---
title: Alice's Victorian world: tea, croquet, pocket watches, shillings and… — how Mova does on the tests · History
description: Lesson 81 of the history course of Mova's primary school: 8 of 12 tests right, exam 1 of 4, every question with the options, the student's choice, the right answer and why it chose.
---

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# Alice's Victorian world: tea, croquet, pocket watches, shillings and chimney sweeps

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**Tests:** 8 of 12 right · **Exam:** 1 of 4 right · **Kind:** ★★ · **Understood:** 9 of 16 · **Run:** 2026-10-18, commit `f3c23ea72`

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Lesson 81 of the history course of Mova's primary school, as Mova's small model took its tests: it had read this lesson and the ones before it and learned from their exercises. Each test shows the options in the order the student saw them, its choice, the right answer, the score of every option and why it chose. The lesson itself, sentence by sentence with trees and pragmatics: [the lesson in the corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/81-alice-s-victorian-world-tea-croquet-pocket-watches-shillings-and-chimney-sweeps/).

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Every question of this lesson and each of its options parsed by Mova, with trees and pragmatics: [the lesson's questions in the corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/81-alice-s-victorian-world-tea-croquet-pocket-watches-shillings-and-chimney-sweeps/).

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### Test 1 · ★★ · right ✓ {#t1}

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«the Rabbit's got a watch, so it's a wristwatch obvs» What is right?

- **1.** No, it is a clock that he carries under his arm — no support
- **2.** Yes, rabbits wear them round the ankle, which counts as a wrist for a rabbit — no support
- **3.** Yes, Victorians all wore wristwatches, only smaller ones — no support
- **4.** He takes it out of his waistcoat pocket: Victorian men used pocket watches — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 4

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 4 with score 4, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 81, line 2: «The White Rabbit pulls a watch out of his waistcoat pocket, because men then carried pocket watches on a chain, not watches on the wrist. The Hatter's tea-part…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same place «waistcoat pocket» (+5); the same thing acted on «watch» (+2). Against it: a different action (counts against) (-3). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/81-alice-s-victorian-world-tea-croquet-pocket-watches-shillings-and-chimney-sweeps/t1/)

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### Test 2 · ★★ · right ✓ {#t2}

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Your friend thinks Alice Liddell made up the story herself. What actually happened?

- **1.** Queen Victoria told it to Alice and her sisters at a grand palace tea-party in London one summer — score 6
- **2.** Alice's older sister wrote it and gave it to Alice for her birthday — score 4
- **3.** Alice wrote it in her diary and Dodgson found it and copied it out years later — score 4
- **4.** Charles Dodgson told it to the Liddell sisters on a boat trip, and Alice asked him to write it down — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 8

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 4 with score 8, against 6 for the next best. Its support: lesson 81, line 6: «On 4 July 1862 he told the story on a rowing-boat trip on the river near Oxford to three sisters, Lorina, Alice and Edith Liddell, and Alice asked him to write…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same doer «alice» (+5); the same action «ask» (+3). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/81-alice-s-victorian-world-tea-croquet-pocket-watches-shillings-and-chimney-sweeps/t2/)

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### Test 3 · ★★ · right ✓ {#t3}

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The Mad Tea-Party has a table set for many but only three guests. Which real custom is it making fun of?

- **1.** A big Christmas dinner with crackers and turkey — no support
- **2.** Afternoon tea, with its cups, bread and butter and polite talk — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 3
- **3.** A picnic on the beach with sandwiches, lemonade and a big umbrella in case it rains — no support
- **4.** A school lunch eaten quickly in a noisy hall — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 2 with score 3, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 81, line 8: «Afternoon tea, with tea, bread and butter and cakes between lunch and a late dinner, is said to have been made fashionable in the 1840s by Anna, Duchess of Bed…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+2); the same doer «tea» (+1). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/81-alice-s-victorian-world-tea-croquet-pocket-watches-shillings-and-chimney-sweeps/t3/)

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### Test 4 · ★★ · right ✓ {#t4}

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In the Queen's game the balls are hedgehogs, the mallets are flamingos and the hoops are soldiers bent double. What would they be in real croquet?

