--- title: Alice in Wonderland, chapter IX, part 1: The Mock Turtle's Story (the Duchess and her morals) — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Alice in Wonderland, chapter IX, part 1: The Mock Turtle's Story (the Duchess and her morals)», a lesson of the books course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Out of prison, the Duchess is suddenly sweet to Alice: «You dear old thing!» S --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/) / Alice in Wonderland, chapter IX, part… # Alice in Wonderland, chapter IX, part 1: The Mock Turtle's Story (the Duchess and her morals) Lesson 17 of the books course of Mova's primary school: 22 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/0/) — Out of prison, the Duchess is suddenly sweet to Alice: «You dear old thing!» She tucks her arm into Alice's and walks with her. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/1/) — Alice wonders if it was only the pepper that made her so savage in the kitchen, and invents a rule of her own: pepper makes people hot-tempered, vinegar makes them sour, and barley-sugar makes children sweet-tempered. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/3/) — She keeps leaning her very sharp chin on Alice's shoulder, which Alice bears politely, though she doesn't like it. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/5/) — «I make you a present of everything I've said,» says the Duchess, and Alice thinks: a cheap sort of present! - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/6/) — Suddenly the Queen stands in front of them, frowning like a thunderstorm: «either you or your head must be off». - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/7/) — The Duchess takes her choice and disappears at once. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/8/) — The game goes on until the soldiers have arrested every player except the King, the Queen and Alice, and there are no arches left. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/9/) — Out of breath, the Queen asks Alice if she has seen the Mock Turtle, «the thing Mock Turtle Soup is made from», and takes her to meet him. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/10/) — As they leave, Alice hears the King quietly tell everyone «You are all pardoned», and she feels glad. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/11/) — The Duchess greets Alice: «You can't think how glad I am to see you again, you dear old thing!» - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/13/) — Alice's new rule: pepper makes people hot-tempered, vinegar sour, camomile bitter, and barley-sugar (a hard sweet) makes children sweet-tempered. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/14/) — «Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it,» says the Duchess; a moral is the lesson a story teaches. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/16/) — The book also calls her «very ugly»: judging people by their looks is an old habit we do not admire today. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/19/) — The Duchess says she won't put her arm round Alice's waist because she is «doubtful about the temper of your flamingo». - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/22/) — «The more there is of mine, the less there is of yours» plays on «mine», a hole you dig minerals from, and «mine», belonging to me. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/25/) — «I've a right to think,» says Alice; «Just about as much right as pigs have to fly,» says the Duchess — then the Queen appears and her voice dies away. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/26/) — The Queen: «either you or your head must be off, and that in about half no time! - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/27/) — Take your choice!» The Duchess «took her choice, and was gone in a moment». - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/28/) — While the Queen was away, the other guests had been resting in the shade; they hurry back to the game the moment they see her. - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/29/) — After half an hour all the players except the King, the Queen and Alice are «in custody» (arrested); the soldiers who held them can no longer be arches. - [30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/30/) — Mock turtle soup was a real Victorian dish: a cheaper copy of turtle soup, usually made from a calf's head; «mock» means pretend. - [32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/32/) — As they walk off, the King says quietly to the company «You are all pardoned», and Alice is glad, because she had felt quite unhappy at the number of executions the Queen had ordered. - ← previous: [Alice in Wonderland, chapter VIII, part 2: The Queen's Croquet-Ground (a head without a body)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/16-alice-the-queens-croquet-ground-2/) - next →: [Alice in Wonderland, chapter IX, part 2: The Mock Turtle's Story (school under the sea)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/) - ↑ back to [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/)