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Decide Mini-Story Text

Hello this is A.J., welcome to the mini story for ‘Decide’. Let’s start immediately.

There was a monkey named Marcie; Marcie, the monkey. Marcie the monkey had a difficult problem. Marcie the monkey was very indecisive. In fact, she was super indecisive. She could never make decisions about anything.

Who was indecisive?

Marcie the monkey. Marcie was indecisive.

Was she decisive, or was she indecisive?

She was indecisive.

What was Marcie?

Marcie was a monkey.

What was the monkey’s name?

Marcie. The monkey’s name was Marcie.

What kind of monkey was Marcie?

Super indecisive. She was super indecisive.

Marcie was especially indecisive about eating.

What was she especially indecisive about?

Eating. She was especially indecisive about eating.

She could never decide what to eat. She would think; should I eat broccoli or should I eat a banana? Maybe broccoli – no- no, a banana – maybe both, maybe neither one she never could decide. She constantly hemmed and hawed, but never decided.

To hem and haw – that’s a little bit of slang. To hem and haw means to talk indecisively.

Maybe this, I don’t know maybe this, I don’t know I’m not sure, maybe…that kind of speaking; we call it hemming and hawing. It’s this idea that you’re not making a strong decision. You’re talking about both sides, but you never decide something direct. We call that hemming and hawing. To hem and haw.

Who always hemmed and hawed about eating?

Marcie did, Marcie always hemmed and hawed about her eating decisions. Maybe I should eat broccoli, maybe I should eat a banana.

Did she make strong statements about what she wanted?

No, she did not make strong statements about what she wanted. She wasn’t decisive.

What did she do instead?

She hemmed and hawed; maybe this, oh no maybe that. She hemmed and hawed and never made a clear decision. She hemmed and hawed and never said anything direct.

Who hemmed and hawed a lot?

Marcie, Marcie the monkey hemmed and hawed a lot.

About what?

Especially about eating. She could never decide what to eat.

Was Marcie a fat monkey? No she was super skinny. Why was she super skinny?

Because she was so indecisive about eating. She was so indecisive about eating that she ended up eating very little. She could never decide what to eat, so sometimes she didn’t eat anything.

Was she a big monkey or a little monkey?

She was a little monkey, a skinny little monkey.

Why was she skinny?

Because she was indecisive about eating.

Who was indecisive about eating?

Marcie was. Marcie was indecisive about eating.

She became super, super skinny and realized this was a problem. She went to find help. First she went to Dr. Phil, famous Dr. Phil, the TV psychologist.

Who did she go to see first?

Dr. Phil.

Who went to see Dr. Phil?

Marcie. Marcie went to see Dr. Phil.

Why did she go to see Dr. Phil?

Because she wanted help with her indecisiveness.

Did she want help with her marriage?

No, she didn’t want help with her marriage she wanted help with her indecisiveness.

Who was she married to? She was married to George Clooney. She was George Clooney’s secret wife.

Did anybody know about Marcie?

No, nobody knew that George Clooney was married to Marcie.

Was George Clooney indecisive? No, he was very decisive. He was a very decisive man.

Which one was indecisive?

Marcie. Marcie was super indecisive.

Which one hemmed and hawed all the time?

Also Marcie. Marcie always hemmed and hawed, she could never make a strong decision.

Did George Clooney hem and haw all the time?

No, he spoke very directly and always made strong decisions.

Who hemmed and hawed all the time?

Marcie.

Where did Marcie go?

To see Dr. Phil. She went to see Dr. Phil.

What did Dr. Phil say to her? He said, “What’s your problem monkey girl? Just decide!”

Oh no, was Dr. Phil kind and gentle to Marcie? Oh no he wasn’t. Dr. Phil was not kind and gentle to Marcie. Dr. Phil was loud and angry and mean to Marcie.

Did he speak quietly to Marcie?

No, he did not. He yelled at Marcie. He said, “What’s your problem monkey girl, just decide!”

Did this help Marcie? No, no it did not. In fact, it made her even more nervous and indecisive.

Did she get worse or did she get better?

She got worse, Marcie got worse. She became even more indecisive.

Who got worse?

Marcie got worse.

Did George Clooney get worse?

No, George Clooney didn’t get worse. He was okay from the beginning, he was fine.

How did Marcie get worse?

Well, she became even more indecisive.

Did she make decisions easily after seeing Dr. Phil?

No, she did not make decisions easily after seeing Dr. Phil. In fact, she had more difficulty making decisions. It was even harder.

It became even harder for her to decide what to eat. It became really bad, so George Clooney called Dr. Laura, a famous radio psychologist, and he got an appointment for his wife, Marcie the monkey. George Clooney likes monkeys, by the way.

Marcie went to see who?

Dr. Laura. Marcie went to see Dr. Laura.

Why did she go see Dr. Laura?

She went for help with her indecisiveness.

What did she need help with?

She needed help with her indecisiveness.

She went where?

She went to see Dr. Laura.

What did Dr. Laura say to her? Dr. Laura said, “You stupid, idiotic monkey, what’s wrong with you?”

Was Dr. Laura kind and gentle to Marcie? No, she wasn’t. What was Dr. Laura like? Dr. Laura was a bitch, she was a total bitch to Marcie.

