Pronunciation Chart

Click, view and Listen the
British Council's
Pronunciation Chart

We are family...

Wendy and Carnie Wilson
Click and go to their
official page

When you hear the final whistle

Famous (cheating) moments in sport

If you really want to win, cheat

Click on SPORTS and
enjoy the vocabulary

FOOD: FUEL OR PLEASURE?

Click on EATING OUT
and enjoy the vocabulary.







You can also follow HARROD'S food blog on facebook.

London Gastro Pubs

At a London gastro pub you can pop in for a swift half pint, or settle in and enjoy a relaxed meal made from well-sourced, seasonal produce.

Some have pretty gardens where you can eat al fresco, others host comedy nights and DJs. All combine top-notch food with a relaxed atmosphere and a relatively affordable menu.

Welcome to London's best gastro pubs!
http://www.visitlondon.com/attractions/pubs_bars/gastro-pubs?WT.mc_id=sm_facebook_vl

Edgar Allan Poe - Biography

Click on POE and read the writer's biography.

The Red Death- by E.A. Poe

Questions


1. How was it possible to recognize the sick people?
2. What did the nobles do to keep the castle free from the disease?
3. What did Prince Prospero organize?
4. How were the diferent rooms decorated?
5. What happened before the clock ended its twelfth stroke?
6. Why was everybody disgusted with the mysterious masked man?
7. Who was the visitor? Why did he go to the castle?

Student's answers:

1. Sick people could be recognized because they had sharp pains, sudden fainting, heavy bleeding through the skin and red marks on the body.
2. The nobles heated and melted the locks of the gates. They closed everything and nobody could enter or leave the castle.
3. Prince Prospero organized an unusual grand mask dance to avoid thinking about the disease.
4. It was painted and decorated in seven different colours (blue, yellow, green,etc.) and the colours of the windows matched with the walls, but one room was different. The last one was painted in black and the window was red. All of them were lit from a fire made outside.
5. When the last stroke ended, people had diferent feelings: confusion, discomfort, fear .
6. Because everybody in the castle was there to escape from the sickness and his presence was taken as an offence. They thought it was not a good joke.
7. The read visitor. It went to the castle to take their lives.

Summary:

A terrible disease called the Red Death has struck the country. It's incredibly fatal, horribly gruesome, and it's already killed off half the kingdom. But the ruler of these parts, Prince Prospero, doesn't seem to care about his poor, dying subjects. Instead, he decides to let the kingdom take care of itself while he and a thousand of his favorite knights and ladies shut themselves up in a fabulous castle to have one never-ending party. Wine, women, music, dancing, fools – Prospero's castle has it all. After the last guest enters, no one else can get in – the Prince has welded the doors shut. That means no one can get out, either…

About five or six months into his stay, Prospero decides to have a spectacular masquerade ball (a ball where the guests where masks and costumes). The setup is weird and wild, just like the Prince who designs it. The ball takes place in a suite of seven rooms, each one dressed up in a different color: blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and black. The black room, which looks like death, is awfully creepy – it's got dark black walls, blood red windows, and big black clock which chimes so eerily every hour that everybody at the party stops dancing and laughs nervously. Most of the frolicking masqueraders are too weirded out to go into the black room.

Anyway, the party's in full swing and everybody's having a wild time when the clock strikes midnight. Everyone stops dancing and falls momentarily silent, as usual. Then some of the dancers notice a guest no one had seen before, wearing a scandalous costume. Whoever the new guest is, he's decided to dress as a corpse, a corpse who died of…the Red Death. He's so frighteningly lifelike (deathlike?) he freaks everybody out, and he slowly starts "stalking" through the frightened crowd. When Prince Prospero sees the ghostly guest, he's furious that someone would have the nerve to wear such a costume, and orders him to be seized and unmasked. But no one has the guts to do it, including Prospero himself.