- **1.** Tennis balls, rackets and a net — no support
- **2.** Snooker balls, cues and pockets — no support
- **3.** Wooden balls, wooden mallets and metal or wire hoops — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 3
- **4.** Footballs, cricket bats and two goalposts made of painted wood — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 3 with score 3, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 81, line 9: «Croquet is a lawn game in which players hit wooden balls with long wooden mallets through small hoops pushed into the grass; it became hugely popular in Englan…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same thing acted on «wooden balls» (+2); the same property (+1). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/81-alice-s-victorian-world-tea-croquet-pocket-watches-shillings-and-chimney-sweeps/t4/)

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### Test 5 · ★★ · right ✓ {#t5}

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Why is the Rabbit so worried about losing his gloves and fan?

- **1.** They were magic and helped him grow and shrink — no support
- **2.** They were made of gold and cost thousands of pounds — no support
- **3.** They were part of being smartly dressed for the Duchess — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 4
- **4.** They were a gift from the Queen, who would count them — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 3 with score 4, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 81, line 10: «Kid gloves are gloves of soft leather from young goats ("kids"); with a fan, they were part of being smartly dressed, which is why the Rabbit is so upset to lo…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same doer «kid gloves» (+3); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+1). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/81-alice-s-victorian-world-tea-croquet-pocket-watches-shillings-and-chimney-sweeps/t5/)

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### Test 6 · ★★ · wrong ✗ {#t6}

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«why would anyone send a lizard down a chimney, that's so random» What is the real history behind it?

- **1.** Lizards were specially trained to clean the chimneys of old London houses because they love heat — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** Chimneys were where Victorians kept their pets in winter — no support
- **3.** Victorians sent small boys up chimneys to sweep them until a law stopped it — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **4.** Victorians kept lizards in chimneys to catch spiders — no support

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**Why:** No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/81-alice-s-victorian-world-tea-croquet-pocket-watches-shillings-and-chimney-sweeps/t6/)

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### Test 7 · ★★ · right ✓ {#t7}

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A girl goes into a bathing machine in a long dress and comes out into the sea in a bathing costume. What was the machine for?

- **1.** Changing in private and stepping straight into the water — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 6
- **2.** Washing the sand off her before she went home again — no support
- **3.** Keeping her warm while the sea heated up — no support
- **4.** Taking her out to a big ship anchored in the bay — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 1 with score 6, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 81, line 14: «Bathing machines were wooden huts on wheels that were pulled into the sea, so that people could change inside and step straight into the water without being se…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «step» (+4); the same place «water» (+2). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/81-alice-s-victorian-world-tea-croquet-pocket-watches-shillings-and-chimney-sweeps/t7/)

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### Test 8 · ★★ · wrong ✗ {#t8}

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«Nan says one old shilling is the same as 5p now» Is she right, if 20 shillings made a pound?

- **1.** No: a shilling was a tenth of a pound, so it is 10p now — **← Mova's choice** · score 4
- **2.** No: a shilling was worth more than a pound, about 120p — no support
- **3.** No: a shilling had 12 pennies in it, so it is 12p now — no support
- **4.** Yes: a pound is now 100p, and a twentieth of 100p is 5p — **✓ the right answer** · no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 4, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 81, line 15: «British money then was pounds, shillings and pence: 12 pennies made a shilling and 20 shillings made a pound; this lasted until 1971, when Britain switched to…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same circumstance (+4); the same doer «20 shillings» (+2). Against it: a different thing acted on (counts against) (-2). The right option, 4, found no support in what it remembers. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/81-alice-s-victorian-world-tea-croquet-pocket-watches-shillings-and-chimney-sweeps/t8/)

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### Test 9 · ★★ · right ✓ {#t9}

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Which is true about «mad as a hatter»?

- **1.** Hat-makers were harmed by mercury fumes, which may have helped the saying — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **2.** The saying was made up by Lewis Carroll in 1865 and nobody had ever said it before the book — no support
- **3.** Hatters were mad because their hats were too tight — no support
- **4.** All Victorian hat-makers were sent to hospital — no support

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**Why:** Nothing it remembers matched the question, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/81-alice-s-victorian-world-tea-croquet-pocket-watches-shillings-and-chimney-sweeps/t9/)

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### Test 10 · ★★ · wrong ✗ {#t10}

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In the book, the gardeners painting the roses are cards from one suit. Which one?

