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Microsoft’s Cyber Censorship

Hello and welcome to the mini-story for the “Microsoft’s Censorship” lesson. Here we go.

John was next to a river. He was using a pan to filter the small rocks in the bottom of the river. He hoped to find gold. Suddenly, he looked down and said, “Oh my god”. He found a huge piece of gold.

He ran to town and told Bob, his best friend, about the incident. He said, “Bob don’t tell anyone. I need to censor this information, so that no one will steal my spot by the river”.

Bob smiled and said, “Ok, I won’t tell anyone”. But his words were as odds with his actions; because he soon told everyone in town about John’s gold.

So, when John returned to his river spot, he found ten thousand people there. They were all filtering the river, looking for gold.

John went crazy and attacked them. He was so angry. He massacred everyone. Only one person lived. It was Bob. Bob cried and said, “Please don’t kill me John, I’m sorry, please”.

John calmed himself and said, “Ok, I will give you amnesty but only if you leave America and never come back”. Bob said, “Ok, I’ll go now, thank you”. This time his words were not at odds with his actions. He left America and never came back.

Ok, one more time, with some questions. Let’s do it again:

John was next to a river. He was using a pan to filter the small rocks in the river.

Was he using a bowl to filter the river?

No, no. He wasn’t using a bowl. He was using a pan to filter the river.

Was he using a cup to filter the river?

No, he was not using a cup to filter the river. He was using a pan to filter the river.

Was he using a pan to drink from the river?

No, he wasn’t drinking from the river. He was filtering the river. He was trying to separate the very small rocks from the large rocks. He was trying to separate gold from rocks.

Did he filter the river successfully?

Oh, yes he did. He finally did filter the river successfully. He separated all the rocks and he finally found a piece of gold. Ok, he hoped to find gold and suddenly he looked down and he did find a huge piece of gold.

After he filtered out the gold, he separated the gold from the rocks and from the water, he ran to town. He told his best friend, Bob, about the incident.

Did he tell his friend Jim about the incident?

No, he didn’t tell Jim about the incident. He only told Bob about the incident.

Did he tell his wife about the incident?

No, John’s not married. He didn’t tell his wife about the incident.

Who did he tell about the incident?

He told Bob about the incident. He told his best friend about the incident, about the experience, about what happened. He said, “Bob don’t tell anyone. I need to censor this information so no one steals my spot by the river”.

Did he want Bob to censor the information?

Yes, that’s right. He wanted Bob to censor the information. Not tell anyone about the information. Prevent other people from knowing about the information. He wanted Bob to censor the information.

Did he want Jim to censor the information?

No, his friend Jim didn’t know about it at all. You can’t censor something if you don’t already know about it. So he wanted Bob to censor this information.

What information did he want him to censor?

Well, he wanted him to censor the information that he found gold by the river.

Why did he want to censor this information?

He wanted to censor the information so other people would not go back to the same spot and take more gold. That’s why he wanted to censor the information. He wanted the spot, he wanted the gold only for himself. So he wanted to censor this information.

Did Bob censor the information?

No, Bob did not censor the information. Bob told everybody. Bob smiled and said, “OK, I won’t tell anyone”. But his words were at odds with his actions.

Did his words agree with his actions?

No, they were at odds with his actions. They were not the same. His words and his actions were different. His words were at odds with his actions.

Were his words at odds with his feelings?

Well, we don’t know. We don’t know what his feelings were. But we do know his words were at odds with his actions. They did not agree with his actions.

Whose words were at odds with his actions? Were John’s words at odds with his actions?

No, not John’s words, Bob’s words were at odds with his actions. Because, he soon told everyone about John’s gold. Even though he promised he would not.

So, when John returned to his river spot, he found ten thousand people there. They were all filtering the river, looking for gold.

Were they all swimming in the river?

No, they were all filtering the river.

Were they filtering the ground?

No, they weren’t filtering the ground. They weren’t separating pieces of the ground. They were filtering the river. They were filtering the river water and the river rocks. Separating them, looking for gold.

John went crazy and attacked them. He was so angry, he massacred everyone.

Did he kill everyone?

Yes, he did, he killed them all.

Did these people have guns?

Well, we don’t know, but probably not; because he massacred them, he killed them all. If you massacre somebody usually it means, you massacre many people, usually they are weak or peaceful. So, he massacred all of them. He killed all of them.

