داستان کوتاه

Accountability Mini-Story Text

Hello this is A.J., welcome to the mini story my special VIP. With the mini story, you’re just going to listen and answer the questions. You can pause when you answer the questions, but after you listen to this for a few days you should get faster and faster.

Make it a game so you try to answer the questions more and more quickly.

Let’s begin our story.

There was a pig named Penelope.

What was there?

A pig.

What was her name?

Penelope.

Her name was Penelope, Penelope the pig. What kind of pig was Penelope? What was she like?

Well, she was a complainer. Penelope the pig was a complainer, she complained all the time.

What was she like?

She was a complainer.

Who was a complainer?

Penelope Pig. Penelope Pig was a complainer.

Was she a super positive person or was she a complainer?

She was a complainer.

How often did she complain?

All the time, she constantly complained. She complained all the time.

Did she complain a little bit or all the time?

She complained all the time.

How frequently did she complain?

All the time, she complained all the time.

She complained, and she complained, and she complained. Especially Penelope the Pig always regretted her decisions.

What did she always regret?

Her decisions.

Who always regretted her decisions?

Penelope.

What was Penelope?

A pig.

Penelope the Pig always regretted her decisions. How often did she regret her decisions? Always; she always regretted her decisions. Did she regret her small decisions? Yes, she did. She always regretted her small decisions.

What about her big decisions? Yes, she always regretted those too. She always regretted her big life decisions, and she always regretted her small decisions, but there were two decisions in her life that she especially regretted.

How many decisions did she especially regret?

Two.

Did she especially regret five decisions from her past?

No, she didn’t especially regret five decisions from her past.

How many decisions from her past did she especially regret?

Two. Two decisions in her life.

There were two decisions in her life, in her past, that she especially regretted.

One was about work and school, and the other was about relationships.

What were the decisions about?

School and work, number one; and relationships number two.

You see, Penelope the Pig never went to college.

Did she go to college in the past? Did she go to a university?

No she didn’t, she never went to a college or university in the past. She never did.

She used to be engaged to Duke the Dog, a big strong manly dog; but she never married him.

Did she marry Duke the Dog?

No she did not.

Did she go to college?

No she did not.

Was she happy about these two decisions?

No.

How did she feel about these two decisions?

She regretted them. She regretted especially these two decisions; never to go to college, and not to marry Duke the Dog.

She constantly said, “If I had gone to college, I would be rich now.” What did she constantly say?

If I had gone to college, I’d be rich now.

What did she think?

She thought that if she had gone to college, she would be rich now.

Did she regret that decision?

Yes, she regretted it so much. That’s why she always said, “If I had gone to college, I’d be rich now. If I had gone to college, I’d be rich now. If I had only gone to college, I’d be rich now.”

Was she rich?

No she wasn’t rich, she was kind of poor.

Where did she work? She worked at McDonalds. Penelope the Pig instead worked at McDonalds.

Did she have a good job or a bad job?

For her it was bad, she didn’t like it.

Did she make a lot of money or a little money?

A little. She did not make much money at McDonalds.

How did she feel about her job at McDonalds? She hated it, she hated her job at McDonalds, she always complained about it. What did she always say? Yes, you know – “If I had gone to college I’d be rich now. If I had gone to college I’d be rich now.”

She said this every day while working at McDonalds. She was an unhappy pig.

Did she have a wonderful relationship with a great guy? No. In fact, she was very lonely. That was her other big problem in life. She always complained about being lonely.

Was she in a great relationship or was she lonely?

She was lonely she was not in a relationship at all. She was not dating anybody, she didn’t have a boyfriend.

How did she feel?

She felt lonely.

Who felt lonely?

Penelope, the Pig.

Was she happy about being lonely?

No.

What did she do constantly?

She complained, she constantly complained of course.

She constantly complained and said, “If I’d married Duke the Dog, I’d have a baby.

If I had only married Duke the Dog I’d have a baby and a family. If I’d only married Duke the Dog I’d be happy.”

Did she marry Duke the Dog?

Nope, she never did.

Did she have a baby?

No, she didn’t.

Was she happy?

Obviously no, she was not.

How did she feel instead?

Instead she felt very, very lonely.

Did she complain about being lonely or was she accountable?

She complained about it all the time. Here’s what she said, “If I had only married Duke the Dog, I’d have a baby now. If I had only married Duke the Dog, I would have a baby now.” Instead she felt lonely.

In fact not only lonely, Penelope was really a miserable pig.

Was she a little unhappy or super unhappy?

Super unhappy, she was miserable– miserable, super sad, super unhappy.

She was what?

Miserable.

Who was miserable?

Penelope the Pig was miserable.

One day after many years she finally made a decision to change her life. She decided to be fully, completely, 100% accountable for her life and her life choices.

Did she decide to blame a lot of other people?

No, she did not decide to blame a lot of other people, or dogs, or pigs.

Who decided to be fully accountable for her life?

