1. Fill in the blanks to complete the summary of the story.
Rip Van Winkle and his wife lived in a 1) village in New York city near the foot of 2) Mountains. He was a 3) man but 4) in home. His wife was a 5) woman, and she liked to insult him. Because Rip couldn’t stand for his terrible wife, he and his dog decided to leave for a forest. They went to the mountains to hunt squirrels, and he drank something a queer old man offered him and fell fast asleep. When he woke up, he found himself 6) . After one day long trip, Rip came back to his village, but everything had 7) . No one could recognize him. In the village inn, the portrait of 8) had been replaced by one of 9) . It dawned on him that it had gone 10) years since he left the village and stayed in the forest just one night.
2. Discuss the following questions.
1) Where is Rip when he wakes up? What time of day is it? What does he think has happened? What is he worried about?
2) What has happened to Rip’s gun? What explanation does he come up with to explain that?
3) What has happened to Wolf? What different things does Rip do in response?
4) What does Rip notice when he starts to walk? What worries him about this?
5) What changes does Rip identify as he returns to his village? What makes Rip certain that it must be the same village though it looks so different?
6) What are the two symbols of the newly created United States of America that Rip does not recognize?
7) What are the two things people are talking about when Rip returns?
8) What’s the setting of this story? What political changes take place in the story?
9) What kind of people are Rip and his wife?
10) What might happen at the end of the story?
3. Tell whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).
1) Washington Irving was the first American writer to become famous in Europe as well as at home. ( )
2) The Kaatskill Mountains are a branch of the Alps. ( )