The Red Death masquerader passes within a few feet of the Prince and starts to walk through the rooms, heading toward the black room. Prospero loses it and runs after him in a rage, drawing his dagger as he approaches. But just as Prospero reaches the edge of the black room, the corpselike guest suddenly whirls around to face him, and Prospero falls to the ground, dead. The shocked crowd throws itself at the guest, only to discover in horror that there's nothing underneath the mask and costume. The Red Death itself has come to the party. One by one the guests die, spilling their blood all over Prospero's lavish rooms. The candles go out, leaving only "darkness, decay, and the Red Death."

Reported Speech: Say, Tell, Ask

say, tell, give, ask
You use say when you are mentioning someone's exact words• 'Hello,' she said.• Someone said, 'Let's go!'Say can be followed by 'that'• He said that he was tired.In speech people often leave out 'that'• They said there had been a mistake.Say can be followed by 'something', 'anything', 'nothing', or 'so'• Did you say something?• Nobody dared to say anything.• You have to come - Dad said so.It can also be followed by 'goodbye' or 'hello'• I'll just go and say hello to David.
Apart from these uses, say is not normally followed by an object. For example, it cannot be followed by 'a story', 'a lie', 'some information', or 'an answer'.You tell a story, a joke, a lie, or the truth• They told a funny story about their trip.You give information, an order, an instruction, or an answer• He gave no reply.!! You do not say a question. You ask a question• Can I ask a question?
You can say something to someone• Has he said something to you?When talking about giving information, it is more usual to say that you tell someone something• Clare told us something interesting (NOT said us something...).• Can anyone tell me what time it is? (NOT say to me what...)You can tell someone about something• Did you tell Lucy about the party? (NOT say to Lucy about...)You can say to do something, but it is more usual to tell someone to dosomething• The teacher told us to open our books (NOT said us/said to us to...).
If you want to do some exercises click:
http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/reported-speech-exercises.html
or 
http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/cw-say-tell.htm

Vocabulary - Word Formation

Word Formation

1.

ü South (noun)

ü South (adjective)

ü South (adverb): towards the south

ü Southern (adjective): in or from the south part of an area

He travelled directly________, by the ________route, towards the ________ of the island near ________ Africa.

He travelled directly south, by the southern route, towards the south of the island near South Africa.

2.

ü Raffle (noun)

ü Raffle (verb)

Last month the supermarket ________ a bike. I didn’t win but, luckily, I won a car in a ________ yesterday!

Last month the supermarket raffled a bike. I didn’t win but, luckily, I won a car in a raffle yesterday!

3.

ü Excite (verb)

ü Excited (adjective)

ü Excitement (noun)

ü Exciting (adjective)

This is a really ________book. I was very ________ when Mark gave it to me.

Nothing about my life ________ me at present. I want________!. What should I do?

This is a really exciting book. I was very excited when Mark gave it to me.

Nothing about my life excites me at present. I want excitement!. What should I do?

4.

ü Employment (noun)

ü Employ (verb)

ü Employee (noun)

ü Employer (noun)

ü Employable (adjective)

ü Be employed in doing something

Conversation 1

A- How many people does the company ________?

B- They _______ over thousand persons. They have several________. It is one of the largest _______ in the area.

A- Did you fin a job in that company?

B- Unfortunately no, they told me that I was an ________ person but they weren’t looking for another accountant. I’m finding it more and more difficult to find ________.

Conversation 2

A- Could you phone Mary yesterday?

B- No, I was _______ in cooking.

Conversation 1

A- How many people does the company employ?

B- They employ over thousand persons. They have several employees. It is one of the largest employers in the area.

A- Did you fin a job in that company?

B- Unfortunately no, they told me that I was an employable person but they weren’t looking for another accountant. I’m finding it more and more difficult to find employment.

Conversation 2

A- Could you phone Mary yesterday?

B- No, I was employed in cooking.

Pilar Souto

William Wilson by Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar A. Poe

Biography

Poe's Childhood

Edgar Poe was born in Boston on January 19, 1809. That makes him Capricorn, on the cusp of Aquarius. His parents were David and Elizabeth Poe. David was born in Baltimore on July 18, 1784. Elizabeth Arnold came to the U.S. from England in 1796 and married David Poe after her first husband died in 1805. They had three children, Henry, Edgar, and Rosalie.

