Vocabulary ladder
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
I. Down the Rabbit-Hole
2,175 words. Everyday vocabulary (band A) covers 69% of the text; the hard 3% is 32 entries — all of them below.
A 68.7% (365 types) B 4.1% (62 types) C 1.7% (31 entries) D 1.1% (19 entries) E 0.2% (2 entries) N 2.1% (11 entries)
Band B — common reading vocabulary
A sample of 24 of 62 — you will meet these often; they are explained only at the fullest help level.
- unpleasant
- creep
- curtain
- roast
- candle ×3
- fond
- sharply
- fountains
- beautifully ×2
- jar ×2
- overhead
- dull
- toast
- curiosity
- delight
- fortunately
- poker
- disappointment
- shelves
- dipped
- ignorant
- lamps
- rabbit ×6
- cheated
Band C — recognition checklist
All 31 upper-intermediate words in this chapter. Tick the ones you know; the rest are explained at the fullest help level.
- bookshelves
- earnestly
- saucer
- anxiously
- dreamy
- kneel
- brighten
- didn
- plainly
- peep
- tumble
- cupboard
- peg
- aloud
- doorway
- pineapple
- heap
- slippery
- seldom
- alas
- wander
- sleepy
- downward
- respectable
- bleed
- presently
- flavour
- shrink
- hedge
- telescope
- daisy
Band D — advanced (19 entries)
- cherry-tart
- a pastry filled with cherries
- daisy-chain
- daisies strung together
- out-of-the-way ×2
- unusual
- three-legged
- with three legs
- rabbit-hole ×3
- the burrow of a rabbit
- rat-hole
- a rat's hole
- red-hot
- glowing hot
- schoolroom
- a room for lessons
- tea-time
- the hour of tea
- currants
- a small dried grape
- dozing
- nineteen to the dozen: without stopping
- croquet
- a lawn game of knocking balls through hoops with mallets
- couldn
- could — couldn't: could not
- wouldn
- wouldn't: would not
- toffee
- a chewy sweet of boiled sugar and butter
- scolded
- to find fault angrily
- thump ×2
- a heavy blow
- whiskers
- hair on the cheeks
- custard
- a sweet sauce of eggs and milk
Band E — rare & archaic (2 entries)
- waistcoat-pocket ×2
- the little pocket of a waistcoat
- curtsey · curtseying ×2
- a woman's bow, bending the knees
False friends — common words wearing old senses (2)
- passage
- a sea-journey — the old sense here
- use
- habit; custom — the old sense here
Names (4)
- antipathies
- Alice's slip for the Antipodes: the far side of the world
- Drink me
- the label on the little bottle
- Eat me
- the words marked on the little cake
- White Rabbit
- the hurrying rabbit with the watch, whom Alice follows