Alice in Wonderland: Down the Rabbit Hole

In bold: key vocabulary. Tap any word in the text to see its definition.

Alice was sitting on a riverbank with her sister on a warm afternoon, and she was bored to tears. Her sister was reading a book with no pictures and no conversations, and Alice could not see the point of it. She was wondering whether making a daisy chain was worth the trouble of getting up, when a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by.

There was nothing very remarkable in that, but the Rabbit said to itself, "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!" and then it took a watch out of its waistcoat pocket, looked at it, and hurried on. Alice jumped to her feet, because she had never before seen a rabbit with a waistcoat or a watch. Burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and she was just in time to see it pop down a large hole under the hedge.

In another moment, down went Alice after it, without thinking how she would ever get out again. The hole went straight down like a tunnel, and then it dipped so suddenly that she had no time to stop. She fell, and fell, and fell. On the walls there were cupboards and bookshelves, and as she passed one shelf, she took down a jar labeled "ORANGE MARMALADE." To her disappointment, it was empty, so she put it back on another shelf as she tumbled past.

At last, thump! She landed on a heap of dry leaves, and the fall was over. She was not hurt. Before her was a long, low hall lit by a row of lamps. There were doors all round it, but every one was locked. Alice walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she would ever get out.

Suddenly, she came to a little three-legged glass table. On it lay a tiny golden key. She tried it in every door, but it was too small for all of them. Then, behind a low curtain, she found a little door about fifteen inches high. The key fitted! Alice opened it and saw a passage no bigger than a rat-hole, and beyond it, the loveliest garden she had ever seen. She could not even get her head through the door.

Back at the table, there was now a little bottle with a paper label: "DRINK ME." Alice drank it, and to her surprise, she began to shrink. Soon, she was only ten inches high, the perfect size for the little door. But she had left the golden key on the table, and now it was much too high to reach. She sat down and began to cry.

Under the table, she found a small glass box with a cake inside. The words "EAT ME" were spelled in currants. "Well, I'll eat it," said Alice. "If it makes me larger, I can reach the key, and if it makes me smaller, I can creep under the door." She ate a small piece and held her hand on top of her head to feel which way she was going. To her astonishment, she stayed the same size. "Curiouser and curiouser!" she cried. "Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle!"