有老鼠，不过可以抓蝙蝠。蝙蝠很像老鼠，但不知道猫吃蝙蝠吗？”这时候她有点困，开始做梦似的继续喃喃自语：“猫吃蝙蝠吗？猫吃蝙蝠吗？”有时候又变成：“蝙蝠吃猫吗？”反正两个问题她都回答不了，所以谁吃谁也无所谓。她模模糊糊好像睡着了，梦见和黛娜手牵手走着，正很认真地问：“黛娜，老实告诉我，你吃过蝙蝠吗？”忽然间“砰、砰”两声掉在一堆树枝干草上，不再往下掉了。
爱丽丝一点也没受伤，马上站了起来。她抬起头
6 Gardner p.13引述弗洛伊德派学者 William Empson
的话，指出书中出现不少和死亡有关的笑话，这是第一个死亡笑话。按：维多利亚时代医学不发达，虽权贵人家的子女也随时笼罩在死亡的阴影下，像爱丽丝有个哥哥James
3 岁夭折、妹妹艾迪斯只活到 22 岁；王室也不例外，盛传和爱丽丝谈过恋爱的维多利亚女王幼子 Leopold 王子得年只有 31
岁、二女儿爱丽丝公主也只活 35 年。
7参考英国1822年出版的《地理知识问答集》（A Cat-echism of
Geography）:“问：地球有多大？／答：……直径约 8,000 英里。”所以半径 4，000 英里（约合 6，400
公里）是正确的答案，见Reichertz p. 114。根据现代资料，地球赤道直径是12,756 公里、南北极向的直径是12,630
公里，平均12,746 公里，平均半径为 6,373 公里，也是相当接近。
8维多利亚时代只有男孩到学校上课，真实的爱丽丝从未去学校上过课，6 岁起在家中随家庭教师玛莉?碧丽克特（Mary
Prickett．1833—1913）上课，一直到 20 岁完成学业，姐妹三人依惯例一起到欧洲作毕业旅行，见Hinde
p．40。
9卡罗尔另一个创作灵感
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.
Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to her feet in a
moment: she looked up, but it was all dark overhead: before her was
another long passage, and the White Rabbit was still in sight,
hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost: away went
Alice like the wind, and was just in time to hear it say, as it
turned a corner, “Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it’s
getting!”She was close behind it when she turned the corner, but
the Rabbit was 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；and
when Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other,
trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle, wondering how
she was ever to get out again.
Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of
solid glass:there was nothing on it but a tiny golden key, and
Alice’s first idea was that it might belong to one of the doors of
the hall；but, alas! either the locks were too large, or the key was
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 she had not
noticed before, and behind it was a little door about fifteen
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 along
the passage into 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 along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw.
How she longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about。
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