Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. A2

After that, everyone ran away and Alice was soon alone.

“It was a bad idea to talk about Dinah!” She said to herself sadly. “It seems nobody likes her here, and I'm sure she's the best cat in the world! Oh, my dear Dinah! Will I ever see you again?” And here poor Alice began to cry again because she felt very sad. However, a little later she again heard some sounds far away. She thought that it was the Mouse and that it returned to finish the story.

Dictionary

race – гонка, состязание на скорость

scream – кричать

tale – история

tail – хвост

undo – зд. развязать

Chapter 4

The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill

But it wasn't the Mouse – it was the White Rabbit. The Rabbit was looking for t fan and gloves. It was saying to itself. “The Duchess! The Duchess! Oh my! Oh my! I should say goodbye to my head, I'm sure! Where ARE they?” Alice began looking for the fan and gloves too, but she couldn't find them anywhere.

The Rabbit soon noticed Alice and asked her angrily, “Mary Ann, what ARE you doing here? Run home now, and bring me a pair of gloves and a fan! Quick!” And Alice was so scared that she ran to the house immediately.

“He thinks that I am his servant,” she said to herself. “Oh, how surprised he will be when he knows who I am! But I should bring him his fan and gloves. If I can find them, of course.” At that moment, she came to a nice little house with the name W. RABBIT written on the door. She went in and ran upstairs.

Alice entered a little room and saw a fan and two or three pairs of little gloves lying on the table. Alice took the fan and one pair and wanted to run back but then she saw a little bottle near the mirror. This time there was no piece of paper on it but she still drank it. “I know SOMETHING interesting will happen,” she said to herself, “I hope I'll grow large again because I'm tired of being such a little thing!”

Alice became big so quickly that in the next moment the room was too small for her and she couldn't get out of the door. She had to put one arm out of the window. Alice felt very unhappy. “It was much better at home,” thought poor Alice, “when nobody grew larger and smaller. When I read fairytales, I thought that such things never happened, and now they are happening to me!”

“Mary Ann! Mary Ann!” she heard the Rabbit's voice. “Bring me my gloves this moment!”

When the White Rabbit came up to the door, it couldn't open it because Alice's arm did not let it open, and Alice couldn't move her arm. Then the Rabbit said to itself, “Then I'll get in through the window.”

But when the Rabbit was just under the window, it saw her other arm and made a scared sound. Then the Rabbit cried angrily, “Bill! Bill! Where are you? Come and help me! Take that thing away from the window!”

Bill arrived to help the Rabbit. They were talking very quietly. Alice couldn't understand them and sitting there in the room was very boring. She moved her hand to scare them a little. This time there were TWO little scared sounds.

“We must burn the house down!” said the Rabbit's voice.

“If you do, Dinah will catch you!” said Alice loudly.

After that, everything was quiet for a minute or two. Then Bill and the White Rabbit started throwing little stones through the window, and some of them hit Alice in the face. Alice was very angry but suddenly she noticed that the stones were all transforming into little cakes. “If I eat one of these cakes,” she thought, “I will become smaller.”

So she ate one of the cakes, and began to grow small. As soon as she was small enough to get through the door, she ran out of the house. She ran as fast as she could, and soon she was in a wood.

“First,” said Alice to herself, “I must grow again and become the right size; and then I want to go into that lovely garden.”

It sounded like an excellent plan, but she did not know how to start. “I suppose I must eat or drink something; but what?” That was a great question. Alice looked all round her at the flowers and the grass, but she did not see anything that looked like the right thing.

Suddenly Alice heard a loud bark. She looked up and she saw a very big puppy. It stood right next to her. It wanted to touch Alice with its paw. “Poor little thing!” said Alice. She tried to talk to it as if it was a normal puppy, but she was scared that the puppy might be hungry. Will it eat her?