- **1.** Diamonds, which are the courtiers — **← Mova's choice** · score 9
- **2.** Clubs, which are the soldiers — score 9
- **3.** Hearts, which are the royal children — no support
- **4.** Spades, which look like garden spades — **✓ the right answer** · no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 9, tied with another option at 9 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 81, line 18: «In playing cards the Knave is the old name for the Jack, and in the book the four suits have jobs: spades are gardeners, clubs are soldiers, diamonds are court…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same doer «diamonds» (+5); the same thing acted on «courtiers» (+2); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+2). The right option, 4, found no support in what it remembers. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/81-alice-s-victorian-world-tea-croquet-pocket-watches-shillings-and-chimney-sweeps/t10/)

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### Test 11 · ★★ · right ✓ {#t11}

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★★★ The Hatter sells a hat for 10/6 (ten shillings and sixpence). With 12 pence to the shilling, how many old pennies is that?

- **1.** 126 — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **2.** 160 — no support
- **3.** 66 — no support
- **4.** 106 — no support

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**Why:** No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/81-alice-s-victorian-world-tea-croquet-pocket-watches-shillings-and-chimney-sweeps/t11/)

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### Test 12 · ★★ · wrong ✗ {#t12}

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★★★ A Victorian family buys three hats at 10/6 each. How much is that?

- **1.** £3 1s 6d (three pounds, one shilling and sixpence altogether) — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** £31 6d (thirty-one pounds and sixpence) — no support
- **3.** £1 10s 6d (one pound, ten shillings and sixpence) — no support
- **4.** £1 11s 6d (one pound, eleven shillings and sixpence) — **✓ the right answer** · no support

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**Why:** No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/81-alice-s-victorian-world-tea-croquet-pocket-watches-shillings-and-chimney-sweeps/t12/)

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### Exam question 1 · formal language · wrong ✗ {#e1}

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Identify the individual who composed «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» under the name Lewis Carroll.

- **1.** John Tenniel, illustrator of the first edition — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** Henry Liddell, father of the three sisters — no support
- **3.** Charles Dodgson, a lecturer in mathematics at Oxford — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **4.** Alice Liddell, to whom the tale was first narrated — no support

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**Why:** No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/81-alice-s-victorian-world-tea-croquet-pocket-watches-shillings-and-chimney-sweeps/e1/)

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### Exam question 2 · formal language · right ✓ {#e2}

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Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the timepiece carried by the White Rabbit?

- **1.** A clock of considerable size borne beneath the arm — no support
- **2.** A wristwatch of the type universally worn in the period — no support
- **3.** A sundial carried for the purpose of determining the hour — no support
- **4.** A pocket watch, customarily kept upon a chain in the waistcoat — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 5

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**Why:** It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 4 with score 5, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 81, line 2: «The White Rabbit pulls a watch out of his waistcoat pocket, because men then carried pocket watches on a chain, not watches on the wrist. The Hatter's tea-part…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same circumstance (+4); the same thing acted on «watch» (+3). Against it: a different action (counts against) (-2). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/81-alice-s-victorian-world-tea-croquet-pocket-watches-shillings-and-chimney-sweeps/e2/)

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### Exam question 3 · formal language · wrong ✗ {#e3}

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Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning climbing boys.

- **1.** The practice continued entirely lawfully and in every British city until the late twentieth century — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** Climbing boys were employed to pick fruit in the orchards of large estates — no support
- **3.** Climbing boys were sailors who repaired the rigging of ships — no support
- **4.** Young boys were compelled to clean chimneys until legislation of 1875 ended the practice — **✓ the right answer** · no support

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**Why:** No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/81-alice-s-victorian-world-tea-croquet-pocket-watches-shillings-and-chimney-sweeps/e3/)

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### Exam question 4 · formal language · wrong ✗ {#e4}

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Ascertain the number of shillings that constituted one pound in the currency used prior to 1971.

- **1.** Twelve — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** One hundred — no support
- **3.** Twenty — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **4.** Ten — no support

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**Why:** No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/81-alice-s-victorian-world-tea-croquet-pocket-watches-shillings-and-chimney-sweeps/e4/)

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- next →: [82. How writing began: from tally marks and pictures…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/history/82-how-writing-began-from-tally-marks-and-pictures-to-the-alphabet/)
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