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Uncertainty VIP – Mini Story

Hello this is AJ and welcome to the mini story for this month’s lesson. Let’s get started.

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Frannie the cat had 12 kittens.

Did Frannie the cat have 12 puppies or 12 kittens?

She had 12 kittens.

What was Frannie?

A cat. Frannie was a cat.

And how many kittens did she have?

Twelve. She had 12 kittens.

What kind of kittens did she have?

Well, in fact, she had 12 very needy and demanding kittens.

Were they calm and easygoing?

No, no, they weren’t calm and easygoing.

What kind of kittens were they?

Needy and demanding.

Of course, ‘needy and demanding’ means they always wanted something. They always needed something. In fact, they were always starving for attention and they were always hungry. Now, ‘to starve for attention, to be stared for attention’, it means you always want attention. You’re always trying to get another person’s attention.

So in this case, the kittens always wanted Frannie’s attention, their mom’s attention. All 12 kittens always wanted Frannie to pay attention to them all the time. They were starving for attention.

So did they want attention just a little bit or were they starving for attention?

They were starving for attention.

And how many of the kittens were starving for attention?

Absolutely all of them. All 12 kittens were starving for attention and these little kitties were always hungry too. So her little 12 kitties were very needy and demanding, they were always starving for attention and they were always hungry too.

So what was the mom’s name?

Frannie. The mom’s name, the mom cat was Frannie.

So Frannie the cat had how many kittens?

Twelve kittens. She had 12 kittens.

And what were they like?

Well, they were needy and demanding, they were starving for attention all the time and they were always hungry. That’s what they were like.

Now Frannie, the mom, always went the extra mile for her kittens.

That’s an idiom ‘went the extra mile or to go the extra mile’. To go the extra mile for someone or for something means that you do extra work for them. You always do extra work for them. You always give an extra effort.

So Frannie was always doing extra work for her kittens. She was always giving extra effort. She was doing everything possible for them and more. She always went the extra mile for them.

So did she try to please them a little bit?

No, no, no, not a little bit. No, she always went the extra mile for her kittens. She always gave extra effort for her kittens.

So who always went the extra mile for her kittens?

Frannie the cat. Frannie the cat always went the extra mile for her kittens.

Now, did her kittens go the extra mile for her?

No, no, no, they didn’t go the extra mile for her. They didn’t try to please her. No, the kittens always wanted attention. They always wanted to receive. So it was Frannie, the mom, who always went the extra mile for her kittens.

Did she always go the extra mile for her friends?

No, not for her friends. She didn’t always go the extra mile for her friends.

Did she always go the extra mile for her own parents?

No, not really. She didn’t always go the extra mile for her own parents, no.

Who did Frannie always go the extra mile for?

Frannie always went the extra mile for her kittens, for her 12 children, her 12 kittens.

In fact, she caught and fed the best mice to them always. She would only catch the most tasty mice for her 12 kittens. Also, she lavished them with attention.

There’s another interesting phrase ‘to lavish with attention’. ‘To lavish’ means to give a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of something. So if you lavish attention on someone it means you give them a lot of attention. It’s not just normal amount, it’s much, much, much, much more than normal. It’s a big amount. You’re giving them lots and lots and lots of, in this case, extra attention. You can lavish money on someone. That means you’re giving them lots and lots of money, extra, extra money.

So did Frannie lavish money on her kittens?

No, she didn’t lavish money on her kittens. She lavished attention on her kitties. She lavished them with attention.

Did her kittens in return lavish Frannie with love and appreciation?

No, no, they did not lavish her with love and appreciation.

What did she lavish them with?

Well, Frannie lavished them with attention.

And who did she lavish attention on?

She lavished attention on her kittens.

And did she lavish them with just a little attention?

No, no, we’re using the world lavish. It means she lavished them with lots and lots and lots of attention. She gave them constant attention, all the time giving them love and attention.

She lavished them with attention. She lavished all 12 of them with attention all the time. In fact, she spoiled them rotten.

This is another idiom ‘to spoil someone rotten’. We usually use it when we talk about children or sometimes pets. So she spoiled them rotten. It means she gave them everything they wanted. She always gave them, gave them, gave them everything they wanted all the time and this means that they were spoiled. It means they received too much, so she never denied them.

