A Unicorn in The Garden
The Unicorn in the Garden
Author:
James Thurber
Time: A sunny morning; in Spring.
Place: In the couple's house.
Plot:
Rising actions: The husband sees a Unicorn and tells his wife about it.
Conflict: She doesn’t believe him.
Climax: There's a phone call.
Falling action: The professionals go the house.
Denouement: They believe him and take her to a mental institution.
Characters:
Main: Husband and Wife
Supporting: Doctor, Policeman, Unicorn
Point of view:
Third person
Moral: Don't count your boobies until they are hatched.
"Don't count your boobies until they are hatched": from the American expression "Don't count your chickens before they are hatched", meaning "Don't count on things to turn out exactly as you planned them."
Exercises
1. Yes, No or Maybe? In each case, give a reason for your answer.
a. The man found it hard to believe there could be a unicorn in his garden.
b. The wife didn’t believe in unicorns.
c. The wife told her husband he was stupid.
d. The unicorn is in fact a neighbour who disguised himself.
2. Why do you think the man walked slowly downstairs?
3. Find a word or expression in the paragraph which means the same thing as:
a. eating
b. imaginary
c. happily
d. woke
e. madman
f. a lunatic asylum
4. Rewrite the following false statements to make them true.
a. The wife was worried when she called the police and the psychiatrist.
b. She told them to come to her house when they had time.
c. The psychiatrist leapt up and grabbed the wife.
d. They were unable to subdue her.
5. Why do you think the wife got up and dressed as fast as she could?
6. The police and the psychiatrist looked at the wife with great interest because...
A. they were interested in knowing more about the husband.
B. they were already quite sure she was crazy.
C. it was part of their job always to seem interested in what people told them.
7. Find a word or expression which means the opposite of
a. excite
b. it was easy for them
c. she did not resist
8. Supply the missing link-words so that the sentences give the meaning of the text.
- The wife telephoned the police _______________ her husband was asleep in the garden.
- ________________ the wife looked excited, the police and the psychiatrist thought she was crazy.
c. ___________________ she wanted the police to arrest her husband, she was arrested herself.
9. Identify the errors in the following summary of this paragraph.
When the husband went out, the wife left the house as quickly as she could and called the police and the psychiatrist. When they arrived she told them there was a unicorn in the garden and they realized she was mad. They finally jumped on her and had no difficulty putting her into a straight-jacket.
10. The husband said he had never seen a unicorn because...
A. he didn’t like psychiatrists and did not want to tell them the truth.
B. he was hoping to get rid of his wife by not telling them the truth.
C. he didn’t remember what had happened to him in the morning.
D. he had never seen a unicorn and had told his wife a lie, knowing she would call the
psychiatrist and be shut up in an institution.
11. At the end of the text...
A. the husband succeeds in getting rid of his wife.
B. the wife succeeds in making her husband admit he’d never seen a unicorn.
C. both husband and wife gain something.
12. Find three words or expressions showing how violent the wife becomes at the end of the text.
13. Is the text organised in a logical, argumentative or chronological way?
What link-words or expressions reflect this organisation?
14. For each of these adjectives, say who it refers to, when it is used and why it is applied to that person.
Adjective
|
Who?
|
When?
|
Why?
|
Cold
| |||
Excited
| |||
Happy
| |||
Solemn
| |||
Quiet
|
15. There is a great difference between the behaviour of the husband and his wife in the story. Read it again, paying particular attention to the various ways this difference is revealed, then complete the following table:
Husband
|
Wife
| |
How they react to the unicorn.
| ||
Pronoun used to refer to the unicorn.
| ||
Attitude towards their wife/husband.
| ||
Their surroundings.
| ||
How you interpret their behaviour.
| ||
16. Who says the following words, on what occasion, and why?
Who?
|
When?
|
Why?
| |
‘You are a booby’
| |||
‘The unicorn is a mythical beast’
|
-----------------
|
---------------------------------------
|
------------------------------------------------
|
‘We’ll see about that.’
|
17. Suggest another title for the story. ____________________________________________________________
18. Suggest another moral for the story._____________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
19. Complete the following summary of the story.
This is the story of a man who, one day,___________________________________ in his garden.
His first reaction is _____________________________ but she _________________________ .
When he goes back to the garden the man ____________________________________ and he is
so happy and excited that he goes back ___________________________ . However, she threatens
to __________________________________________. When he goes to see the unicorn again,
he ____________________________________ and she _______________________________.
However, when the police and psychiatrist come they think _______________________________
and they ______________________________________________________. When the husband
comes in they ask him ______________________ He tells them __________________________
_________________________________________________________ so they _____________
____________________________________________________________________________
20. Unjumble the following words to make sentences about the story.
a. more husband the poetic wife. is The than
____________________________________________________________________________
b. crazy. psychiatrist never was believed that the The husband
____________________________________________________________________________
c. life in enjoyed The an live had his husband wife his after to institution. gone
____________________________________________________________________________