Penelope, the Pig. Penelope the Pig finally one day, she was just so miserable – she was fed up. Fed up means you don’t like a situation, you’re totally sick of it.

She was fed up with the situation, tired of it completely, and she just said; “I’m going to be fully accountable for everything in my life. I’m responsible, no one else.”

What did she decide to be?

Fully accountable.

Fully accountable for what?

Fully accountable, fully completely responsible for her own life, her own life situation.

She was what?

Accountable.

She became what?

Accountable for her own life.

Then everything changed. She made a decision. She enrolled in a computer tech school.

What was her first decision?

To enroll in a computer tech school.

Where did she enroll?

At a computer tech school.

What did she study?

Computer programming and computer technology.

Who enrolled in a computer technical school?

Penelope, the Pig. Penelope the Pig enrolled – joined, registered for – a computer technical school.

Was she being accountable or was she complaining?

She was finally being accountable, finally taking responsibility for her own life.

Did she take responsibility or did she blame?

She took responsibility.

Did she take responsibility or complain?

She took responsibility. She took responsibility and made a decision.

What did she do?

She enrolled in a computer tech school.

Not only did she enroll, she actually finished the program. She finished the computer programming program. Then what did she do? She got a job at Effortless English and she fixed all of their computer problems. A.J. was really happy.

Where did she get a job?

At Effortless English.

Who got a job at Effortless English?

Penelope, the Pig got a job at Effortless English.

How did she get a job at Effortless English?

By studying computer programming. She had to do that first, and then she got her job.

She got a job by first studying computer programming.

Did she eventually get a job by blaming and complaining, or did she eventually get a job by being accountable?

She eventually got a job by being accountable.

How was she accountable?

By first enrolling in a computer tech school.

Where did she get a job?

At Effortless English.

She got a job at Effortless English, when?

After finishing computer tech school. She got a job with Effortless English after finishing computer tech school.

What did she do at Effortless English?

She fixed all of their computer problems, it was great.

There was one other area of her life that was not so great; relationships. She took accountability in that area too. What do you think she did? I’ll tell you; she joined a singles outdoor adventure club.

What did she join?

She joined an outdoor adventure club, an outdoor adventure organization, for single pigs and people and dogs and animals.

She joined a singles outdoor adventure club. She rode mountain bikes, she climbed mountains, she went swimming. She kayaked; she did all kinds of great, cool, wonderful outdoor adventures.

What kind of adventures did she do or have?

She had a lot of outdoor adventures, she did a lot of outdoor activities.

Who did a lot of outdoor activities?

Penelope, the Pig. Penelope the Pig did a lot of outdoor activities with the singles club.

While doing these activities she met someone. She met Stan the Studly Boar.

Studly is a word we use for men, and it means kind of very strong and powerful, and handsome too.

It’s a noun. We can say he is a stud. You can imagine a guy with muscles and he’s strong and handsome; he is a stud. We can use it as an adjective. We can say he is very studly. He’s very strong and handsome.

Stan was a studly boar. A boar is a wild pig. He was a strong wild pig, and his name was what? Stan.

What was Stan?

A boar, a wild pig.

What kind of boar was Stan?

He was a studly boar.

Was he strong or was he weak?

He was strong. He was a studly boar.

What was the studly boar’s name?

Stan.

Did Penelope like Stan? Oh yes, she liked him a lot, but did Stan like Penelope?

Yes he did. Why did he like Penelope? He liked Penelope because she was so accountable for her life, because she didn’t complain, she didn’t whine.

She had totally changed. He didn’t know about her past.

Why did he like Penelope?

Because she was so accountable.

She got a great new boyfriend, Stan the Studly Boar, and a great job with a great boss at Effortless English, and she was very, very happy. If she had continued feeling sorry for herself, if she had continued to complain, she never would have gotten the job at Effortless English and she never would have met Stan.

If she continued to complain, would she have met Stan?

No she never would have. She never would have met Stan if she had continued to complain.

Did she continue to complain?

No she didn’t, she did not continue to complain. She stopped complaining, became accountable, and she did indeed meet Stan. If she had continued to complain, then she never would have met Stan.

If she continued to complain, would she have gotten the job with Effortless English?

No she wouldn’t have. If she had continued to complain she never would have gotten a job at Effortless English.

Did she get a job at Effortless English?

Yes she did.

Did she continue to complain?

No she didn’t, she stopped. She became accountable for her own life, and so she did get a job at Effortless English, and she did meet Stan.

Now she’s very accountable, very strong, and very, very happy.

That is the end of our mini story. As always just enjoy the mini story, answer the questions, don’t think about the grammar rules and don’t think about it. Don’t think about why, why, why; just answer the questions and listen.

Listen to this every single day for the next month and you will learn this grammar. It’s a little bit of complicated and difficult grammar in some parts, but don’t worry about it.

Listen to the story, understand the meaning and answer the questions. That’s the secret, that’s the power of the mini story lessons.

I’ll see you again next time, bye-bye.