Unit 4
A Monster
Hello, my superstar English learner! This is Alex. Welcome to the forth lesson. This one is called “A Monster”. Shoulders back. Chin up. Smile big. Move that body. We are going to do some English. Let’s get started.
There is a huge, ugly and super-strong monster. The monster is so huge that he lives everywhere. The monster does terrible, horrible and awful things. And what does the monster do? He takes children away from homes. He also takes children away from their parents from Mondays till Saturdays. But the monster always brings children back. As a result, parents see little of their children.
Every day the monster gives children a lot of tasks to do. And poor children and unhappy parents have to do tasks all Sundays to please the monster. Because of that monster, parents and children don’t spend time together. Parents and children miss each other. And as a result, the monster breaks relations between parents and children. They don’t understand each other very well.
What is that monster’s name? And of course, the monster’s name is SCHOOL. What? Yes, it is school that takes children away from homes for 5 or 6 hours a day. It is school that gives children a lot of tasks to do. It is school that breaks relations between parents and children. But one day parents decide not to give their children to that monster any more. They decide to educate their children at home. They also decide to spend time with their children all week.
And because the monster can’t take children away from homes any more, the monster gets weaker and weaker. With time the monster gets less and less powerful. And eventually, the monster disappears.
Parents feel fulfilled because their children are well-educated. Parents and children feel fulfilled because they spend a lot of time together.
Everybody knows that parents are the best teachers.
And this is the end of the story for “A Monster”. What are you doing now? I am sure you’re smiling now, you’re breathing deep, you’re moving your body, and you have good posture.
Why not? It’s better than feeling powerless, right? It’s better than being bored. And I promise you will learn so much faster if you do this. Every day just before you do a lesson. Get your body strong. Get into that peak emotional state. And say to yourself that English can be fun and easy. Now your body, your mind, your beliefs, they’re all together, very strong. Then you’re ready to learn.
You know what goes next. Right! Your vocabulary lesson. See you there!
Vocabulary Lesson
Hello, this Alex again. Time for the vocabulary lesson for “A Monster.” As always, be sure you’re standing tall. Good posture, big smile. Deep breath, move your body. Now you are ready to liberate yourself from the story. You are going to be an absolutely liberated, one hundred percent inspired and totally unique English speaker. Let the magic begin!
In this lesson I used a few difficult words. Maybe difficult, maybe not, I don’t know. Let’s talk about them. Number one is a monster. What is it? Of course, you have a picture in your head of a monster. A picture of something or someone who is very large, super ugly, very strong and cruel.
In our story the monster is so large that it lives everywhere. And our next word is everywhere. It means that you can’t escape the monster. You can’t get away from something bad. In our case, it is a huge, ugly and super-strong creature. The monster lives in each village, in each town, in each city. It is everywhere.
Than I say, “The Monster does terrible, horrible and awful things”. Here we have three words: terrible, horrible and awful. These words are synonyms. They all have an idea of something bad and unpleasant. We can use them when we talk about something that makes you feel bad, frightened and extremely uncomfortable. The monster does super-bad things and it makes everybody feel extremely frightened and uncomfortable.
He takes children away from homes. He also takes children away from their parents from Mondays till Saturdays.
But the monster always brings children back.
So the next expression is to bring back. What it means is that the monster always returns children home to their parents. And he doesn’t take children away from homes and from parents forever. No, no, no. The monster always returns children. He always brings children back.
And next you see the sentence “That’s why parents see little of their children” To see little of somebody. So we use this expression when we want to say that we don’t see someone often. Parents don’t see their children often. They see little of their children, not much. They don’t see much of their children. Parents see little of their children.
Alright, another word we have in this lesson is to please. Of course, you know this word. But it is often used as a polite way of asking for something or of asking someone to do something. Like, “Can you help me, please?” But here we use it as a verb. I say, “Poor children and unhappy parents have to do tasks all Sundays to please the monster.” To please somebody means to make a person be glad, be content. So the poor children and unhappy parents have to do a lot of tasks to make that monster be glad, be content or be satisfied or happy. They have to do a lot of tasks to please the monster.
Then we go down the story and we see “The monster breaks relations between parents and children”.
It really means that the monster separates parents from children. In other words, the monster builds; the monster creates a wall between parents and children. Parents and children don’t spend time together. They don’t talk much to each other. They become separated. And as a result, they miss each other and they don’t understand each other very well. The monster breaks relations between parents and children.
As you may guess, here we use a monster as a metaphor. Let me explain to you this word, I mean, a metaphor. A metaphor is a word or a group of words we use to say that one thing or person is similar to another.
For example, every time when you hear me say, a monster or the monster I mean school. I compare School to a Monster. I say metaphorically, of course, that School is like a monster that takes children away from homes and from their parents. A very large, ugly, super-strong and cruel monster that separates parents from children. The monster that builds a wall between parents and children. The monster that takes children from their parents.
Another word we have in this lesson is to educate. And to educate means to teach someone, usually for several years. In other words, parents become teachers, right? They teach their children at home. They don’t send their children to school any more. No, no, no. They educate their children at home.
Okay, our next word is to disappear. You can see this word in the sentence, “Eventually, the monster disappears” To disappear. To disappear means to no longer happen or exist. The monster no longer exists. No one can see the monster. No one can find the monster. It stops existing. The monster disappears. It’s gone.
Next we see the word well-educated. We use this word when we describe someone who has a lot of knowledge about different subjects. For example, he is educated or she is educated. I think, you get the idea, right?
Our final word in this lesson is fulfilled. To be fulfilled or to feel fulfilled means to be happy and satisfied, especially because you are doing something important. Parents are happy. Parents are satisfied. Parents feel fulfilled. They are fulfilled because their children are well-educated. And this is the most