--- title: Alice in Wonderland, chapter III, part 1: The driest thing and the Caucus-race — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Alice in Wonderland, chapter III, part 1: The driest thing and the Caucus-race», a lesson of the books course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Alice and the animals climb out of the pool onto the bank, soaking wet, cross and uncomfortab --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/) [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 III, part… # Alice in Wonderland, chapter III, part 1: The driest thing and the Caucus-race Lesson 5 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/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/0/) — Alice and the animals climb out of the pool onto the bank, soaking wet, cross and uncomfortable, and argue about how to get dry; Alice even has a long squabble with a Lory who won't say how old it is. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/1/) — The Mouse, who seems to be in charge, makes everyone sit in a ring and reads them "the driest thing" it knows: a boring history lesson about William the Conqueror. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/2/) — Of course, nobody gets any drier. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/3/) — The Duck and the Lory keep interrupting, and when the Dodo suggests something in very long words, the Eaglet tells it to "Speak English!" - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/4/) — The Dodo's idea is a Caucus-race: everyone runs round a rough circle, starting and stopping whenever they like, until after half an hour they are all dry. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/5/) — Then the Dodo thinks hard, finger on forehead, and announces that "Everybody has won, and all must have prizes": a silly, cheerful scene that pokes fun at pompous meetings and races with no rules. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/6/) — The party on the bank is "dripping wet, cross, and uncomfortable": birds with draggled (wet and dirty) feathers and animals with fur clinging to them. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/7/) — Alice soon talks with the animals "as if she had known them all her life", and argues with the Lory, who only says "I am older than you, and must know better", but refuses to tell its age, so the argument can go no further. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/8/) — The Mouse is "a person of authority among them", meaning someone the others obey; they all sit "in a large ring, with the Mouse in the middle", and Alice watches it anxiously, sure she will "catch a bad cold" if she does not get dry soon. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/9/) — The Mouse says "Ahem!" (a little cough to get attention) and calls its history lesson "the driest thing I know": "dry" means without water, and also means boring. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/10/) — The lesson is about William the Conqueror, the English accepting him, and Edwin and Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria; earls were powerful lords. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/11/) — The Lory says "Ugh!", then pretends it did not speak: "Not I!" - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/12/) — When the Mouse says the archbishop "found it advisable" (found it a sensible idea), the Duck asks "Found what?", because when a duck finds "it", "it's generally a frog or a worm". - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/13/) — Asked how she is getting on, Alice says "As wet as ever", "it doesn't seem to dry me at all". - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/14/) — The Dodo says "I move that the meeting adjourn, for the immediate adoption of more energetic remedies", which means: let's stop this meeting and try something more lively straight away. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/15/) — The Eaglet says "Speak English! - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/16/) — I don't know the meaning of half those long words, and, what's more, I don't believe you do either!", and some birds titter (giggle). - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/17/) — Alice asks "What is a Caucus-race?", "not that she wanted much to know", but because the Dodo paused as if somebody ought to speak; the Dodo answers "the best way to explain it is to do it". - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/18/) — A caucus is a meeting of members of a political party; Carroll's Caucus-race is a joke about people running round in circles and getting nowhere. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/19/) — The course is "a sort of circle" ("the exact shape doesn't matter"), there is no "One, two, three, and away", and everyone runs and stops when they like. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/21/) — The Dodo thinks with "one finger pressed upon its forehead", like the pictures of Shakespeare, and says "Everybody has won, and all must have prizes." - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/22/) — Old words in today's English: "a consultation" = a talk to decide something, "assembled" = gathered, "I proceed" = I'll carry on, "inclined" = willing. - ← previous: [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/) - next →: [Alice in Wonderland, chapter III, part 2: Prizes, a long tale, and Dinah again](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/) - ↑ back to [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/)