Alice in Wonderland - Bored Alice

As George Martin described it, 'By the end of 1963, we had conquered England, musically at any rate. Now, as well as America, we were trying to make it big on the Continent. The EMI people in Germany, fired - who knows? - by some patriotic fervour, had insisted that the Beatle should get no big sales there unless they had a record sung in German. The boys thought this was nonsense, and I didn't believe a word of it myself, but equally I did not want to give the German EMI people any excuse for not selling Beatles record. I decided to ring their hotel.

None of them would come to the phone. Neil Aspinall, their road manager, had been deputed to do the talking, and he informed me that they had decided that, after all, they did not want to do the record and wouldn't be coming. I raced back to the.Hôtel Georges Cinq. The scene was straight out of Lewis Carroll. All that was missing was the White Rabbit. Around a long table sat John, Paul, George, Ringo, Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans, his assistant. In the centre, pouring tea, was Jane Asher, a beautiful Alice with long golden hair.'

Sister:"and had been of late, much accustomed to usurpation and conqest. Edwin and Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria declared of him, and even Stigand - Alice!"
Alice:"Hmm...? Oh, I'm listening."
Sister:"And even Stigand, the Archbishop of Canterbury, agreed to meet with William and offer him the crown. William's conduct at first was... Alice! Will you kindly pay attention to your history lesson?"
Alice:"I'm sory, but how can one possibly pay attention to a book with no pictures in it?"
Sister:"My dear child, there are great many books on this world without pictures."
Alice:"In this world perhaps. But in my world, the books would be nothing but pictures."
Sister:"Your world? Huh! What nonsence! Now-"
Alice:"Nonsence?"
Sister:"Once more. From the beginning."
Alice:"That's it, Dinah! If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsence. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrariwise, what it is, it wouldn't be, and what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?"
Dinah:"Meow."
Alice:"In my world, you wouldn't say 'Meow'. You'd say 'Yes, Miss Alice.'
Dinah:"Meow..."
Alice:"Oh, but you would! You would be just like people, Dinah, and all the other animals, too-"
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, ‘and what is the use of a book,’ thought Alice ‘without pictures or conversations?’

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Alice fing an sich zu langweilen; sie saß schon lange bei ihrer Schwester am Ufer und hatte nichts zu tun. Das Buch, das ihre Schwester las, gefiel ihr nicht; denn es waren weder Bilder noch Gespräche darin. »Und was nützen Bücher,« dachte Alice, »ohne Bilder und Gespräche?«
There is no continuous aspect in standard German. The aspect can be expressed with gerade as in er liest gerade meaning he is reading. Certain regional dialects, such as those of the Rhineland, the Ruhr Area, and Westphalia, form a continuous aspect using the verb sein (to be), the inflected preposition am or beim (at the or on the), and an infinitive. For example, ich bin am Lesen, ich bin beim Lesen (literally I am on/at the reading) means I am reading. Known as the rheinische Verlaufsform (roughly Rhinish progressive form), it has become increasingly common in the casual speech of many speakers of standard German, although it is still frowned upon in formal and literary contexts. In Southern Austro-Bavarian, the aspect can be expressed using tun (to do) as an auxiliary with the infinitive of the verb as in er tut lesen for he is reading.

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Alice commençait à se sentir très lasse de rester assise à côté de sa soeur, sur le talus, et de n’avoir rien à faire : une fois ou deux, elle avait jeté un coup d’oeil sur le livre que lisait sa soeur ; mais il ne contenait ni images ni dialogues : « Et, pensait Alice, à quoi peut bien servir un livre où il n’y a ni images ni dialogues ? »
French does not have a continuous aspect per se; events that English would describe using its continuous aspect, French would describe using a neutral aspect. That being said, French can express a continuous sense using the periphrastic construction être en train de ("to be in the middle of"); for example, English's "we were eating" might be expressed in French either as nous étions en train de manger, or as simply nous mangions.

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Alice cominciava a sentirsi mortalmente stanca di sedere sul poggio, accanto a sua sorella, senza far nulla: una o due volte aveva gittato lo sguardo sul libro che leggeva sua sorella, ma non c'erano imagini nè dialoghi, "e a che serve un libro," pensò Alice, "senza imagini e dialoghi?"
The past progressive is considered interchangeable with the imperfect. The gerundio remains unchanged, but the conjugation of stare changes to its normal conjugation for the imperfect. For example, Sto andando ("I am going") would change to Stavo andando ("I was going") in the past progressive. In conventional Italian speaking, Stavo andando, the past progressive, is mostly interchangeable with Andavo ("I used to go" or "I went"), the imperfect.

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Alicia empezaba ya a cansarse de estar sentada con su hermana a la orilla del río. sin tener nada que hacer: había echado un par de ojeadas al libro que su hermana estaba leyendo. pero no tenía dibujos ni diálogos. <<¿Y de qué sirve un libro sin dibujos ni diálogos?>>, se preguntaba Alicia.
In Spanish, the continuous is constructed much as in English, using a conjugated form of estar (to be) plus the gerundio (gerund/gerundive/adverbial participle) of the main verb; for example, estar haciendo means to be doing (haciendo being the gerundio of hacer, to do). Unlike English, the continuous cannot be used to describe an action that has not yet begun at the time of interest; however, in the present tense, the simple present suffices for this, and in any tense, a similar effect can be achieved with the auxiliary ir a ("to go to") in its non-continuous aspect.

Like English, Spanish also has a few related constructions with similar structures and related meanings; for example, seguir haciendo means to keep doing (seguir being to continue).

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Alice estava começando a se cansar de ficar ali sentada ao lado da irmã no barranco e não ter nada que fazer: uma ou duas vezes espiara o livro que sua irmã estava lendo, mas não tinha figuras nem diálogos, “e para que serve um livro”, pensou Alice, “sem figuras nem diálogos?”

The Portuguese continuous aspect is similar to that of Spanish in formation and use.

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Алисе наскучило сидеть с сестрой без дела на берегу реки; разок другой она заглянула в книжку, которую читала сестра, но там не было ни картинок, ни разговоров. – Что толку в книжке, – подумала Алиса, – если в ней нет ни картинок, ни разговоров?
Russian verbs of motion usually have progressive and non-progressive lexical pairs ("я иду" - "я хожу" (I'm going - I go), "я лечу" - "я летаю" (I'm flying - I fly)). However, non-motion verbs in Russian do not have the progressive aspect. Instead, adverbs like "сейчас" ("(right) now") can be used to indicate that the action is progressive/continuous and not habitual.