Washington Irving "Rip Van Winkle"
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Washington Irving
Irving was the first great American writer of humorous stories. The Legend of Rip Van Winkle first appeared in The Sketch Book, Irving’s most popular book, which was published in 1820.
Dutch people arrived in North America from the Netherlands early in the seventeenth century. When the Legend of Rip Van Winkle begins, this part of North America was a British colony. The colony was ruled by King George the Third, who was the British king. Some people in North America wanted to live in an independent country. They wanted their own government and they wanted their own laws. There was a war between these people and the British army. The Americans won the war, and the British left the colony. At the end of Rip Van Winkle’s story, he is living in an independent country - the United States of America. The country has a president, not a king. The first president of the United States was George Washington.
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Text Analysis: Unique words: about 400 Total words: about 1,740
Hard words: fence, gun, hill, ninepin, flag, pole, stars and stripes, colony, Dutch, origin, harsh, nags, patient, obedient, keep away, inn, in honor of, educated, innkeeper, majestic, toward, square, beard, bizarre, barrel, thunder, amphitheater, captain, mysterious, scare, furious, looks for, bark, confused, effect, abandoned, sleepy, fast, pockets, elections, liberty, Congress, Federal, Democrat, Congressman, crazy, embraces, crowd, senior, incredible, Henry Hudson, similar, the American Revolutionary War
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