Elizabeth Poe died in 1811, when Edgar was 2 years old. She had separated from her husband and had taken her three kids with her. Henry went to live with his grandparents while Edgar was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. John Allan and Rosalie was taken in by another family. John Allan was a successful merchant, so Edgar grew up in good surroundings and went to good schools.

When Poe was 6, he went to school in England for 5 years. He learned Latin and French, as well as math and history. He later returned to school in America and continued his studies. Edgar Allan went to the University of Virginia in 1826. He was 17. Even though John Allan had plenty of money, he only gave Edgar about a third of what he needed. Although Edgar had done well in Latin and French, he started to drink heavily and quickly became in debt. He had to quit school less than a year later.

Poe in the Army

Edgar Allan had no money, no job skills, and had been shunned by John Allan. Edgar went to Boston and joined the U.S. Army in 1827. He was 18. He did reasonably well in the Army and attained the rank of sergeant major. In 1829, Mrs. Allan died and John Allan tried to be friendly towards Edgar and signed Edgar's application to West Point.

While waiting to enter West Point, Edgar lived with his grandmother and his aunt, Mrs. Clemm. Also living there was his brother, Henry, and young cousin, Virginia. In 1830, Edgar Allan entered West Point as a cadet. He didn't stay long because John Allan refused to send him any money. It is thought that Edgar purposely broke the rules and ignored his duties so he would be dismissed.

A Struggling Writer

In 1831, Edgar Allan Poe went to New York City where he had some of his poetry published. He submitted stories to a number of magazines and they were all rejected. Poe had no friends, no job, and was in financial trouble. He sent a letter to John Allan begging for help but none came. John Allan died in 1834 and did not mention Edgar in his will.

In 1835, Edgar finally got a job as an editor of a newspaper because of a contest he won with his story, "The Manuscript Found in a Bottle". Edgar missed Mrs. Clemm and Virginia and brought them to Richmond to live with him. In 1836, Edgar married his cousin, Virginia. He was 27 and she was 13. Many sources say Virginia was 14, but this is incorrect. Virginia Clemm was born on August 22, 1822. They were married before her 14th birthday, in May of 1836. In case you didn't figure it out already, Virginia was Virgo.

As the editor for the Southern Literary Messenger, Poe successfully managed the paper and increased its circulation from 500 to 3500 copies. Despite this, Poe left the paper in early 1836, complaining of the poor salary. In 1837, Edgar went to New York. He wrote "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym" but he could not find any financial success. He moved to Philadelphia in 1838 where he wrote "Ligeia" and "The Haunted Palace". His first volume of short stories, "Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque" was published in 1839. Poe received the copyright and 20 copies of the book, but no money.

Sometime in 1840, Edgar Poe joined George R. Graham as an editor for Graham's Magazine. During the two years that Poe worked for Graham's, he published his first detective story, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and challenged readers to send in cryptograms, which he always solved. During the time Poe was editor, the circulation of the magazine rose from 5000 to 35,000 copies. Poe left Graham's in 1842 because he wanted to start his own magazine.

Poe found himself without a regular job once again. He tried to start a magazine called The Stylus and failed. In 1843, he published some booklets containing a few of his short stories but they didn't sell well enough. He won a hundred dollars for his story, "The Gold Bug" and sold a few other stories to magazines but he barely had enough money to support his family. Often, Mrs. Clemm had to contribute financially. In 1844, Poe moved back to New York. Even though "The Gold Bug" had a circulation of around 300,000 copies, he could barely make a living.

In 1845, Edgar Poe became an editor at The Broadway Journal. A year later, the Journal ran out of money and Poe was out of a job again. He and his family moved to a small cottage near what is now East 192nd Street. Virginia's health was fading away and Edgar was deeply distressed by it. Virginia died in 1847, 10 days after Edgar's birthday. After losing his wife, Poe collapsed from stress but gradually returned to health later that year.

Final Days

In June of 1849, Poe left New York and went to Philadelphia, where he visited his friend John Sartain. Poe left Philadelphia in July and came to Richmond. He stayed at the Swan Tavern Hotel but joined "The Sons of Temperance" in an effort to stop drinking. He renewed a boyhood romance with Sarah Royster Shelton and planned to marry her in October.

