American Folk Tales, Upper Intermediate

 

American Folk Tales

American folk tales include myths, legends, and stories based on historical events. They have evolved mostly since the European colonization of the Americas, but also include stories that date back to the pre-colonial era.

Native American Folk Tales

Native American cultures are rich in myths and legends about various themes, especially those that explain natural phenomena and the relationship between humans and the spirit world.

Native American cultures are numerous and diverse. Though some neighboring cultures hold similar beliefs, others can be quite different from one another. Like most indigenous cultures, the most common myths are creation myths, which tell a story to explain how the earth was formed, and where humans and other beings came from. Others may include explanations about the Sun, Moon, constellations, specific animals, seasons, and weather. This is one of the ways that many tribes have kept, and continue to keep, their cultures alive; these stories are told as a way of preserving and transmitting the nation and tribe's particular beliefs, history, customs, spirituality, and traditional way of life. According to Barre Toelken, "Stories not only entertain but also represent Native behavioral and ethical values."

Although individual tribes have their own sacred beliefs and myths, many stories have much in common. Myths about floods are almost universal amongst Plains tribes, like stories of a flooded earth being restored. There are many "hero stories" immortalizing the adventures of heroes with supernatural powers, who right wrongs and defeat evils. Animal tales are common, some explaining how features of certain animals occurred, some using animal characters for narration, and others using animals symbolically. There are also myths where supernatural beings appear in the form of animals, with the bear, elk, eagle, owl, and snake frequently referred to.

Founding Myths

The founding of the United States is often surrounded by national myths, legends, and tall tales. Many stories have developed since the founding long ago to become a part of America's folklore and cultural awareness, and non-Native American folklore especially includes any narrative which has contributed to the shaping of American culture and belief systems. These narratives have varying levels of historical accuracy; the veracity of the stories is not a determining factor.

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus, as a hero and symbol to the then-immigrants, is an important figure in the body of American myth. His status, not unlike most American icons, is representative not of his own accomplishments, but the self-perception of the society which chose him as a hero. After separation from England and its cultural icons, the United States was left without history—or heroes on which to base a shared sense of their social selves. The writer, Washington Irving, was instrumental in popularizing Columbus. His version of Columbus' life, published in 1829, was more a romance than a biography. The book was very popular, and contributed to an image of the discoverer as a solitary individual who challenged the unknown sea, as triumphant Americans contemplated the dangers and promise of their own wilderness frontier. As a consequence of his vision and audacity, there was now a land free from kings, a vast continent for new beginnings. In the years following the Revolution, the poetic device "Columbia" was used as a symbol of both Columbus and America. King's College of New York changed its name in 1792 to Columbia (now Columbia University), and the new capital in Washington was subtitled District of Columbia.

Jamestown and Pocahontas

In May 1607, three ships sailed through Chesapeake Bay and thirty miles up the James River settlers built Jamestown, Virginia, England's first permanent colony. Too late in the season to plant crops, many settlers were not accustomed to manual labor. Within a few months, some settlers died of famine and disease. Only thirty-eight made it through their first year in the New World. Captain John Smith, a pirate turned gentleman, turned the settlers into foragers and successful traders with the Native Americans, who taught the English how to plant corn and other crops. Smith led expeditions to explore the regions surrounding Jamestown, and it was during one of these that the chief of the Powhatan Native Americans captured Smith. According to an account Smith published in 1624, he was going to be put to death until the chief's daughter, Pocahontas, saved him. From this, the legend of Pocahontas sprang forth, becoming part of American folklore, children's books, and movies.

Pilgrims

Plymouth Rock is the traditional site of arrival of William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Colony in 1620, and an important symbol in American history. There are no contemporary references to the Pilgrims' landing on a rock at Plymouth. The first written reference to the Pilgrims landing on a rock is found 121 years after they landed. The Rock, or one traditionally identified as it, has long been memorialized on the shore of Plymouth Harbor in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The holiday of Thanksgiving is said to have begun with the Pilgrims in 1621. They had come to America to escape religious persecution, but then nearly starved to death. Some friendly Native Americans, including Squanto, helped the Pilgrims survive through the first winter. The perseverance of the Pilgrims is celebrated during the annual Thanksgiving festival.

Revolutionary War figures

George Washington

George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799), the country's first president, is the most preeminent of American historical and folkloric figures, as he holds the place of the father of the country. Legends about Washington's childhood include a claim that he skipped a silver dollar across the Rappahannock River at Ferry Farm. Another tale claims that as a young child, Washington chopped down his father's cherry tree. His angry father confronted the young Washington, who proclaimed "I cannot tell a lie" and admitted to the act, thus illuminating his honesty.

