داستان کوتاه

Cafe Puccini - Mini-Story

Okay, Effortless English members welcome to the mini-story for the article Café Puccini. All right, let’s get started.

Mike is a writer, but he’s not a normal writer. He is a very controversial writer. Liberal people love him. Conservative people hate him. Mike is famous in the American literary scene. He helped make history by challenging Stephen King to a competition.

He said to King: “I’m the best writer in America. I challenge you to a competition to prove who the best writer really is. Stephen King accepted.

They decided to hold the competition in New York City. Both writers sat at a table with a pen, some paper and a clock. They had only ten minutes to write.

Stephen King wrote calmly and slowly. He seemed very confident. Mike was very animated. He shook his head. He moved his feet. He smiled, he frowned, He cried and he laughed as he wrote.

After ten minutes, they finished. A group of writers read their papers. They decided that both papers were so good they could not pick a winner. Everybody else was shocked.

Though, there was not a clear winner, this competition started a new movement called fast writing. Suddenly, everywhere in America, writers tried to write quickly.

Many writers tried to copy Mike and Stephen King’s fast writing style. But unfortunately, most of them were terrible. No one could beat Stephen King and Mike.

Okay, let’s go back to beginning of this foolish little story and help you remember some the new vocabulary. Let’s do it again, this time with some questions.

Okay, Mike is a writer, but he is not a normal writer.

What kind of writer is he?

Well, he is a controversial writer.

Does everybody like his writing?

No, everybody does not like his writing.

Does everybody hate his writing?

No, everybody does not hate his writing.

Do people agree about his writing?

They do not. Nobody agrees. Some people really, really hate his writing. And some people really, really love his writing. It’s controversial. His writing creates arguments. His writing creates disagreement. He is a controversial writer.

What kind of people love his writing usually?

Well, liberal people. Liberal people love his writing.

Do conservative people love his writing? No, they do not. Liberal people love his writing.

Do people who like change and new things like his writing?

Yes, yes. They generally do. Liberal people, people who like change generally, love his writing.

Do people who vote for the democrats, do they usually like his writing?

Well, yeah, usually. We usually think that democrats are more liberal than republicans in America.

Conservative people hate his writing and they hate him.

What kind of people hate his writing?

Well, Conservative people hate his writing.

Republicans, do they hate his writing?

Yeah, most republicans hate his writing.

Does George Bush like his writing?

No, no, no, no. George Bush is very conservative. George Bush hates his writing.

Does Michael Moore like his writing?

Yes, Michael Moore loves his writing. Michael Moore is liberal but George Bush is very conservative.

Mike is famous in the US, in the American literary scene.

Is he famous in the German literary scene?

No, no. German writers don’t really know about him.

Is he famous in the Mexican literary scene?

No, he’s not. Mexican writers don’t know about him.

Is he famous in the French literary scene?

No, French writers, French readers, they don’t really know about him. Only the American literary scene, American writers know about him. American readers know about him. He’s famous in the American literary scene.

Why is he famous? What did he do?

Well, he made history.

How did he make history? What did he do that was famous?

Well, he did something very famous; he helped make history by challenging Stephen King to a competition.

Did he nicely ask Stephen King for a competition? No, he did not. He challenged Stephen King, right? He kind of disagreed with him. He said: “Let’s have a competition. Let’s have a fight”. He challenged Stephen King to a competition, a writing competition.

He said to King: “I am the best writer in America. I challenge you to a competition, to prove who the best writer is”. So he’s challenging, he’s asking for a competition. He’s asking for a fight. He’s challenging him.

King accepted. King said yes. They decided to hold the competition in New York City. To hold in this case means to have or to do. So they decided to do the competition in New York City. They decided to have the competition in New York City. They decided to hold the competition in New York City.

Where did they hold the competition?

They held the competition in New York City.

Did they hold the competition in San Francisco?

No, they did not hold the competition in San Francisco. They held it in New York City, past tense, held.

Both writers sat at a table with a pen, some paper and a clock. They each had only ten minutes to write something great. Stephen King wrote calmly and slowly. He was not animated. However, Mike was very animated.