On September 27, Poe left Richmond for New York. He went to Philadelphia and stayed with a friend named James P. Moss. On September 30, he meant to go to New York but supposedly took the wrong train to Baltimore. On October 3, Poe was found at Gunner's Hall, a public house at 44 East Lombard Street, and was taken to the hospital. He lapsed in and out of consciousness but was never able to explain exactly what happened to him. Edgar Allan Poe died in the hospital on Sunday, October 7, 1849.

The mystery surrounding Poe's death has led to many myths and urban legends. The reality is that no one knows for sure what happened during the last few days of his life. Did Poe die from alcoholism? Was he mugged? Did he have rabies? A more detailed exploration of Poe's death can be found here.

William Wilson

If you want to read Poe's original story, click here:

http://poestories.com/read/williamwilson

The Garden Party by Maeve Binchy

Click HERE to read about the author

http://www.maevebinchy.com/

THE GARDEN PARTY

Why did Helen move to a new house?

Why did Helen feel betrayed by her husband?

Who was Mrs Kennedy?

Why did Helen envy Mrs Kennedy’s cats?

Did Mrs Kennedy understand Helen’s situation? Why?

Were there any similarities between the two women’s situations?

What did Mrs Kenney do after her husband left?

What did Helen have to do before making a decision?

What did Mrs Kennedy advise Helen to do after going back to work?

Do you think Mrs Kennedy’s revenge was a good idea? Why/why not?

Should Helen follow Mrs Kennedy’s idea of revenge? Why/why not?

Describing people

Click on Describing people excercises

BLAZE - BLAZING dictionary definitions

blaze verb [intransitive]

1

fire

to burn very brightly and strongly [↪ blazing]:

The room was warm, with a fire blazing in the hearth.

2

light

to shine with a very bright light:

A huge truck was advancing towards us, its headlights blazing.

The sun blazed down as we walked along the valley.

3

eyes

[usually in progressive] literary if someone's eyes are blazing, their eyes are shining brightly because they are feeling a very strong emotion, usually anger

blaze with

Linda leapt to her feet, her dark eyes blazing with anger.

4

gun

also blaze away if guns blaze, they fire bullets quickly and continuously:

An enemy plane roared overhead, its guns blazing.

5

blaze a trail

to develop or do something new and important, or to do something important that no one has done before:

an innovative young company that has blazed a trail for others to follow

6

be blazed across/all over something

if something is blazed across a newspaper etc, it is written in a way that everyone will notice:

News of their divorce was blazed across all the tabloids.

Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

blaz‧ing adj, [only before noun]

1 extremely hot:

a blazing August afternoon

2 full of strong emotions, especially anger:

He jumped to his feet in a blazing fury.

blazing row (=very angry argument)

Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

Next UK

Remember Victoria Smith?

She used to work for NEXT in the UK.

Click and see its website

Ka-ching!

"Ka-Ching!" is a 2003 song by Canadian singer Shania Twain. It was the second international single released from her 2002 album Up!. The song was written by Robert John "Mutt" Lange and Shania Twain. "Ka-Ching!" was the second release to Europe and Central American markets following "I'm Gonna Getcha Good!". "Ka-Ching!" has become one of Twain's most successful singles in Europe to date. The song deals with America's consumer culture through boom years of 1990's and early 2000s before the later debt crisis and recession. The line, "all we ever want is more" is the general theme of the song.

To see the video click on the word

KA-CHING!
We live in a greedy little world--
that teaches every little boy and girl
To earn as much as they can possibly--
then turn around and
Spend it foolishly
We've created us a credit card mess
We spend the money we don't possess
Our religion is to go and blow it all
So it's shoppin' every Sunday at the mall
All we ever want is more
A lot more than we had before
So take me to the nearest store
Chorus:
Can you hear it ring
It makes you wanna sing
It's such a beautiful thing--Ka-ching!
Lots of diamond rings
The happiness it brings
You'll live like a king
With lots of money and things
When you're broke go and get a loan
Take out another mortgage on your home
Consolidate so you can afford
To go and spend some more when
you get bored
All we ever want is more
A lot more than we had before
So take me to the nearest store
Repeat Chorus
Let's swing
Dig deeper in your pocket
Oh, yeah, ha
Come on I know you've got it
Dig deeper in your wallet
Oh
All we ever want is more
A lot more than we had before
So take me to the nearest store
Repeat Chorus
Can you hear it ring
It makes you wanna sing
You'll live like a king
With lots of money and things
Ka-ching!