Benjamin Franklin

(January 17, 1706– April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a leading writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Among the most influential intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States; a drafter and signer of the Declaration of Independence; and the first postmaster general.

Some famous American maxims come from Franklin’s Almanac, which he called Poor Richard’s Almanac. He began it when he was 26 and continued to publish it yearly for 25 years, building up a very large circulation. Some of the most famous maxims include the following:

God helps them that help themselves.

Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

There are no gains without pains.

One today is worth two tomorrows.

Little strokes fell great oaks.

 He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.

 Look before, or you’ll find yourself behind.

Don’t throw stones at your neighbors, if your own windows are glass.

 When you’re good to others, you’re best to yourself.

 Haste makes Waste.

 Wish not so much to live long as to live well.

Patrick Henry

Henry was an attorney, planter and politician who became known as an orator during the movement for independence in Virginia in the 1770s. Patrick Henry is best known for the speech he made in the House of Burgesses in 1775, in Richmond, Virginia. With the House undecided on whether to mobilize for military action against the approaching British military force, Henry argued in favor of mobilization. Forty-two years later, Henry's first biographer, William Wirt, tried to reconstruct what Henry said. According to Wirt, Henry ended his speech with words that have since become immortalized: "I know not what course others may take; but as for me, Give me Liberty, or give me Death!" The crowd, by Wirt's account, jumped up and shouted "To Arms! To Arms!"

Betsy Ross

Betsy Ross is widely credited with making the first American flag. There is, however, no credible historical evidence that the story is true. Research conducted by the National Museum of American History notes that the story of Betsy Ross making the first American flag for General George Washington entered into American consciousness about the time of the 1876 centennial celebrations. In the 2008 book The Star-Spangled Banner: The Making of an American Icon, experts point out that accounts of the event appealed to Americans eager for stories about the revolution and its heroes. Betsy Ross was promoted as a patriotic role model for young girls and a symbol of women's contributions to American history.

Benedict Arnold

Arnold was an American-born military officer who served during the American Revolutionary War. He fought with distinction for the American Continental Army and rose to the rank of major general before defecting to the British in 1780. General George Washington had given him his fullest trust and had placed him in command of West Point in New York. Arnold was planning to surrender the fort to British forces, but the plot was discovered, and he fled to the British lines. His name became synonymous with treason and betrayal in the United States.

Paul Revere

Revere was an American silversmith, military officer and industrialist who played a major role during the opening months of the American Revolutionary War in Massachusetts, engaging in a midnight ride in 1775 to alert nearby minutemen of the approach of British troops prior to the battles of Lexington and Concord.

Tall Tales

The tall tale is a main element of American folk literature. The tall tale's origins are in the bragging contests that often occurred when men of the American frontier gathered. A tall tale is a story with unbelievable elements, told as if it were true and factual. Some such stories are exaggerations of actual events; others are completely fictional tales set in a familiar setting, such as the American Old West, or the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. They are usually humorous or good-natured. The line between myth and tall tale is distinguished primarily by age; many myths exaggerate the adventures of their heroes, but in tall tales, the exaggeration appears large, to the extent of becoming the main part of the story.

Based on historical figures

John Chapman (1774 – 1845), known as Johnny Appleseed, was an American pioneer farmer who introduced apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. He became an American legend while still alive, largely because of his kind and generous ways, and the symbolic importance he gave to apples.

Daniel Boone (1734-1820) was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose achievements made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of the Thirteen Colonies. In 1775, Boone created the Wilderness Road through into Kentucky, in the face of resistance from American Indians, for whom the area was a traditional hunting area. He founded one of the first English-speaking settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains. By the end of the 18th century, more than 200,000 people had entered Kentucky by following the route marked by Boone.

Davy Crockett (1786 – 1836) was a 19th-century American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier and politician. He is commonly referred to in popular culture as, "King of the Wild Frontier". He represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives, served in the Texas Revolution, and died at the Battle of the Alamo.

John Brown (1800 – 1859) was a prominent leader in the American abolitionist movement in the decades before the Civil War. First reaching national fame in the 1850s for his radical abolitionism and fighting in Kansas, Brown was captured and executed in Virginia for attacking the town of Harpers Ferry in 1859 in order to encourage a slave uprising.