Did Mike move his body a lot when he wrote?

Yes, yes he did. He was very animated. He shook his head. He moved his feet.

Was his face animated when he wrote?

Yes, his face was also very animated when he wrote. He smiled, he frowned, he moved his face a lot, a lot of facial gestures. So his face was very animated, his body was very animated.

What else did he do that was animated?

Well, he cried, he laughed, he made noise, he was moving his body. Mike is a very animated writer. When he writes, he makes a lot of gestures, he moves his body, he makes noise. He is an animated writer.

Stephen King is not an animated writer. Stephen king writes calmly. He’s very quiet when he writes. Stephen King is not animated when he writes.

After ten minutes what happened?

Well, they finished their competition. They finished their writing. And then another group of writers read their papers. They read what they wrote.

But they could not pick a winner. Both of the writing, both of the pieces of paper, both of the stories were so great they could not pick a winner. Everybody was shocked.

However, there was no clear winner, but this competition made history, it was very famous. It started a new movement called fast writing.

Did it start a small movement?

No, it started a big movement. It means a lot of people copied what they did.

Was this a famous movement?

Yes, it was a famous movement. It means a lot of people followed this technique, the fast writing. It became a movement. Large numbers of writers began to do this.

It became a big movement, an international movement. It went from America to Mexico, to Canada, to Europe. Soon every writer in all these countries was trying to write fast, trying to write quickly. It became a big movement, a new movement in writing.

Many writers tried to copy Mike and Stephen King’s fast writing style. However, no one could beat them. All the fast writing in all these countries in this big movement, most of it was terrible. Only Mike and Stephen King were good.

All right, let’s go back to the beginning one more time and listen again.

Mike is a writer, but he is not a normal writer. He is a very controversial writer. He creates a lot of conflict; a lot of argument with his writing. He is a very controversial writer.

Liberal people love him. People like Michael Moore or John Kerry or other liberals, environmentalists, Labor Union people, they all love his writing.

Conservative people hate his writing. George Bush hates his writing. Republicans hate his writing. Fox News hates his writing.

Okay, Mike is famous in the American literary scene. He’s not famous in the French literary scene or the Mexican literary scene. He’s only famous to American writers and American readers. He’s famous in the American literary scene.

He helped make history by challenging Stephen King to a competition. He made history. He did Something famous by challenging Stephen King to a competition.

He said to King: “I’m the best writer in America. I challenge you to a competition to prove who the best writer is. He asked him for a competition. He asked him for a fight. He challenged him. King said yes. King accepted.

They decided to hold the competition in New York City. They did not hold the competition in Maine where Stephen King lives.

They held the competition in New York City. Both writers sat at a table with a pen, some paper and a clock. They wrote for ten minutes and only ten minutes, very quickly.

Stephen King was not animated when he wrote. He was very calm, he wrote slowly. However, Mike was very animated when he wrote. He moved his body. He shook his head. He moved his feet. He smiled, he frowned, he laughed, he cried. He wrote very quickly. He was very animated when he wrote.

After ten minutes, they both finished and the judges, the group of writers, the referees, read both papers. Both stories were fantastic. In fact, they were so good they could not pick a winner. They decided both of them won.

Everybody was surprised and shocked. This made history. It was a famous competition. And it created a new movement. It started a new literary movement, a new writing movement.

Lots of people copied their style and tried to write quickly. Writers all over America started writing very fast. Writers in other countries started writing very fast. It became a big movement.

However, most people in the movement, most writers in this movement were very bad writers. None of them could match; none of them could beat Mike and Stephen King.

All right, please stop your iPod now and try to repeat the story. Tell the story out loud, so you can hear it, to yourself. You don’t need to say every word correctly; however, try to use the new vocabulary correctly.

So don’t memorize the story. Just tell the general story. But use the new vocabulary. See if you can remember how to use it correctly. If you have trouble, if you can’t do it, listen again and then try again to tell the story yourself.

Okay, I will see you next time. Bye-bye.