Upper Intermediate reading exercise 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'

'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'

Read the opening paragraph from Lewis Carroll’s classic children’s story Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. When you have finished please chose the correct answer for each question:

‘Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, 'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice 'without pictures or conversation?'

So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.

There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, 'Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!' (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCH OUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT-POCKET, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.

In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.’

Link: Upper Int. reading exercise 1

• Where is Alice at the start of the story?
  
  in her garden
  near a river
  on a farm
  in her sister’s bedroom
  
  
• What word best decribes how Alice feels in the first paragraph?
  
  lazy
  confused
  sleepy
  bored
  
  
• A daisy is a type of ___?
  
  flower
  rabbit
  toy
  book
  
  
• How did Alice feel at the time when she heard the rabbit talk?
  
  hot
  normal
  surprised
  curious
  
  
• What do we know about the rabbit?
  
  It was going home
  It spoke to Alice
  It was in a rush
  It was scared of Alice
  
  
• Why does the author think Alice should not have gone down the hole?
  
  There was a fire near the hole
  Alice might not have been able to get back out
  She might have popped the hole
  She scared the rabbit