Sitting Bull was leader of the Hunkpapa Lakota Indian Nation who led his people during years of resistance against United States government policies. He was killed by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation during an attempt to arrest him at a time when authorities feared that he would join the Ghost Dance movement.

Before the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull had a vision in which he saw many soldiers, "as thick as grasshoppers", falling upside down into the Lakota camp, which his people took as a foreshadowing of a major victory in which many soldiers would be killed. About three weeks later, a confederation of Indian tribes defeated the U.S. Cavalry under General Custer in 1876, annihilating Custer's battalion and seeming to fulfill Sitting Bull's prophetic vision. Sitting Bull's leadership inspired his people to a major victory. In response, the U.S. government sent thousands more soldiers to the area, forcing many of the Lakota to surrender over the next year. Sitting Bull refused to surrender, and in May 1877, he led his band north to Wood Mountain, North-West Territories (now Saskatchewan). He remained there until 1881, when he and most of his band returned to U.S. territory and surrendered to U.S. forces.

After working as a performer with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, (one of the most famous ‘Wild West shows’, which romanticized cowboys, Indians, and the Wild West) Sitting Bull returned to the Standing Rock Agency in South Dakota. Because of fears that Sitting Bull would use his influence to support the Ghost Dance movement, (a growing spiritual movement, which prophesied an end to American expansion and a return to peace and prosperity for Indian nations) an Indian Service ordered his arrest. During an ensuing struggle between Sitting Bull's followers and the agency police, Sitting Bull was killed.

Martha Jane Canary (1852 – 1903), better known as Calamity Jane, was an American frontierswoman, and professional scout best known for her claim of being an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok (a famous frontiersman). She is said to have also exhibited kindness and compassion, especially to the sick and needy.

John Henry was an African-American railroad worker who is said to have worked as a "steel-driving man"—a man tasked with hammering a steel drill into rock to make holes for explosives to blast the rock away in constructing a railroad tunnel. According to legend, John Henry's prowess as a steel-driver was measured in a race against a steam-powered hammer, which he won, only to die in victory with his hammer in his hand and his heart giving out from stress. The "Ballad of John Henry" is a musical rendition of his story.

Based on Fictional Characters

Paul Bunyan is a lumberjack figure in North American folklore and tradition. One of the most famous and popular North American folklore heroes, he is usually described as a giant as well as a lumberjack of unusual skill, and is often accompanied in stories by his animal companion, Babe the Blue Ox. The character originated in folktales circulated among lumberjacks in the Northeastern United States and eastern Canada, first appearing in print in a story published by Northern Michigan journalist James MacGillivray in 1906.

The Lone Ranger is a masked former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West with his Native American friend Tonto.

Pecos Bill is an American cowboy, whose adventures and deeds are immortalized in numerous tall tales of the Old West during the American westward expansion into the Texas and the Southwest.

When Pecos Bill is an infant, his family travels west in a covered wagon, and he falls out unnoticed by the rest of his family near the Pecos River (thus his nickname). He is taken in and raised by a pack of coyotes. Years later he is found by his real brother, who manages to convince him he is not a coyote.

Bill uses a rattlesnake named Shake as a lasso and another snake as a little whip. Dynamite is said to be his favorite food. It is also said Bill sometimes rides a cougar instead of a horse. According to legend, Pecos Bill is responsible for creating many landmarks. One landmark he is said to have created is the Gulf of Mexico. Apparently, a drought in Texas was so horrible, that Pecos rushed to California and used his lasso to catch tornado and bring it to Texas. It rained so much that the Gulf of Mexico was created. Another story explains how he created the Rio Grande River.

Uncle Sam (who has the same initials as United States) is a common national personification of the federal government of the United States or the country in general. Since the early 19th century, Uncle Sam has been a popular symbol of the U.S. government in American culture and a manifestation of patriotic emotion.

Legendary Creatures

Bigfoot, also known as "Sasquatch", is the name given to an ape-like creature that some believe inhabit  forests in the Pacific Northwest region, or throughout the entirety of, North America. Bigfoot is usually described as a large, hairy, bipedal humanoid, although descriptions vary depending on location. The height range is about 6 to 10 feet tall with black, dark brown, or dark reddish hair. There are several famous accounts of people seeing Bigfoot, and sightings are still reported. Among these reporters are often campers, hikers, explorers, hunters, and more. There are even several websites, podcasts and organizations related to Bigfoot.

