--- title: Alice in Wonderland, chapter IX, part 2: The Mock Turtle's Story (school under the sea) — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Alice in Wonderland, chapter IX, part 2: The Mock Turtle's Story (school under the sea)», a lesson of the books course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: The Queen wakes a Gryphon sleeping in the sun (a creature that is half eagle, half l --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/) [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 2: The Mock Turtle's Story (school under the sea) Lesson 18 of the books course of Mova's primary school: 21 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/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/0/) — The Queen wakes a Gryphon sleeping in the sun (a creature that is half eagle, half lion), orders it to take Alice to the Mock Turtle, and goes off to see about «some executions». - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/1/) — The Gryphon chuckles: it's all her fancy, «they never executes nobody». - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/2/) — So the beheadings are only shouting. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/3/) — They find the Mock Turtle sitting sad and lonely on a ledge of rock, sighing as if his heart would break. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/5/) — The Mock Turtle tells them to sit and not speak until he has finished — and then says nothing for ages, until at last: «Once I was a real Turtle.» - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/6/) — He tells about his school in the sea. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/8/) — Whenever Alice asks a sensible question, the two creatures call her dull and tell her to be ashamed, and Alice feels ready to sink into the earth. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/9/) — The school subjects are all school words gone wrong: Reeling and Writhing (reading and writing), Ambition, Distraction, Uglification and Derision (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division), Mystery and Seaography, Drawling, Stretching and Fainting in Coils, and Laughing and Grief. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/10/) — Lessons lasted ten hours the first day, nine the next, and so on: «That's the reason they're called lessons, because they lessen from day to day.» Alice works out that the eleventh day must have been a holiday, but when she asks about the twelfth, the Gryphon quickly changes the subject. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/11/) — A Gryphon (also spelled griffin) is a creature from old stories, half eagle and half lion; the book says «If you don't know what a Gryphon is, look at the picture». - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/12/) — The Gryphon says of the Queen: «It's all her fancy, that: they never executes nobody, you know.» Its grammar is country talk; in standard English: they never execute anybody. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/13/) — «Everybody says "come on!" here,» thinks Alice: «I never was so ordered about in all my life, never!» - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/15/) — «This here young lady, she wants for to know your history, she do» is the Gryphon's country way of saying: this young lady wants to know your story. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/16/) — Alice thinks: «I don't see how he can ever finish, if he doesn't begin.» - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/19/) — When he boasts «we went to school every day», Alice says «I've been to a day-school, too; you needn't be so proud as all that.» - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/20/) — The old Turtle master was called Tortoise «because he taught us»: say «taught us» quickly and it sounds like «tortoise». - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/21/) — Extras at the sea school: «French, music, and washing»; Alice's school taught French and music but not washing, and she says «You couldn't have wanted it much, living at the bottom of the sea.» «Extras» were lessons parents paid more for. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/22/) — The regular course: Reeling and Writhing (reading and writing); Ambition, Distraction, Uglification and Derision (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division); the Gryphon asks if she knows what «beautify» is, and Alice says doubtfully «it means—to—make—anything—prettier», so «uglify» must mean the opposite. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/23/) — More subjects: Mystery, ancient and modern (history), with Seaography (geography); Drawling, Stretching and Fainting in Coils (drawing, sketching and painting in oils), taught by an old conger-eel once a week. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/24/) — The Classics master was an old crab who taught «Laughing and Grief» (Latin and Greek, the languages studied as «classics»); remembering him, «both creatures hid their faces in their paws». - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/18-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-2/25/) — Lessons: «Ten hours the first day, nine the next, and so on»; «they're called lessons, because they lessen from day to day» (lessen = get smaller). - ← previous: [Alice in Wonderland, chapter IX, part 1: The Mock Turtle's Story (the Duchess and her morals)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/17-alice-the-mock-turtles-story-1/) - next →: [Alice in Wonderland, chapter X, part 1: The Lobster Quadrille (a dance, a whiting and a porpoise)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/19-alice-the-lobster-quadrille-1/) - ↑ back to [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/)