STAGE
Alice’s Adventures in
2 Wonderland
Lewis Carroll
Introduction
This ungraded summary is for the teacher’s use only
and should not be given to students.
The story
Alice is sitting under a tree with her sister feeling
bored. She falls asleep and begins a strange dream.
Suddenly a White Rabbit runs past her looking at
his watch. Alice follows the rabbit down a larger hole
and falls past walls full of books, pictures and other
objects.
She arrives at the bottom safely and continues
to chase the Rabbit stopping only when she comes
to a long dark corridor with doors leading in many
directions. Where has the White Rabbit gone?
All the doors she tries to open are locked. She finds
a small gold key and uses it to open one of the doors.
But she is too big to enter. Beside her there is a bottle
labelled DRINK ME, which she does. She gets smaller
but too small to reach the key which is on the table.
Next she finds a box with a cake in it. The label says
EAT ME, which she does. She gets bigger, too big to
be in the corridor. She starts to cry with frustration.
The White Rabbit runs past dropping his fan and
gloves. Alice picks up the gloves and gets very small,
so small that she is now swimming in her own tears.
She swims to the side of the pool and gets out.
The White Rabbit appears again. He is late for his
appointment with the Duchess and cannot find his
fan and gloves. He tells Alice to go and get them but
where is the White Rabbit’s house and how can she
get bigger again?
Alice meets a Caterpillar who tells her how eating
from different sides of a mushroom will make her
bigger or smaller. She experiments with her size until
she gets it right. While wandering through a wood she
finds a house. Outside there is a fish dressed as a boy
who is delivering a letter for the Duchess. Alice opens
the door to the house and goes in. Inside the Duchess
is holding the baby. She gives it to Alice but the baby
turns into a pig! The Duchess’s cat, the Cheshire Cat,
says he is not surprised at all and suggests that Alice
could go and meet the March Hare.
Alice eats a little mushroom to make her a bit
bigger and goes into the March Hare’s garden. Here
she finds the March Hare and the Mad Hatter having
tea with a Dormouse. It is always tea-time because
11
it is always six o’clock there. Alice decides to leave
when they try to put the Dormouse in the tea-pot.
As she is walking along she finds a door in a tree
and goes through only to find herself back in the
long room. She eats a bit of the mushroom and gets
smaller, unlocks the door with the gold key and goes
into a beautiful garden. It is the Queen’s garden!
Alice discovers the Queen and the King and the
court are really only a pack of cards. The Queen is very
irritable and she is always calling for someone’s head
to be chopped off. So, when Alice is invited to play
croquet she is careful to be polite. It is a very strange
game of croquet. They use hedgehogs as balls and
flamingoes as mallets.
After the croquet game the Knave of Hearts is put
on trial for stealing the Queen’s tarts. None of the
witnesses can give any evidence that makes sense.
The Queen gets angry with Alice for saying that it is
all nonsense but Alice says that she does not care
because they are all only a pack of cards. They fly into
the air and begin to fall on Alice’s face. Alice wakes up
and realizes that it is leaves that are falling all around
her, not cards. What a curious dream indeed!
Background to the story
Lewis Carroll is the pseudonym for Charles Lutwidge
Dodgson who was a mathematics lecturer at Oxford
in the mid-nineteenth century. The idea for Alice in
Wonderland came to Dodgson while on a boat trip
with Alice and the other young daughters of one of
his friends. The story has continued to delight children
ever since and the Cheshire Cat has entered the
English language as a way of describing someone’s
smile.
© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
 STAGE
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
2 Pre-reading activity
Match the pictures with the words
1 2
4 5
7 8
a This time the Cat vanished very slowly.
b The Rabbit jumped wildly, and dropped the
gloves and the fan.
c The March Hare and the Hatter were
having tea.
d Suddenly a White Rabbit ran past her.
To the teacher
Aim: To familiarize students with the story and its
setting
Time: 10–15 minutes
Organization: Give one copy of the worksheet to
each student or group of students. Ask the students
to match the words with the appropriate picture.
PHOTOCOPIABLE © OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
3
e Alice looked through the door into a
beautiful garden.
f ‘Off with its head!’ the Queen shouted.
g ‘Explain yourself!’ said the Caterpillar.
h ‘A letter for the Duchess,’ the Fish-Boy
shouted.
When the students have completed this task, check
the answers with them. Ask students to make a list
of all the characters who appear in these pictures and
then decide on a possible order for the pictures.
Key: 1a, 2e, 3c, 4b, 5h, 6g, 7f, 8d
12
 STAGE
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
2 While reading activity

Re-order events / What happens next?

Put these events in order.

EVENT ORdER
a A White Rabbit with pink eyes runs past Alice.
b Alice becomes only 24 centimetres high.
c Alice becomes smaller again.
d Alice drinks from the bottle called DRINK ME.
e Alice eats a very small cake called EAT ME.
f Alice falls down a rabbit hole.
g Alice gets bigger and bigger.
h Alice picks up the rabbit’s gloves and fan.
i Alice unlocks the little door with the key.
j Alice swims in a pool of her own tears.

What do you think happens next?

YES NO
1 Alice brings the mouse some gloves and a fan.
2 Alice eats some mushrooms to become big again.
3 The White Rabbit helps her get home.
4 A Caterpillar tells Alice how to become tall again.
5 Alice finds another door and goes through it.
6 Alice meets the Duchess.
7 Alice meets a cat with a big smile.
8 Your suggestion.

To the teacher

Where: At the end of Chapter 3
Aim: To revise the events of the first two chapters
and anticipate some of the events of the following
two
Time: 10–20 minutes
Organization: Give the worksheet to students or
groups of students and ask them to do the first
activity. When they have finished, check their
answers and ask them to do the second activity
before they read the next two chapters. They shoud
keep their answers to hand when they read so that
they can confirm them.
Key 1: 1a, 2f, 3i, 4d, 5b, 6e, 7g, 8h, 9c, 10j
Key 2: 1 No, 2 Yes, 3 No, 4 Yes, 5 No, 6 Yes, 7 Yes

13 © OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS PHOTOCOPIABLE

 STAGE
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
2 After reading activity

Who’s who?

1 The White Rabbit 9 gets bigger and smaller 17 has pink eyes and a
.................................... pocket watch

2 The Duchess 10 pour tea on the 18 sing songs all the time
.................................... Dormouse’s nose

3 The Mad Hatter and 11 swims in her own tears 19 tells Alice how to get
the March Hare smaller or bigger
....................................

4 The Cheshire Cat 12 smokes a pipe 20 try to put the

.................................... Dormouse in
the teapot

5 The Caterpillar 13 carries white gloves 21 wants to execute

.................................... and a fan everybody

6 The Queen 14 follows the White 22 has a cat called

.................................... Rabbit down a hole the Cheshire Cat

7 The Mock Turtle 15 can appear and disappear 23 has a big grin
and Gryphon when it wants
....................................

8 Alice 16 are very large 24 gives Alice a

.................................... screaming baby

To the teacher

up the names in the column with the events or

Aim: To revise events and characters in the story
characteristics in the next two columns.
Time: 15–20 minutes
Key: 1: 17, 13; 2: 22, 24; 3: 10, 20; 4: 15, 23; 5: 12,
Organization: Give students or groups of students
19; 6: 21; 7: 16, 18; 8: 14, 11, 9
a copy of the worksheet and ask them to match

PHOTOCOPIABLE © OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 14