Money

Useful Vocabulary:

Click on the word money and enjoy the vocabulary

Money

We are Family

(CHORUS:)
We are family
I got all my sisters with me
We are family
Get up ev'rybody and sing
Ev'ryone can see we're together
As we walk on by(FLY!)
and we fly just like birds of a feather
I won't tell no lie(ALL!)
all of the people around us they say
Can they be that close
Just let me state for the record
We're giving love in a family dose
(CHORUS x2)
Living life is fun and we've just begun
To get our share of the world's delights(HIGH!)
high hopes we have for the future
And our goal's in sight(WE!)
no we don't get depressed
Here's what we call our golden rule
Have faith in you and the things you do
You won't go wrong
This is our family Jewel
(REPEAT CHORUS TO FADE)

THE UNICORN IN THE GARDEN - Activities

I) Fill in the blanks

Complete the following text with only one word in each blank.

Once (1)__________ a time , there was a man who saw a white unicorn with a

gold horn (2)__________ roses in the garden . With a (3)__________ heart , he

hurried upstairs to tell his wife what he (4)__________ seen . The woman didn´t

pay much attention to him . “You´re a (5)__________”, she said and went on

sleeping . As (6)__________ as her husband had gone out of the house again , the

woman got (7)__________ and dressed . She telephoned the police and a

psychiatrist . When she told them what her husband had told her they thought she

was (8)__________ as a jay bird . They seized her , got her into a (9)__________

and she (10)__________ taken to an institution. The husband lived happily ever

after.


II) Discuss the following proverbs

Work in pairs or small groups and discuss the following proverbs . Think of ways of explaining them.


1- Turn a deaf ear to a fool.

2- The early bird catches the worm.

3- Everyone has his crazy.

4- When one door shuts, another opens.

5- A closed mouth catches no flies.

6- A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

7- Better late than never.

James Thurber- Biography

James Thurber was an American writer and artist. One of the most popular humorists (writers of clever humor) of his time, Thurber celebrated in stories and in cartoons the comic frustrations of eccentric yet ordinary people.

Early life in Ohio

James Grove Thurber was born on December 8, 1894, in Columbus, Ohio, to Charles Leander and Mary Agnes Thurber. The family soon moved to Virginia where Charles was employed as a secretary to a congressman. While playing with his older brother, Thurber was permanently blinded in his left eye after being shot with an arrow. Problems with his eyesight would plague Thurber for much of his life. After Charles's employer lost a reelection campaign, the Thurbers were forced to move back to Ohio. Thurber attended the local public schools and graduated high school with honors in 1913. He went on to attend Ohio State University—though he never took a degree—and worked for some years afterwards in Ohio as a journalist.

Life in New York City

Thurber moved to New York City in 1926 and a year later he met writer E. B. White (1899–1985) and was taken onto the staff of the New Yorker magazine. In collaboration with White he produced his first book, Is Sex Necessary? (1929). By 1931 his first cartoons began appearing in the New Yorker. These primitive yet highly stylized characterizations included seals, sea lions, strange tigers, harried men, determined women, and, most of all, dogs. Thurber's dogs became something like a national comic institution, and they dotted the pages of a whole series of books.

Thurber's book The Seal in the Bedroom appeared in 1932, followed in 1933 by My Life and Hard Times. He published The Middle-aged Man on the Flying Trapeze in 1935, and by 1937, when he published Let Your Mind Alone!, he had become so successful that he left his position on the New Yorker staff to become a freelance writer and to travel abroad.