Did Bob massacre everybody?

No, no, no. Not Bob. John massacred everyone.

Who did John massacre?

John massacred all the people looking for gold.

How many people did John massacre?

Well actually he massacred 9999 people because one person survived, one person lived. It was Bob.

Who survived the massacre? Using it as a noun now, the massacre.

Well, Bob survived the massacre. And after he survived, Bob cried, “Please don’t kill me, John I’m sorry, please”. John, he relaxed. John calmed himself. He calmed down. He calmed himself and he said, “Ok, I will give you amnesty, but only if you leave America and never come back”.

Did John give Bob amnesty?

Yes, he did. John gave Bob amnesty.

Did John forgive Bob?

Yes, he did, he did. He gave John amnesty.

Did John give the other people amnesty?

No, no, he did not. He massacred them. He killed all of them. He did not give amnesty to the other people. He only gave amnesty to Bob.

Did Bob ask for amnesty?

Oh, yes, he did. He said, “Please don’t kill me” right? Please don’t kill me. Please forgive me. He asked for amnesty.

Why did John give Bob amnesty?

Well, he probably forgave him; he probably gave him amnesty because he was his best friend. But there was one condition, one thing he had to do, to get amnesty. Bob had to leave America and never come back.

Bob said, “Ok, I’ll go now, thank you”. This time his words were not at odds with his actions. He left America and never came back.

This time did Bob’s words, his promise, and his actions, did they agree? Were they the same?

Well, yes. This time they were the same. This time his words were not at odds with his actions.

Were his words at odds with his actions?

No, they were not at odds with his actions this time. This time they agreed. This time his actions and his words were the same.

Ok then, very nice. Now one more time, I’m gonna just say key phrases and please repeat the key phrases after me. Don’t just copy the words, copy my pronunciation. Copy my tone, copy my emotion. Exaggerate, copy me exactly. Here we go.

John was next to a river. He was using a pan to filter the rocks. (pause) He was using a pan to filter the rocks. (pause) Good. He hoped to find gold and he did find gold.

After he found gold he ran to town and told Bob, his best friend about the incident. (pause) He told Bob, his best friend about the incident. He told Bob, his best friend about the incident. (pause) Good.

He said, “Bob don’t tell anyone. I need to censor this information”. He said ,”I need to censor this information”. (pause) He said, “I need to censor this information”. (pause) Good.

He said, “I need to censor this information so no one steals my gold by the river”. Bob smiled and said, “Ok, I won’t tell anyone”. But his words were at odds with his actions. But his words were at odds with his actions. (pause) But his words were at odds with his actions. (pause) Good.

But his words were at odds with his actions because he soon told everybody about John’s gold. So when John returned to his river spot, he found ten thousand people there.

They were all filtering the river, looking for gold. They were all filtering the river, looking for gold. (pause) They were all filtering the river, looking for gold. (pause) Good.

John went crazy and attacked them. He was so angry, he massacred everyone. He was so angry, he massacred everyone. (pause) He was so angry, he massacred everyone (pause).

Only one person lived. It was Bob. Bob cried and said: please don’t kill me, I’m sorry. John calmed himself and said, “Ok, I will give you amnesty”. John said, “Ok, I will give you amnesty”. (pause) John said, “Ok, I will give you amnesty (pause).

But you can never come back to America”. Bob said, “Ok, I’ll go now”. This time his words were not at odds at his actions. This time his words were not at odds at his actions. (pause) This time his words were not at odds at his actions (pause).

Ok, very good, now please this time pause your mp3 player, pause your iPod and try to tell the story yourself, all of the story, try to tell all of the story. You don’t need to remember every word. Tell the general story, but try to remember some of the new vocabulary.

‘To filter’, the ‘incident’, ‘to censor’, ‘at odds with’, ‘filtering’, ‘massacred’, ‘amnesty’, ‘at odds with’. Try to use these vocabulary phrases, these vocabulary words when you retell the story.

So please pause now and tell the story yourself. Say it out loud so you can hear it. Tell the story again. If you forget, if you can’t remember, it’s Ok, just listen to it again.

And please review this every day. Listen to this story one time every day, for a few months, maybe two, three, maybe even four months. If you review every day, the words, the phrases, the grammar, will become automatic. But you must do it many times, many days, over a long period of time.

Ok, I will see you next time, bye-bye.