Pig and Pepper

    Pig and Pepper¹
When Alice was not too big to go through the door, she went up to it. The house was very noisy in- side.
    There's no bell," she told herself, "and nobody would hear a bell. There's too much noise."She opened the door and went in.
    She wanted to cover her ears because of the noise, but she could not do that in front of the Duchess.
    The Duchess was sitting on a very small chair. She had a baby in her arms. The cook was at the fire, making soup in a very big pot.
    "There's too much pepper in that soup," Alice said to herself. It was hard to say anything because the pepper made her sneeze so much. Even the Duchess was sneezing, and the baby sneezed and cried without stopping.
    The cook was not sneezing, but she was making a great noise with the cooking things-crash! bang²! smash³!
    There was a very big cat, too, and it was not sneezing. It was sitting near the fire, and it had a grin⁴ from ear to ear on its face.
    "Can girls speak first to duchesses, or must they wait for the duchesses to speak to them?" Alice wondered.
    The Duchess did not speak, so Alice asked: "Please tell me why your cat grins⁵ like that."" It's a Cheshire cat," said the Duchess, " and that's why. Pig !" She shouted the last word, and Alice jumped. But the Duchess was shouting at the baby, and not at Alice. So Alice spoke⁶ again.
    "I didn't know that Cheshire cats always grin. I have never seen any cat grinning.""They all can," said the Duchess, "and most of them do.""I didn't know that." Alice said.
    "You don't know much!"Alice thought, "I must think of something new to speak about." But just then the cook took the soup pot off the fire and began to throw things at the Duchess. One thing came through the air after another: pots, jars⁷, irons⁸, knives. Some of the things hit the Duchess and the baby. The Duchess did nothing, and the baby was making so much noise that it could not make any more.
    "Oh, please don't throw any more things at the baby." Alice cried. "You'll hit its pretty nose.""It isn't your baby," the Duchess said, and she began to sing to it. After every line she gave it a great shake. The words were:
    Speak roughly⁹ to your little boy,And beat him when he sneezes:
    He only does it to annoy,Because he knows it teases¹⁰.
    Perhaps those were not the words. It was hard for Alice to hear them because the baby was making so much noise.
    "Here!" the Duchess said. "You can have the baby for a time if you like." As she was speaking, she threw the baby to Alice, adding, "I must get ready to play croquet with the Queen¹¹," and going quickly out of the room. The cook threw a pot after her, but it did not hit her.
    Alice caught the baby, but it was hard to make it stay still in her arms. She took it out of the house, and after a time it stopped sneezing. It did not stop crying, but it began to make noises like a baby pig. Its eyes were becoming very small, and its nose was changing and becoming more like a pig's nose.
    "It is a pig!" Alice told herself. She put it down on the ground, and it ran happily away, making pig noises.
    Alice looked round her. She jumped a little when she saw the Cheshire Cat sitting in one of the trees near her.
    The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice.
    "It looks kind," she thought, "but perhaps it will get angry quickly like all the people and animals here." So she tried to speak in a pleasing way.
    "Cheshire Cat, dear," she said.
    Its grin grew bigger. not smaller, so she knew that it was pleased.
    "Will you tell me, please," she said, "which way I must o from here?"" Yes," said the Cat, " but mustn't you tell me where you want to go?""Well, any place--" Alice began.
    "Then you can go any way," the Cat said.
    "--if it is a place," Alice said.
    " If you walk that way, you'll get to a Hatter's house. Hatters make hats, you know. And if you walk that way, you'll find a March Hare¹². The Hatter's mad, and the March Hare's mad."" But I don't want to meet mad people," Alice said.
    Oh, there's no way not to meet them. We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.""How do you know I'm mad?" Alice asked.
    "You must be mad," the Cat said. "Everybody who comes here is mad. Are you going to play croquet with the Queen today?""That would be very nice," said Alice, "but nobody has asked me yet.""You'll see me there," the Cheshire Cat said.
    It did not go away, but it was not there any more. It just disappeared¹³. Alice did not wonder about this, but she was still looking at the place when it appeared again. " What happened to the baby?" it asked.
    "It became a pig," Alice said.
    "I thought it would," said the Cat, and disappeared again.
    Alice waited. "Perhaps it will appear again," she thought. But it did not appear, and she began to walk towards the March Hare's home.
    "I have seen hatters before," she said to herself. "I would like to see a March Hare. This is May, not march, so perhaps the March Hare isn't very mad."Just then, she looked up, and there was the Cheshire Cat again, sitting in another tree.
    "Did you say pig, or fig¹⁴?" said the Cat.
    "I said pig," Alice answered. "And please stop appearing and disappearing¹⁵ so quickly. I don't like it."The Cat disappeared a little at a time. The last part that Alice could see was its grin. It was there after the other parts had gone.
    " I have seen a cat without a grin very many times," Alice thought. "but a grin without a cat! I never saw anything like that before."When the Cheshire Cat's grin had gone, Alice began to walk again towards the March Hare's house. She saw it through the trees, and it was not so small as the Duchess's house. Alice had the bits of mushroom¹⁶ in her pockets. She quickly ate a little of the bit that made her bigger. Then she walked towards the house.