The Last Flower appeared in 1939; that year Thurber collaborated with White on a play, The Male Animal. The play was a hit when it opened in 1940. But this was also the year that Thurber was forced to undergo a series of eye operations for cataract and trachoma, two serious eye conditions. His eyesight grew steadily worse until, in 1951, it was so weak that he did his last drawing. He spent the last decade of his life in blindness.

Later years

The last twenty years of Thurber's life were filled with material and professional success in spite of his handicap. He published at least fourteen more books, including The Thurber Carnival (1945), Thurber Country (1953), and the extremely popular account of the life of the New Yorker editor Harold Ross, The Years with Ross (1959). A number of his short stories were made into movies, including "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (1947), which is also regarded as one of the best short stories written in the twentieth century.

Thurber died of pneumonia (an infection of the lungs) on November 2, 1961, just weeks after suffering a stroke. Thurber left behind a peculiar and unique comic world that was populated by his curious animals, who watched close by as aggressive women ran to ground apparently spineless men. But beneath their tame and defeated exteriors, Thurber's men dreamed of wild escape and epic adventure and, so, in their way won out in the battle of the sexes.

Click on UNICORN to visit James Thurber House:

The Unicorn in the Garden by James Thurber

Click on this link to read an on-line version:

http://english.glendale.cc.ca.us/unicorn1.html

Read and compare the story to the video.

Is there any difference between the story and the images shown?

The Unicorn in the Garden by James Thurber reprinted from Fables For Our Time.

Once upon a sunny morning a man who sat in a breakfast nook 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; now he was 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 strait-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 lilly," 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 strait-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 jaybird."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.

 Glossary:

• booby: in this context, a crazy person (probably from the name of a stupid extinct bird).
• booby-hatch: a mental institution, a place where the insane are kept.
• breakfast nook: a little side room for eating breakfast.
• browsing: sampling or tasting here and there.
• "crazy as a jaybird": extremely crazy or hopelessly insane
• cropping: clipping or cutting close to the root.
• cursing: using dirty or obscene speech.
• "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."
• gloat: a look of malice or greed.
• institution: a mental institution, an insane asylum.
• moral: in this context, the "lesson" of the story.
• mythical: relating to a myth, hence not real.
• psychiatrist: a mental doctor
• solemn: grave or serious
• strait-jacket: an armless belted jacket used to confine the violently insane
• subdue, subduing: capturing, seizing
• unicorn: a mythical beast which looks like a horse with a horn in the center of the head.

James Thurber's "The Unicorn in the Garden"
Commentary by Karen Bernardo
The plot of Thurber’s fable "The Unicorn in the Garden" can be summarized in only a few paragraphs. A man wakes his wife to tell her there is a unicorn in the garden, eating the flowers. Without getting up to look out the window, she tells him there can’t be: "A unicorn is a mythical beast." He goes back into the garden, returns again to the bedroom, and repeats his assertion. His wife, still not getting up to look out the window, warns him that "You’re a booby . . . and I’m going to have to put you in the booby hatch."
After the man returns to the garden, the wife -- with "a gloat in her eye" -- calls the police and a psychiatrist. When they arrive, she tells them what her husband said to her, assuming that they will lock him up (which is clearly what she wants). The police and the psychiatrist ask her husband whether there is, in fact, a unicorn in the garden, and he says "Of course not. The unicorn is a mythical beast."
Consequently, they lock up the wife -- which is clearly what the husband wants. Thurber even attaches a moral -- "Don’t count your boobies until they are hatched."
The woman in Thurber’s story does not know whether there’s a unicorn in the garden, and she doesn’t care; she immediately sees how her husband’s assertion can be used to get rid of him. In other words, she isn’t interested in getting inside his head; she isn’t interested in sharing his vision of life; she’s only interested in pursuing her own agenda, which doesn’t include her husband.
Until the last two paragraphs, however, we have no indication that the husband feels the same way. Thurber still does not give us any indication whether the husband has planned this outcome all along; in other words, he leaves completely open the question of whether there was ever a unicorn in the garden at all. However, Thurber does tell us that after the wife was committed to a mental institution, "the husband lived happily ever after," so we can see that up till then, this couple essentially lived two separate lives in the same house.
Anticipating the current "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, " argument, Thurber’s story is grounded .