داستان کوتاه

Ok welcome to the mini-story for the obsessive behavior lesson. Let’s get started.

Kathy always obsesses about English. She constantly worries about taking the TOEFL test. When she worries, she always rubs her hands together. They are always chafed. Her friend Gabriel is the opposite. He always opts to remain relaxed.

He always reprimands Kathy, “Kathy, stop obsessing about English, damn it”. Kathy never stands up to Gabriel directly. She just says, “I’m sorry, please don’t be mad”. Then she says, “but let’s go to the library now and study English please”.

Gabriel always nixes this idea, “Hell no! we’re not studying English”. Kathy feels unsettled but she says hesitantly, “ok”. However, in her head, she silently starts to review English grammar, then she feels much better.

Ok again this time with questions back to the top. Kathy always obsesses about English.

Does she think about English all the time?

Yes, that’s right. She always thinks about English.

Does she think about English in the morning?

Yeah, that’s right. She always obsesses about English in the morning.

Does she think about English during the day?

Yes, that’s right. She is obsessing about English, right? Always obsesses about English. So she thinks about English in the morning, in the afternoon, at night, before she goes to sleep. She obsesses about English.

Does she obsess about French?

No, no, no, she doesn’t care about French. She doesn’t always think about French. She obsesses about English.

Who always obsesses about English?

Well, Kathy always obsesses about English.

Does Gabriel always obsess about English?

No, no, Gabriel doesn’t always obsess about English. Kathy always obsesses about English. She constantly worries about taking the TOEFL test.

Does she obsess about the TOEFL test?

Yes, yes, she is always obsessed with the TOEFL test. She always obsesses about the TOEFL test. When she worries, she always rubs her hands together. Right? She’s always rubbing her hands together when she worries about English, when she obsesses about English. Because she always rubs her hands together, they are always chafed.

Are her hands always red?

Yes, that’s right, her hands are always chafed. The skin is always red.

Is the skin always a little painful?

Yeah, that’s right. Her hands are always chafed. So her hands are always a little painful, the skin is painful, the skin is a little bit red.

Why are her hands always chafed?

Well, they’re always chafed because she rubs them together when she worries, when she worries about English.

Are they chafed because she washes her hands too much?

No, no, that’s not why they’re chafed. Her hands are not chafed because she washes her hands too much, they’re chafed because she rubs her hands together too much. They’re chafed because she rubs her hands together. That’s why they’re red and painful. Now her friend Gabriel is the opposite. He always opts to remain relaxed.

Does he choose to remain relaxed?

Yeah, that’s right. He opts to be relaxed. He chooses to be relaxed. To opt to means to choose. Now, we usually use opt to with an action: opt to run, opt to go shopping, opt to stay relaxed. It goes with the verb.

If you’re choosing two things, if have a red phone and a blue phone. You don’t say I opt the red phone. You might say I opt for the red phone. If you say that then it’s ok, but usually, we use it with verbs. You opt to do something. I opt to buy the red phone. we would say that, that would be ok. So he opts to stay relaxed.

Does Kathy opt to stay relaxed? Does She choose to be relaxed?

No, Kathy does not opt to stay relaxed. She always opts to be worried. She always obsesses about English, but Gabriel opts to remain relaxed. He chooses to remain relaxed. And he always reprimands Kathy.

Does he criticize Kathy’s obsession? Obsession is a noun. Does he criticize Kathy’s obsession, Kathy’s worrying?

Yeah, that’s right. He reprimands Kathy.

Does he tell her she’s wrong, that she is doing something bad?

Yeah, that’s right. He reprimands Kathy, he tells her “stop obsessing about English, damn it”, right? He reprimands her, he criticizes her and tells her she’s doing something wrong.

Does Gabriel reprimand his mother?

No, no, Gabriel does not reprimand his mother.

Who does Gabriel reprimand?

Gabriel reprimands Kathy.

Why does he reprimand Kathy?

Well, he reprimands Kathy because she worries about English too much. She obsesses about English.

Does he reprimand Kathy all the time?

Well, no. he doesn’t reprimand Kathy all the time.

When does he reprimand Kathy?

Well, he reprimands Kathy when she talks about English. When she wants to study English. And when she rubs her hands together, then he reprimands her.

How does he reprimand her? What does he say?

