--- title: Alice in Wonderland, chapter II, part 1: Curiouser and curiouser (who am I?) — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Alice in Wonderland, chapter II, part 1: Curiouser and curiouser (who am I?)», a lesson of the books course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: The cake works: Alice shoots up like a pulled-out telescope until her feet seem miles away, and --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/3-alice-ch2-part1-curiouser-and-curiouser/) [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 II, part… # Alice in Wonderland, chapter II, part 1: Curiouser and curiouser (who am I?) Lesson 3 of the books course of Mova's primary school: 20 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/3-alice-ch2-part1-curiouser-and-curiouser/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/3-alice-ch2-part1-curiouser-and-curiouser/0/) — The cake works: Alice shoots up like a pulled-out telescope until her feet seem miles away, and she jokes about posting them presents for Christmas. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/3-alice-ch2-part1-curiouser-and-curiouser/1/) — Her head bumps the roof of the hall, she is more than nine feet tall, and now she can only peep at the garden with one eye, so she cries and cries until a pool of tears spreads half down the hall. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/3-alice-ch2-part1-curiouser-and-curiouser/2/) — The White Rabbit comes back, dressed up, with white kid gloves and a fan, muttering about the Duchess; when giant Alice says "If you please, sir", he drops everything and runs off in fright. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/3-alice-ch2-part1-curiouser-and-curiouser/3/) — Fanning herself, Alice wonders whether she has been changed in the night into another girl, tests herself with times tables, geography and a poem, and gets them all wrong. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/3-alice-ch2-part1-curiouser-and-curiouser/4/) — She fears she has become Mabel, a girl she thinks knows very little, and ends up crying because she is so tired of being all alone: funny, but lonely and sad underneath. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/3-alice-ch2-part1-curiouser-and-curiouser/5/) — Alice cries "Curiouser and curiouser!", which is not good English (the right form is "more and more curious"), because she is so surprised she forgets how to speak properly. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/3-alice-ch2-part1-curiouser-and-curiouser/7/) — She imagines the address: "Alice's Right Foot, Esq., Hearthrug, near the Fender"; "Esq." (Esquire) is a polite title on letters to a gentleman, the hearthrug is the rug in front of the fireplace and the fender is the low metal guard around it. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/3-alice-ch2-part1-curiouser-and-curiouser/8/) — Her head strikes the roof of the hall: she is now "more than nine feet high", so she takes the golden key and hurries to the garden door. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/3-alice-ch2-part1-curiouser-and-curiouser/9/) — Lying on one side she can only look into the garden with one eye, so getting through is "more hopeless than ever". - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/3-alice-ch2-part1-curiouser-and-curiouser/10/) — She tells herself "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, a great girl like you", a joke because she really is great, meaning huge, and orders herself: "Stop this moment, I tell you!", but goes on crying all the same. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/3-alice-ch2-part1-curiouser-and-curiouser/11/) — She sheds "gallons of tears", making a pool about four inches deep that reaches half down the hall. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/3-alice-ch2-part1-curiouser-and-curiouser/12/) — The White Rabbit returns "splendidly dressed", with white kid gloves (soft gloves made of young goat's leather) and a large fan, worried the Duchess will be "savage" (furious) if kept waiting. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/3-alice-ch2-part1-curiouser-and-curiouser/13/) — When Alice timidly says "If you please, sir—", the Rabbit drops the gloves and fan and scurries away into the darkness; Alice picks them up and, "as the hall was very hot", keeps fanning herself. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/3-alice-ch2-part1-curiouser-and-curiouser/14/) — Alice wonders, "Who in the world am I? - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/3-alice-ch2-part1-curiouser-and-curiouser/15/) — Ah, that's the great puzzle!", and thinks of girls her age she might have been changed into. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/3-alice-ch2-part1-curiouser-and-curiouser/16/) — She is sure she is not Ada, whose hair "goes in such long ringlets" (long hanging curls), and fears being Mabel, who "knows such a very little". - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/3-alice-ch2-part1-curiouser-and-curiouser/17/) — Her sums go wrong: "four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen" (in Alice's day the times tables at school stopped at twelve times), and her geography too: "London is the capital of Paris". - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/3-alice-ch2-part1-curiouser-and-curiouser/18/) — The poem she tries to recite comes out as "How doth the little crocodile", about a crocodile that smiles as it welcomes little fishes into its jaws; "How doth" is old English for "how does". - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/3-alice-ch2-part1-curiouser-and-curiouser/19/) — Alice thinks Mabel lives in a "poky little house" (small and cramped) with next to no toys and "ever so many lessons to learn", and these are only Alice's guesses about another girl; if she is Mabel, she says, she will stay down here, even if people put their heads down and call "Come up again, dear!" - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/3-alice-ch2-part1-curiouser-and-curiouser/20/) — In the end she bursts into tears: "I do wish they would put their heads down! - ← previous: [Alice in Wonderland, chapter I, part 2: The hall of doors, DRINK ME and EAT ME](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/2-alice-ch1-part2-the-little-door/) - next →: [Alice in Wonderland, chapter II, part 2: The Pool of Tears and the Mouse](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/) - ↑ back to [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/)