Summarizingの練習

Summarizingでライティングとスピーキングに必要な詳細に分かりやすく説明する能力を磨く。

まずはScary Stories to Tell in the Darkから自分のお気に入りの話を選んでやってみる。

The Big Toe

A boy found a human toe in the backyard and showed it to his mom. His mom said this toe was going to be served as supper. She put it in the soup, and the whole family had it for supper. In the middle of the night, the boy was awakened and heard the voice, "Where is my toe?" It appeared that the dead body, who had the toe, came to the house and attempted to have it back.

Note: What made the mom find the human toe is nice for supper?
What was the rationale for eating human toe? Even if that was a kind of eatable meat, What led to that decision to eat an unidentified meat?

The Babysitter

There were children in a house, Richard, Brian, Jenny, Doreen, and the babysitter. It was nine o'clock in the evening. Strange phone calls kept coming in. In the first call, the caller just laughed without saying a single word, gradually telling the remaining time, such as "One more hour" and "pretty soon now." Finally, they found out the person was calling from a telephone upstairs.

Note: The situation of not having a reliable presence like adults increases fear for children. Horror movies consist of dark scenes. This is because the psychological state of not knowing what might happen in the darkness, feeling as if something might attack, creates a sense of impending danger and fear.

The Viper

A widow answered the phone call. The person on the line told her he was a wiper and that he was coming over. She was so frightened that she called the police. When the doorbell rang, she said police officers came and opened the door. However, it was a man who said, "I am the viper; I vish to vash and vipe the vindows."

Note: He is actually a wiper, he is a German-speaking immigrant and speaks with a German accent, which makes him pronounce the w-sound as a v-sound.

The Drum

Two sisters, Dolores and Sandra, lived in a small house with their mother and the baby brother, Arthur. The sisters came across a gypsy girl who had a nice drum, making the sisters want to have it. The sisters asked her if it was possible to have it. The gypsy girl said they could if they were bad. From that time, the sisters did bad things as much as they could think of in the house. But the gypsy girl kept rejecting. Their bad behavior was escalating, and their mother was upset. She told them if they kept being bad, she would leave home with Arthur. The sisters ran to see the gypsy girl, telling her they were worse than she had ever seen to get the drum. The gypsy girl laughed and said she didn't mean to give it to them; she was just making fun of them. The sisters were really shocked and rushed home. But their mother and Arthur were gone. Instead, there was a new mother with glass eyes and a wooden tail.