--- title: Alice in Wonderland, chapter III, part 2: Prizes, a long tale, and Dinah again — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Alice in Wonderland, chapter III, part 2: Prizes, a long tale, and Dinah again», a lesson of the books course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Everybody has won the race, so everybody needs a prize, and the Dodo says Alice must give the --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/) [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 2: Prizes, a long tale, and Dinah again Lesson 6 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/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/0/) — Everybody has won the race, so everybody needs a prize, and the Dodo says Alice must give them; luckily she has a box of comfits (little sugar sweets) in her pocket, exactly one each. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/1/) — Then the Mouse says Alice needs a prize too, so the Dodo takes her own thimble and solemnly presents it back to her, and everyone cheers; Alice finds it absurd but keeps a straight face. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/2/) — The Mouse begins its "long and sad tale", but Alice is staring at its long tail, mixes up the words, and then hears "not" as "knot", so the Mouse stomps off insulted. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/3/) — Feeling lonely, Alice wishes her cat Dinah were there and proudly says Dinah eats little birds, and at once every bird finds an excuse to hurry home. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/4/) — Left alone, she cries again, until she hears little footsteps and hopes the Mouse is coming back: a funny part with a sad ending, about not always noticing how your words land. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/5/) — The Dodo points at Alice: "Why, she, of course" must give the prizes, and the party crowd round her shouting "Prizes! - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/6/) — Alice pulls out a box of comfits (sugar-coated sweets) that the salt water had not got into, and there is "exactly one a-piece, all round"; "a-piece" means each. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/7/) — The Mouse says Alice must have a prize herself; all she has left is a thimble (a small metal cap that protects your finger when sewing). - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/8/) — The Dodo presents the thimble with "We beg your acceptance of this elegant thimble", and they all cheer. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/9/) — Alice thinks it "very absurd" (silly), but they look so grave (serious) that she dares not laugh, so she just bows. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/10/) — Eating the comfits is noisy: the large birds cannot taste theirs, and the small ones choke and have to be patted on the back. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/11/) — Alice whispers "C and D" for cats and dogs, so as not to upset the Mouse. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/12/) — The Mouse says "Mine is a long and a sad tale!" and Alice answers "It is a long tail, certainly", mixing up tale (story) and tail. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/13/) — In the tale a dog called Fury says to a mouse, "I'll be judge, I'll be jury", which means one side would decide everything, a very unfair trial; a "cur" is a bad-tempered dog and "prosecute" means take someone to court. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/14/) — In printed copies of the book the tale winds down the page in the shape of a tail, getting smaller. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/15/) — "You are not attending!" (not paying attention) says the Mouse; Alice thinks it has got "to the fifth bend", and when it cries "I had not!", she thinks it said "a knot" and offers to undo it. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/16/) — An old Crab tells her daughter "never to lose your temper", and the daughter snaps "Hold your tongue, Ma! - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/17/) — You're enough to try the patience of an oyster!" - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/18/) — Alice says Dinah will "eat a little bird as soon as look at it", and the birds leave on "various pretexts" (made-up excuses). - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/19/) — The old Magpie says "the night-air doesn't suit my throat", and a Canary calls its children to bed. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/20/) — Alice feels "very lonely and low-spirited" (sad) and cries, then hears pattering footsteps and hopes the Mouse has changed its mind. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/6-alice-ch3-part2-a-long-tale/21/) — Old words in today's English: "grave" = serious, "solemnly" = very seriously, "venture to ask" = dare to ask, "you can't think" = you can't imagine. - ← previous: [Alice in Wonderland, chapter III, part 1: The driest thing and the Caucus-race](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/) - next →: [Alice in Wonderland, chapter IV, part 1: Stuck in the White Rabbit's house](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/7-alice-ch4-part1-the-rabbits-house/) - ↑ back to [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/)