To spoil someone rotten, for example a child, to spoil them rotten, so it has a negative feeling that idea of rotten. It means you’re giving them too much. If you spoil a child rotten it means you give them too much and you make them spoiled. You make them arrogant. You make them demanding. So the children are not nice children, right?

They’re always gimmie, gimmie, gimmie. I want something. I want something. They don’t appreciate. They’re not grateful. So that’s the problem with giving them too much.

So when someone does this to a child, when you give them too much and they become a bad child, unappreciative, ungrateful, difficult, when they become like that because you’re giving them too much we say that the parent spoiled them rotten, spoiled them rotten. Gave them too much and made them rotten, made them bad.

So did Frannie spoil her kittens rotten?

She did. She spoiled them rotten.

And how many of them did she spoil rotten?

She spoiled all 12 of them rotten. She gave them everything they wanted all the time.

She constantly lavished them with attention. She spoiled them rotten.

And were they grateful for her attention and her effort?

No, they were not grateful. They were spoiled. They were bratty.

So a ‘bratty’ child, bratty is an adjective here. Bratty means a child that’s undisciplined.

They’re always kind of yelling I want this. I want candy. Gimmie, gimmie, gimmie! I want some candy, aah! They’re kind of always complaining. That’s a spoiled or bratty child.

So a bratty child is a child that’s not so nice.

So her kittens were all spoiled, meaning they got too much all the time and they were not grateful, and they were bratty. They always complained and they were a little bit unfriendly or unkind.

And why were they spoiled?

Well, the kittens were spoiled because Frannie always spoiled them rotten.

See, here, spoiled can be an adjective to describe the children. It’s also a verb. It’s something you do. When you give too much to someone you spoil them.

So she spoiled her kittens. In fact, she spoiled them so much she spoiled them rotten. She made them bratty. She made them rotten. She spoiled them rotten and the kittens became more and more spoiled, more and more and more demanding.

The kittens constantly complained and they constantly wanted more and more and more.

And why did they always want more?

Because Frannie always spoiled them rotten. She always gave them everything they wanted. She spoiled them rotten.

So what kind of kittens were they?

Well, they were spoiled and they were bratty.

Of if you want to use a noun you could say they were brats. They were brats. They were undisciplined children. They were brats. But brats has a negative, it’s not just undisciplined. It’s a negative feeling, undisciplined and not very kind.

Were her kittens kind appreciative children or were they brats?

They were brats. Her kittens were brats. They constantly complained and they constantly wanted more, more, more.

Now, of course, this was very stressful for Frannie and she realized that her children, her kittens, were all becoming brats. That they were spoiled and finally Frannie realized that she needed to practice tough love. Frannie realized she needed to practice tough love.

‘Tough love’ is another little idiom, idiomatic phrase in English. Tough love just means that you love someone, but you must do something that’s unpleasant to them. For example, you have a child and they are addicted to drugs. Now, they want to continue using the drugs, just keep giving them drugs or drinking alcohol, whatever, something that’s not good for them, but as the parent you must stop them. You must practice tough love.

You might need to be very tough with them, very disciplined with them. You might have to stop them and they won’t be happy about it, right? They will think it’s unpleasant, but you’re doing it because you love them. So you do something that’s unpleasant, maybe even painful for them, but you do it because of love, because it’s necessary.

So Frannie realized that she needed to practice tough love with her kittens and, in fact, she did practice tough love with her kittens. She began to discipline her kittens. She stopped giving them everything they wanted. She taught them patience and self-reliance and in the beginning the kittens hated it. They complained even more. They told Frannie that she was a bad mom.

But still Frannie continued to practice what?

She continued to practice, continued to do tough love.

What kind of love did she practice with them?

She practiced tough love with her 12 kittens.

How did she practice tough love with her kittens?

Well, she disciplined them when they were bad. She stopped giving them everything they wanted and she taught them patience and self-reliance.

Did the kittens enjoy this in the beginning?

No, they did not. They complained even more. They were very upset.

They did not like what?

Tough love. They did not like Frannie’s tough love.

But did Frannie continue to practice tough love anyway even though they complained?

Yes, she did. She continued practicing tough love even though the kittens constantly complained and eventually the kittens did learn to be more appreciative. They learned patience and self-reliance and in the end they respected Frannie much more.

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And that is the end of our mini story. As usual, listen to this every day. Answer the questions out loud with a strong voice, make your body strong, your shoulders back, have a big smile on your face while you’re listening to this and that’s all you need to do.

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