Bitch is a nice little slang word, and of course bitch is a very mean unfriendly, not nice woman. If it’s a man we say asshole, but Dr. Laura is a woman so we say Dr. Laura was a bitch. We can say she was a bitch to Marcie.

She was mean and unfriendly to Marcie.

Who was a bitch to Marcie?

Dr. Laura was a bitch to Marcie.

Was Marcie a bitch?

No, Marcie was not a bitch. Marcie was a sweet, kind monkey.

What was Marcie’s problem?

Marcie’s problem was that she was super indecisive.

Which person was a bitch?

Dr. Laura. Dr. Laura was a bitch.

Was Dr. Laura sweet and friendly, or was Dr. Laura a bitch?

Dr. Laura was a total bitch.

Was Dr. Laura an asshole?

Not really, usually we use asshole for men. It’s more common to say asshole for men, an unfriendly rude man, we say he’s an asshole, he’s mean, and he’s a jerk. For a woman it’s more common to say bitch.

Was Dr. Laura a bitch or an asshole?

Dr. Laura was a bitch. She was a total bitch.

To whom?

To Marcie. She was a total bitch to Marcie the monkey.

How did Marcie feel after seeing Dr. Laura? Marcie felt terrible. She cried and cried. She lost more weight, she became even more indecisive. In fact, she could never decide what to eat.

She was so nervous, so indecisive she could not decide to eat anything. She became anorexic.

Did she become nice and fat?

No, the opposite. She became anorexic. Anorexic is super, super, super thin, like very unhealthy. It’s actually a bad condition some people have. You can die from this. She became so skinny, so super, super, super skinny that she was anorexic, she stopped eating.

Did Dr. Laura become anorexic?

No, Dr. Laura didn’t become anorexic, Dr. Laura was quite fat. She was a fat bitch, but Marcie became anorexic. Poor Marcie.

Who became anorexic?

Marcie did. Marcie became anorexic.

Did Marcie eat?

No she didn’t. She never ate.

What did she become?

She became anorexic.

Now George Clooney became very, very, very worried. He was very worried. He realized that his wife, Marcie the monkey, really needed some serious help. Finally he called Tony Robbins, our friend our buddy, Tony Robbins.

He called Tony Robbins and said, “Tony, you must help my wife. She won’t eat, she’s anorexic. Please Tony, help her!” Tony said, “Okay.”

Where did Marcie the monkey go next?

To see Tony Robbins.

Did she go back to Dr. Laura?

No, no, no.

Did she return to see Dr. Phil?

No, no, no.

Where did she go?

To see Tony Robbins.

Why did she go to see Tony Robbins?

To get help with her anorexia and of course to get help with her indecisiveness.

What did Tony say to her? Did Tony yell at her? No, Tony was very positive. Tony said, “Marcie, you can do it. I’ll teach you how to be decisive. Don’t worry, you can do it!”

Tony was very encouraging and empowering towards Marcie. Empowering means to give another person power. To empower someone, you can use it as a verb; if you empower another person it means you help them feel more powerful. Maybe they feel weak, you empower them and it means you give them some power. You help them feel more powerful.

We can also use it as an adjective. We can say that was an empowering speech. It means the speech gave everyone some power. The speech gave everyone some power.

Tony was very empowering for Marcie. He made her feel more powerful. He empowered her.

Who did Tony Robbins empower?

Marcie, Marcie the monkey. He made her feel more powerful, more encouraged and strong.

Did Tony Robbins scream and yell at her?

Of course he didn’t. He did not scream and yell at her, he empowered her.

Who did he empower?

He empowered Marcie the monkey.

Did she get better? Yes she did. Every day she became a little more powerful.

Every day she started to make first small little decisions, and then later bigger decisions, and then later bigger decisions and she started to eat again.

Did she become indecisive?

No, she was already indecisive. She became decisive and strong.

Who became decisive?

Marcie the monkey became decisive.

Who empowered her to be decisive?

Tony Robbins did. Tony Robbins empowered Marcie to be decisive.

She did it. At every meal she immediately decided what to eat.

How was she at her meals?

She was decisive. She was very decisive at every meal.

Did she hesitate before eating?

No, she didn’t.

Did she hem and haw, oh I don’t know, maybe – did she hem and haw before eating?

No, she did not. She stopped hemming and hawing. She decided immediately what she wanted to eat, and she immediately started to eat.

Did she remain anorexic?

No, she did not remain super, super, super skinny; she gained weight. She gained weight and ate a lot of healthy food.

Who gained weight?

Marcie of course is the one who gained weight.

Why did she gain weight?

Because she became decisive about eating.

Now Marcie is very healthy and very happy, and so is George Clooney.

And that is the end of our mini story. As always with these crazy stories, listen to them every day, pause and answer each question. Make this a game. Try to answer the questions faster and faster each day, so that after seven days you should be answering these questions very, very fast.

Eventually answer fast enough so you can answer without pausing your iPod or without pausing your computer. Make it a game, answer faster, faster, faster; listen, listen, and listen every day. There’s a lot of grammar and a lot of good vocabulary in here. Just do it, don’t think about it.

Alright, I’ll see you again my special VIP. Bye.