"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is an 1820 short story by American author Washington Irving. Even though the story is 200 years old, Americans still enjoy telling this story, and there have been popular movies retelling it.
Not only is the story hilarious, but it teaches the concept of ambiguity. Irving leaves it up to the reader to decide what truly happened to Ichabod Crane. Just like a good ghost story, it's up to the hearer to decide what is true and what is not.
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The protagonist of the story, Ichabod Crane, is a Yankee schoolteacher who lives in Sleepy Hollow, a Dutch enclave on the Hudson River. A suggestible man, Crane believes the ghost stories and tales of witchcraft he has heard and read. He is particularly impressed by the tale of a spectral headless horseman said to haunt the area. Crane is also a mercenary; he courts Katrina Van Tassel mostly because she is the daughter of a rich farmer and is expected to receive a large inheritance. Abraham Van Brunt (also called Brom Bones) is Crane’s jealous rival, a local favorite, and a rash horseman who often plays tricks on the schoolmaster. Late one night as Ichabod Crane rides home from a party at Katrina’s home, he is suddenly frightened by a ghostlike headless horseman. The ghost pursues him and hurls at him a round object that he takes to be a head but is later revealed to have been a pumpkin. The schoolmaster is never seen in Sleepy Hollow again.
Vocabulary:
https://www.vocabulary.com/lists/206523
https://www.quia.com/jg/962596list.html
Resources:
https://www.eslprintables.com/cinema_and_television/movies/science_fiction_movies/sleepy_hollow/
https://www.liveworksheets.com/w/en/english-second-language-esl/1149546
https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-legend-of-sleepy-hollow-lesson-for-kids.html
