Class 11 English Unit 12: Down the Rabbit Hole by Lewis Caroll Language Development Section

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UihfRMHvUaI 

Unit 12 Fantasy: Down the Rabbit Hole by Lewis Carroll

Reflection of the Text

Alice was tired of sitting by her sister and having nothing to do, so she decided to make a daisy chain. When a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by, Alice was surprised to see it take a watch out of its waistcoat pocket and look at it. She ran across the field and was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit hole under the hedge. Alice ran after it, never considering how to get out again.

Alice is falling down a rabbit hole and finds herself in a deep well. She looks around and notices cupboards and bookshelves filled with maps and pictures. She takes down a jar from one of the shelves and puts it into one of the cupboards. She wonders how many miles she has fallen and wonders if she will fall through the earth. She wonders if she will be able to find the name of the country and asks her mother if she can manage it. Behind a thin curtain, Alice discovered a small door with a golden key in the handle.

When she unlocked the door, she discovered a tiny passageway that was a little larger than a rat hole. She crouched down and peered into the garden from the corridor, but she was unable to fit her head through the entrance. When she returned to the table, she discovered a small bottle with the words "DRINK ME" printed on a paper label. It wasn't something Alice was going to down quickly.

Because they failed to recall the straightforward principles their companions had taught them, the youngsters in those stories were burned or devoured by wild animals, according to Alice's reading. Although this bottle was not labelled as "poison," Alice decided to give it a try nevertheless.

Ways with words

A.   Find the meanings of the following words and phrases from a dictionary and make sentences by using them.

a.      peep into: to get a quick look into something

He peeped into the box and saw that his wife had gotten him a new watch.

b.     pop down: to go somewhere quickly

I’ll try to pop down tomorrow evening after dinner.

c.      remarkable: unusual, surprising, excellent, or worthy of notice

She has made remarkable progress.

d.     hedge: a row of bushes or small trees planted close together along the edge of a garden, field, or road

Buying a house is the best hedge against inflation.

e.      wonder: desire to know something

I wonder what the world is doing now.

f.       tumble: to fall quickly without control

He took a tumble in the hay with the farmer’s daughter.

g.     doze off: to sleep, especially during the day

He was just beginning to doze off when the telephone rang.

h.     earnestly: seriously

Even when I studied most earnestly, it seemed more like play than work.

i.       tiny: very small

He made a tiny hole in the paper.

j.       creep: to move slowly, quietly, and carefully to avoid being heard or noticed

She crept toward the edge of the roof and looked over.

B.   Match the words below with their opposites. (Answers)

a.      beginning = ending

b.     stupid = clever

c.      natural = artificial

d.     disappointment = happiness

e.      ignorant = educated

f.       anxiously = calmly

C.    Pronouncing /s/ and /ʃ/, /s/ and /z/

a.      Practise the initial pronunciation of the following pairs of words. (/s/ and /ʃ/)

see/she /siː/ /ʃiː/	sip/ship /sɪp/ /ʃɪp/	sort/short /sɔːt/ /ʃɔːt/	save/shave /seɪv/ /ʃeɪv/	sock/shock /sɒk/ /ʃɒk/
seat/sheet /siːt/ /ʃiːt/	so/show /səʊ/ /ʃəʊ/	sew/show /səʊ/ /ʃəʊ/	sit/shit /sɪt/ /ʃɪt/	said/shed /sed/ /ʃed/
		sake/shake /seɪk/ /ʃeɪk/	seep/sheep /siːp/ /ʃiːp/

b.     Pronounce the following minimal pairs of words correctly at the final position. (/s/ and /z/)

price/prize /praɪs/ /praɪz/	rice/rise /raɪs/ /raɪz/	peace/peas  /piːs/ /piːz/	loose/lose /luːs/ /luːz/
bus/buzz /bʌs/ /bʌz/	face/phase /feɪs/ /feɪz/	seal/zeal /siːl/ /ziːl/	device/devise dɪˈvaɪs/ /dɪˈvaɪz/

Comprehension

A.   Answer these questions.

a.     What did Alice do while her sister was reading a book?

Alice fell asleep while her sister was reading a book.

b.     Why did Alice run across the field after the Rabbit?

Alice ran across the field after the Rabbit because of her curiosity to know about the rabbit, which she had never seen before.

c.     Why didn’t she like to drop the jar? What did she do with it?

She didn’t like to drop the jar because she was afraid of killing somebody underneath. She put it into one of the cupboards.

d.      What idea came to her mind when she saw a tiny golden key?

When she saw a tiny golden key, the idea of opening one of the doors of the hall came to her mind.

e.     What was written on the bottle that she found? Did she follow what it said?

“DRINK ME” was written on the bottle that she found. Yes, she followed what it said.

f.     Alice was fond of pretending to be two people. Who were they?

They were Alice and herself.

g.       Why did she want to eat the cake that she found?

She wanted to eat the cake that she found because it might make her grow bigger.

B. Put these sentences in the right order as they happen in the story. (Answer)

i.       f. Alice saw a White Rabbit and ran after him.

ii.     c. Alice fell into a rabbit hole.

iii.  b. Alice found a small key and unblocked a very small door.

iv.   d. Alice drank something from a bottle and got very small.

v.     e. Alice tried to climb a table leg to get the key again.

vi.   a. Alice ate a small cake, which said “EAT ME”

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