Alice's Adventures in Wonderland中的谐音梗

在Alice的探险中，她遇见了在海底生活的Mock Turtle，Mock Turtle告诉Alice他们作为水生动物，在海底上学的故事。以下是Mock Turtle向Alice介绍他们在海底学校的”常规课程“——

‘Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with,' the Mock Turtle replied; 'and then the different branches of Arithmetic - Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.'

'I never heard of "Uglification,"' Alice ventured to say. 'What is it?'

The Gryphon lifted up both its paws in surprise. 'What! Never heard of uglifying!' it exclaimed. 'You know what to beauty is, I suppose?'

'Yes,' said Alice doubtfully: 'it means-to-make-anything-prettier.'

'Well, then,' the Gryphon went on, 'if you don't know what to uglify is, you are a simpleton.'

Alice did not feel encouraged to ask any more questions about it, so she turned to the Mock Turtle, and said 'What else had you to learn?'

'Well, there was Mystery,' the Mock Turtle replied, counting off the subjects on his flappers, '-Mystery, ancient and modern, with Seaography: then Drawling- the Drawling-master was an old conger-eel, that used to come once a week; he taught us Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils.'

(中略）

'And how many hours a day did you do lessons?' said Alice, in a hurry to change the subject.

'Ten hours the first day,' said the Mock Turtle: 'nine the next, and so on.'

'What a curious plan!' exclaimed Alice.

'That's the reason they're called lessons,' the Gryphon remarked: 'because they lessen from day to day.'

以上节选自Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll， Chapter IX. The Mock Turtle's Story