Snow White
In the tale of snow white that we are all familiar with, the Queen asks a huntsman（n.猎人）to kill her and bring her heart back as proof. Instead, the huntsman can’t bring himself to do it and returns with the heart of a boar(n.野猪). Now, fortunately Disney hasn’t done too much damage to this tale, but they did leave out one important original element: in the original tale, the Queen actually asks for Snow White’s liver and lungs - which are to be served for dinner that night! Also in the original, Snow White wakes up when she is jostled（v.推，挤） by the prince’s horse as he carries her back to his castle - not from a magical kiss. What the prince wanted to do with a dead girl’s body I will leave to your imagination. Oh - in the Grimm version, the tale ends with the Queen being forced to dance to death in red hot iron shoes!
Sleeping Beauty
In the original sleeping beauty, the lovely princess is put to sleep when she pricks（v.刺，戳） her finger on a spindle(n.纺锤). She sleeps for one hundred years when a prince finally arrives, kisses her, and awakens her. They fall in love, marry, and (surprise surprise) live happily ever after. But alas, the original tale is not so sweet (in fact, you have to read this to believe it.) In the original, the young woman is put to sleep because of a prophesy（n.预言）, rather than a curse（n.诅咒）. And it isn’t the kiss of a prince which wakes her up: the king seeing her asleep, and rather fancying having a bit, rapes her. After nine months she gives birth to two children (while she is still asleep). One of the children sucks her finger which removes the piece of flax（n.亚麻） which was keeping her asleep. She wakes up to find herself raped and the mother of two kids.
Cinderella
In the modern Cinderella fairy tale we have the beautiful Cinderella swept off her feet by the prince and her wicked step sisters marrying two lords - with everyone living happily ever after. The original story was very similar to the modern one with the exception of the glass slippers and pumpkin coach. But, lurking(v.潜伏) behind the pretty tale is a more sinister variation by the Grimm brothers: in this version, the nasty（adj.恶心的，厌恶的） step-sisters cut off parts of their own feet in order to fit them into the glass slipper - hoping to fool the prince. The prince is alerted to the trickery(n.欺骗) by two pigeons who peck(v.啄食) out the step sister’s eyes. They end up spending the rest of their lives as blind beggars while Cinderella gets to lounge about（闲散度日） in luxury at the prince’s castle.
