The Caterpillar

    The Caterpillar¹
The Caterpillar looked at Alice and said nothing.
    "Perhaps it doesn't speak', Alice thought.
    But at last it did speak. "Who are you?" it asked.
    " It was a hard question." Alice answered, but not very quickly: "I--I don't know. "I knew who I was this morning, but I have changed -- more than once -- I think.""How?" the Caterpillar asked.
    It was another hard question. Alice said, " It's just that--changing from one thing to another is very hard.""No, it isn't."Alice thought about that. "Perhaps it isn't hard for you," she said. She knew that caterpillars² change more than once before they become butterflies. "But it is hard for me.""For you? Who are you?"The Caterpillar had asked that question before, and Alice was near to becoming angry. She said, "Perhaps you can tell me who you are before I tell you who I am?""Why?"It was another hard question. Alice could not answer it, so she began to walk away.
    "Come back!" the Caterpillar called. "I want to say something."Alice went back to the mushroom³.
    "You must never be angry." the Caterpillar said.
    "Is that all?" Alice asked. She was angry.
    "No!"Alice waited. "Perhaps it will say something if I wait," she thought.
    The Caterpillar got down from the mushroom and began to move away. As it went, it said: "One side will make you grow bigger, and the other side will make you grow smaller."Alice did not say anything, but she thought, "One side of what? The other side of what?
    Perhaps the Caterpillar heard her thinking⁴, because it said, "Of the mushroom." Then it went into the grass, and Alice never saw it again.
    Alice looked at the mushroom. It was round, like all mushrooms⁵. "How can it have two sides-one side and the other side?" she wondered.
    At last she put her arms round the top, as far as they would go. She took a bit of the mushroom with each hand.
    "And now which bit will make me bigger?" she asked herself. She took a very small bite⁶ from one. "Oh!" she cried, as her head hit her foot. She just got a small bite from the other side into her mouth before it was too late. That made her bigger.
    Then she tried very small bites⁷ from one side on the other, and at last she was not too big and not too small.
    " Now I must find that beautiful garden," she said.
    Alice began to walk through the trees. She came to a garden, but it was not the garden that she saw before. There was a house in it -- a very small house.
    "I'm much too big," Alice thought. "If I go there like this, the people in the house will be afraid. I'll eat some mushroom from the art that makes me small."

1 caterpillar   

n.毛虫，蝴蝶的幼虫

参考例句：

• A butterfly is produced by metamorphosis from a caterpillar.蝴蝶是由毛虫脱胎变成的。
• A caterpillar must pass through the cocoon stage to become a butterfly.毛毛虫必须经过茧的阶段才能变成蝴蝶。

2 caterpillars   

n.毛虫( caterpillar的名词复数 )；履带

参考例句：

• Caterpillars eat the young leaves of this plant. 毛毛虫吃这种植物的嫩叶。
• Caterpillars change into butterflies or moths. 毛虫能变成蝴蝶或蛾子。 来自辞典例句

3 mushroom   

n.草，蘑菇；暴发户；vi.迅速生长，迅速增加，采蘑菇；adj.蘑菇形的，迅速生长的

参考例句：

• Mushroom can grow very quickly.蘑菇可以生长地很快。
• The mushroom is a speciality here.蘑菇是这里的特色菜。

4 thinking   

n.思考，思想；adj.思考的，有理性的；vbl.想，思考

参考例句：

• All thinking men will protest against it.凡是有思想的人都会抗议这件事。
• Thinking is mainly performed with words and other symbols.思想主要是用言语和其他符号来表达的。

5 mushrooms   

n.蘑菇( mushroom的名词复数 )；如蘑菇般生长迅速的事物

参考例句：

• a mixed grill of bacon, sausages, tomatoes and mushrooms 由咸熏肉、香肠、番茄和蘑菇做成的烤杂排
• Some mushrooms contain a deadly poison. 有些蘑菇含有致命毒素。

6 bite   

n.咬，咬伤，一口，刺痛；（= byte）字节，位组，二进位组，信息组；v.咬，刺痛

参考例句：

• The dog may bite at you.狗会咬你的。
• Let me have a bite.让我咬一口。

7 bites   

v.咬，叮( bite的第三人称单数 )；刺痛；有咬（或叮）的习性；（人）上当

参考例句：

• This cream contains a mild analgesic to soothe stings and bites. 这种乳膏含有一种性能平和的止痛剂，能缓解被螫咬后的疼痛。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• When a fish bites the hook, the float bobs. 当鱼上钩时，鱼漂上下跳动。 来自《简明英汉词典》