1 pepper   

n.胡椒(粉)；辣椒(粉)

参考例句：

• He put some pepper in the bowl.他放了一些胡椒粉在碗里。
• This pepper is really hot.这辣椒真够劲儿。

2 bang   

n.巨响，猛击；vi.砰砰作响；vt.砰地敲，猛击

参考例句：

• Pack it up, you kids;or I'll bang your heads together!住手，你们这些小孩，再弄就揍你们！
• She fell and got a nasty bang on the knee.她摔倒了，膝盖猛撞在地上。

3 smash   

v.粉碎，打碎；n.轰动的演出，巨大的成功

参考例句：

• We heard the smash of plates breaking in the kitchen.我们听到厨房里盘子破碎的声音。
• The gifted author wrote one smash after another.这个天才作家创作了一篇又一篇轰动一时的作品。

4 grin   

n./vi.露齿而笑，咧嘴一笑

参考例句：

• I know she is joking because she has a big grin on her face.我知道她是在开玩笑。因为她满脸笑容。
• She came out of his office with a big grin on her face.她笑容满面地走出他的办公室。

5 grins   

v.露齿而笑( grin的第三人称单数 )；露齿笑着表示

参考例句：

• How can you teach a child who just grins stupidly at you all day? 如果一个孩子整天都冲着你傻笑，你怎么能教他呢？ 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The grins of his friends discomposed Jack when he tried to make his speech. 杰克想要进行演讲时，他的朋友们咧着嘴笑，这使得他心里很慌乱。 来自《用法词典》

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

7 jars   

n.罐子( jar的名词复数 )；（啤酒）杯；缸；猛然震动

参考例句：

• He's going down to the bar for a few jars tomorrow. 他打算明天去酒吧喝几杯啤酒。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The paint of the house jars with the beautiful surroundings. 这所房子的颜色与它那美丽的周围环境很不协调。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

8 irons   

n.镣铐；铁( iron的名词复数 )；坚强；铁器；铁制的工具v.熨平( iron的第三人称单数 )；用鱼叉叉（鱼）；用铁铸成；给…加铁具（以使牢固）

参考例句：

• Some thieves have eaten off their irons with mercury water. 有些窃贼用汞水腐蚀他们的镣铐。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• What caused the price of irons to slump? 钢铁价格暴跌是什么原因？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 roughly   

adv.概略地，粗糙地，粗鲁地

参考例句：

• If you treat your coat so roughly,it will be worn out soon.你如果这么糟蹋你的外套，它很快就不能穿了。
• The island is roughly circular in shape.这个岛屿大致是圆形的。

10 teases   

v.取笑，戏弄( tease的第三人称单数 )；梳理（羊毛等）

参考例句：

• My boyfriend's brother is really out of it; he always teases us. 我男友的弟弟很无聊；他总是捉弄我们。 来自辞典例句
• The little boy teases for ice-cream. 小男孩不住地吵着要买冰淇淋。 来自辞典例句

11 queen   

n.女王，皇后；(纸牌、国际象棋中的)王后

参考例句：

• She sounds like a queen!她听起来像是一个王后！
• The evil queen is very angry.邪恶的皇后非常生气。

12 hare   

n.野兔

参考例句：

• The tortoise wins the race while the hare is sleeping.兔子正睡觉时，乌龟赢得了比赛。
• I saw a hare in my backyard this morning.今天早晨我看见后院有一只野兔。

13 disappeared   

v.不见，消失( disappear的过去式和过去分词 )；不复存在；奭

参考例句：

• The plane disappeared behind a cloud. 飞机消失在云层里。
• He double-crossed the rest of the gang and disappeared with all the money. 他骗了其他同伙，携款潜逃了。

14 fig   

n.无花果(树)

参考例句：

• The doctor finished the fig he had been eating and selected another.这位医生吃完了嘴里的无花果，又挑了一个。
• You can't find a person who doesn't know fig in the United States.你找不到任何一个在美国的人不知道无花果的。

15 disappearing   

v.不见，消失( disappear的现在分词 )；不复存在；掩始；隐显

参考例句：

• She caught sight of a figure disappearing into the darkness. 她看见一个人影儿在黑暗中消失了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The speeding wheels and disappearing country put Chicago farther and farther behind. 向前飞奔的车轮和向后消失的乡村把芝加哥甩得越来越远。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

16 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。