Well, he reprimands her by saying, “Kathy stop obsessing about English, damn it”. But Kathy never stands up to Gabriel.

Does Kathy argue with Gabriel?

No, no, she does not stand up to Gabriel.

Does she disagree with Gabriel, directly?

No, no, she never says something to him. She never disagrees, she never argues. She does not stand up to Gabriel.

Does Kathy stand up to other people?

Well, we don’t know, maybe she stands up to other people. Maybe she will argue with her mom or her other friends, but she won’t stand up to Gabriel.

When Gabriel reprimands her, does she stand up to him?

No, she doesn’t. She does not stand up to Gabriel. He says, “stop obsessing about English”, but she doesn’t argue with him.

What does she say?

Since she doesn’t stand up to him, she just says, “I’m sorry, please don’t be mad”. But then later she says, “but let’s go to the library now and study English please”. Gabriel gets angry. He always nixes this idea.

Does Gabriel agree with the idea?

No, no, he nixes the idea, right? He shoots the idea down, he destroys the idea, he immediately says no. He says, “no, we are not studying English”. He nixes the idea.

Does he nix all of Kathy’s ideas?

No, no, no, he doesn’t nix all of Kathy’s ideas. He only nixes her idea to study English. When she wants to study English, he always nixes the idea. He always says no, immediately. “No, we’re not studying English”.

Does Gabriel nix Bob’s idea?

No, no, no, he doesn’t nix Bob’s idea. He nixes Kathy’s idea, right? Gabriel nixes Kathy’s idea, not Bob’s idea.

And when he nixes her idea, what does he say?

Well, Gabriel always nixes the idea and says “hell no, we’re not studying English”.

How does Kathy feel, when this happens?

Well, Kathy feels unsettled, right? She feels a little strange, a little uncomfortable.

Does she feel very, very, very upset?

No, she doesn’t. She feels just unsettled, a little upset. And then when she feels unsettled, she says, hesitantly “ok, it’s ok”. However, in her head, silently in her head, she is thinking about grammar and she is reviewing English grammar. Then she feels much better.

When she says ok, does she say it strongly, and quickly?

No, no, no, she does not. She says it hesitantly. She stops and she starts. She’s not sure. She says o-o-o-ok. She says it hesitantly, right? When Kathy says ok, she does not say it directly. She says it very, very hesitantly.

What does she say hesitantly?

Well, she says o-o-o-ok-k, hesitantly.

Alright, so let’s go back to the top again and this time I’m going to pause after key phrases. Please copy my pronunciation. Remember, this is not just repeating words. Repeating words does not help. You need to copy my pronunciation. When I go up you should go up, when I go down you should go down. Copy my intonation, very carefully. Ok, let’s go to the top. Here we go.

Kathy always obsesses about English. (pause) Good. Kathy always obsesses about English. (pause) She constantly worries about taking the TOEFL test. When she worries, she always rubs her hands together. They are always chafed. (pause) Good. They are always chafed. (pause) Her friend Gabriel is the opposite. He always opts to remain relaxed. (pause) He always opts to remain relaxed. (pause) Good.

He always reprimands Kathy. (pause) He always reprimands Kathy. He says, “stop obsessing about English, damn it”. (pause) He says, “stop obsessing about English, damn it”. (pause) Good. Kathy never stands up to Gabriel. (pause) Kathy never stands up to Gabriel. (pause) She just says, “I’m sorry, don’t be mad”, then she says, “but let’s go to the library now and study English please”.

Gabriel always nixes this idea. (pause) Gabriel always nixes this idea. (pause) He says, “hell no! we’re not studying English”. Kathy feels unsettled. (pause) Kathy feels unsettled. But she says hesitantly, “ok”. (pause) But she says hesitantly, “ok”. (pause) However in her head quietly, she starts to review English grammar then she feels much better.

Ok, that is all for this mini-story. Please pause now and try to tell all of the story, yourself. Say it out loud, not silently. Say it out loud, speak it out loud. Try to tell all of the story using the new vocabulary. And also, using the correct pronunciation, the correct intonation.

If this is difficult, if you can not do it, no problem. Just listen again, listen again, listen again. Listening is most important.

Ok, good-luck. On to the point-of-view mini-stories. Bye-bye.