James Grover Thurber

(December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961)

J. G. Thurber was an American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright, and celebrated wit. Thurber was best known for his cartoons and short stories, published mainly in The New Yorker magazine and collected in his numerous books.

Many of his short stories are humorous fictional memoirs from his life. His best-known short stories are "The Dog That Bit People" and "The Night the Bed Fell"; they can be found in My Life and Hard Times, the creative mix of autobiography and fiction which was his "break-out" book. Among his other classics is "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty".

In addition to his other fiction, Thurber wrote over seventy-five fables, some of which were first published in "The New Yorker" (1939), then collected in Fables for Our Time & Famous Poems Illustrated (1940) and Further Fables for Our Time (1956). These were short, featured anthropomorphic animals (e.g. The Little Girl and the Wolf, his version of Little Red Riding Hood) as main characters, and ended with a moral as a tagline. An exception to this format was his most famous fable, The Unicorn in the Garden.

Thurber's fables were satirical, and the morals served as punchlines (последнее предложение в анекдоте) as well as advice to the reader, demonstrating "the complexity of life by depicting the world as an uncertain, precarious (ненадежный) place, where few reliable guidelines exist."[8]

The Unicorn in the Garden. (James Thurber)

1. Nook – уголок, укромное место

Напр., We found a seat in a little nook, and had some lunch.

2. Scrambled eggs – омлет

Напр., Scrambled eggs is a dish made from beaten whites and yolks of eggs (usually chicken).

3. Unicorn – единорог

Напр., A unicorn is a mythical animal typically represented as a horse with a single straight horn projecting from its forehead.

4. To browse – объедать, ощипывать листья, молодые побеги

Напр., Many animals like to browse on leaves.

5. To rouse – будить, пробуждать (ото сна)

Напр., I had to shake him several times to rouse him from his sleep.

6. Booby hatch – сумасшедший дом, психушка

Напр., If any of my friends heard you, they'd say you belonged in the booby hatch.

7. Forehead – лоб

Напр., Your forehead is the area at the front of your head between your eyebrows and your hair.

8. Gloat – злорадство, взгляд полный злорадства

Напр., If someone is gloating, they are showing pleasure at their own success or at other people's failure in an arrogant and unpleasant way.

9. Subdue - подчинять,смирять

Напр., If soldiers or the police subdue a group of people, they defeat them or bring them under control by using force.

10. Jaybird – сойка

11. To crop – щипать, объедать (траву, растительность)

Напр., The horse was gratefully cropping the grass.

12. Beast – зверь

Напр., You can refer to an animal as a beast, especially if it is a large, dangerous, or unusual one.

13. Gravely – серьёзно

Напр., He shook his head gravely

14. Don't count your chickens before they are hatchedпосл. ≈ цыплят по осени считают; см. тж. count one's chickens before they are hatched.

Once upon a sunny morning, a man who sat at his breakfast looked up from his scrambled eggs to see a white unicorn with a golden horn quietly cropping the roses in the garden.

The man went up to the bedroom where his wife was still asleep and woke her. – There's a unicorn in the garden, - he said. Eating roses.She opened one unfriendly eye and looked at him. - The unicorn is a mythical beast, - she said, and turned her back on him.

The man walked slowly downstairs and out into the garden. The unicorn was still there; he was now browsing among the tulips. - Here, unicorn, said the man, and he pulled up a lily and gave it to him. The unicorn ate it gravely. With a high heart, because there was a unicorn in his garden, the man went upstairs and roused his wife again.

- The unicorn,- he said, - ate a lily. His wife sat up in bed and looked at him, coldly. - You are a booby,- she said, - and I am going to have you put in the booby-hatch.

The man, who had never liked the words booby and booby-hatch, and who liked them even less on a shining morning when there was a unicorn in the garden, thought for a moment. - We'll see about that,- he said. He walked over to the door. - He has a golden horn in the middle of his forehead,- he told her. Then he went back to the garden to watch the unicorn; but the unicorn had gone away. The man sat down among the roses and went to sleep.

As soon as the husband had gone out of the house, the wife got up and dressed as fast as she could. She was very excited and there was a gloat in her eye. She telephoned the police and she telephoned a psychiatrist; she told them to hurry to her house and bring a straight-jacket.

When the police and the psychiatrist arrived, they sat down in chairs and looked at her, with great interest. -My husband,- she said, - saw a unicorn this morning.- The police looked at the psychiatrist and the psychiatrist looked at the police. -He told me it ate a lily,- she said. The psychiatrist looked at the police and the police looked at the psychiatrist. -He told me it had a golden horn in the middle of its forehead,- she said.

At a solemn signal from the psychiatrist, the police leaped from their chairs and seized the wife. They had a hard time subduing her, for she put up a terrific struggle, but they finally subdued her. Just as they got her into the straight-jacket, the husband came back into the house.

- Did you tell your wife you saw a unicorn?-asked the police. -Of course not,- said the husband. -The unicorn is a mythical beast. –That's all I wanted to know,-said the psychiatrist. -Take her away. I'm sorry, sir, but your wife is as crazy as a jay bird. So they took her away, cursing and screaming, and shut her up in an institution. The husband lived happily ever after.

Moral: Don't count your boobies until they are hatched.

Exercises:

1.Yes, No or Maybe?

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.

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. 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 thepsychiatrist and be shut up in an institution.

8. 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.

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 902