Through the Looking-Glass

Lewis Carroll

Oxford Bookworms LibraryLevel 3

A level 3 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by Jennifer Bassett.

I wish I could get through into looking-glass house,' Alice said. 'Let's pretend that the glass has gone soft and… Why, I do believe it has! It's turning into a kind of cloud!'

A moment later Alice is inside the looking-glass world. There she finds herself part of a great game of chess, travelling through forests and jumping across brooks. The chess pieces talk and argue with her, give orders and repeat poems…

It is the strangest dream that anyone ever had…

Lewis Carroll

Through the Looking-Glass

THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS

�You can be the White Queen’s pawn,’ the Red Queen tells Alice. �A pawn goes two squares in its first move. So you’ll go very quickly through the Third Square – by railway, probably. Then in the Fourth Square you’ll meet Tweedledum and Tweedledee. The Fifth Square is mostly water, and the Sixth belongs to Humpty Dumpty. The Seventh Square is all forest – one of the Knights will show you the way.’

And in the Eighth Square Alice will become a Queen. But what a strange game of chess it is! In the looking-glass world all the chess pieces argue with you, and you have to run very fast just to stay in the same place. Here, time runs backwards and the White Queen can remember what happened the week after next.

And whose dream is it, anyway? Is it Alice’s dream, or is she just a part of the Red King’s dream? And if so, what will happen if he wakes up?

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in

Oxford New York

Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto

With offices in

Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam

OXFORD and OXFORD ENGLISH are registered trade marks of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries

This simplified edition В© Oxford University Press 2008

Database right Oxford University Press (maker)

First published in Oxford Bookworms 1995

2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

No unauthorized photocopying

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the ELT Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above

You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer

Any websites referred to in this publication are in the public domain and their addresses are provided by Oxford University Press for information only. Oxford University Press disclaims any responsibility for the content

ISBN 978 0 19 479134 2

Printed in Hong Kong

Word count (main text): 10,605 words

For more information on the Oxford Bookworms Library, visit www.oup.com/bookworms

e-Book ISBN 978 0 19 478658 4

e-Book first published 2012

THE GAME OF CHESS

Chess is a game for two people, played on a chess-board marked with sixty-four black and white squares. The thirty-two chess pieces – also called chessmen – are black (or red) and white, and are called kings, queens, bishops, knights, castles (or rooks), and pawns. The pawn is the smallest and least important piece.

If a pawn reaches the eighth square on the opposite side of the board, it can be exchanged for a queen. This is what happens to Alice in the story.

CHARACTERS IN THE STORY

CHESSMEN

The White Queen

The Red Qu