Punxsutawney Phil is a semi-mythical groundhog central to the most well-known Groundhog Day ceremony, a Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that claims to predict the arrival of spring. According to tradition, the same groundhog has made predictions ever since the 1800s.

The Jersey Devil is a legendary creature said to inhabit the Pine Barrens, a wilderness in the southern part of the State of New Jersey. The creature is often described as a flying biped with hooves, but there are many different variations, including a creature with the face of a horse, the head of a dog, bat-like wings, horns, small arms with clawed hands, and red eyes. It has been reported to move quickly, as to avoid human contact, and often is described as emitting a loud scream. The legend goes as such: a woman named Mother Leeds gives birth to her 13th child on a dark, stormy night. Mother Leed is said to be a witch, and for her 13th child, she gives birth to a devil. It soon grows wings and hooves, kills the midwife, and takes off into the night.

The White Lady is a type of female ghost reportedly seen in rural areas and associated with some local legend of tragedy. Common to many of them is the theme of losing or being betrayed by a husband or fiancé. They are often associated with an individual family line or said to be an omen of death.

The Mothman is a mythical creature from the State of West Virginia, often described as a large humanoid with glowing red eyes on its face and large bird-like wings with fur covering its body.

Fearsome Critters were tall tales about strange animals or creatures, like Big Foot or the Jersey Devil, jokingly said to inhabit the wilderness in or around logging camps, especially in the Great Lakes region. The character of the fearsome critters themselves was usually more comical than frightful.

Literature

Santa Claus, also known as Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, or simply "Santa", is a figure with legendary, mythical, historical and folkloric origins. The modern figure of Santa Claus has it’s origins in Christian and European gift-giver folklore. This includes representations of the gift-giver from Christian Church history and folklore, especially St Nicholas, merged with the English character Father Christmas to create the mythical character known to the rest of the English-speaking world as "Santa Claus" (a derivation of "Sinterklaas", Saint Nicholas, in Dutch).

"A Visit from St. Nicholas", also known as "The Night Before Christmas" is a poem first published anonymously in 1823 and generally attributed to Clement Clarke Moore. The poem, which has been called arguably the best-known verses ever written by an American, is largely responsible for the conception of Santa Claus from the mid-nineteenth century to today, including his physical appearance, the night of his visit, his mode of transportation, the number and names of his reindeer, as well as the tradition that he brings toys to children. The poem has influenced ideas about St. Nicholas and Santa Claus from the United States to the rest of the English-speaking world and beyond.

The Headless Horseman is an archetype of a mythical figure that has appeared in folklore around Europe since the Middle Ages. The figures are traditionally depicted as riders upon horseback who are missing their heads.

In American folklore, The Headless Horseman is a character most known from the short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by American author Washington Irving. In this story, the ghost of a soldier from the Revolutionary war, decapitated by a cannonball, is supposedly buried in a churchyard in Sleepy Hollow (a real town in the state of New York). At night he rises from his grave to search for his missing head, but is supernaturally barred from crossing a wooden bridge over a nearby stream.

"Rip Van Winkle" is another short story by Washington Irving, published in 1819. It follows a Dutch-American villager in colonial America named Rip Van Winkle who meets mysterious Dutchmen, drinks their liquor and falls asleep in the Catskill Mountains of New York. He awakes 20 years later to a very changed world, having missed the American Revolution.

Modern American Folklore

American folklore is still occurring and evolving. Some of the topics are older stories, in which people still believe, such as sightings of Big Foot. Many modern stories are related to aliens and UFO abductions. Tales of the Men in Black, secret government agents who dress in black suits and cover up UFO sightings, are an example of this. The Area 51 legend is another example of this. Area 51 is a real military base in state of Nevada. According to UFO folklore, the base holds either alien spaceships or aliens themselves, or both.

The internet has also helped create and disseminate new folklore stories like Creepyposta and the Slenderman, horror-related legends. Characters and stories from movies like Star Wars also could be consider modern folklore.

 

Adapted from Wikipedia and other sources:

Folk tales: Traditional stories passed down from generation to generation, often involving imaginary creatures or events and reflecting the culture of the people who tell them.

Phenomena: something that exists or happens, usually something unusual: (e.g. Natural phenomena like lightning storms).

Diverse: Containing or featuring a variety of different elements or people. (e.g. A diverse group of students from all over the world).

Indigenous: Originating or occurring naturally in a particular place; native. (e.g. Indigenous plants or people of the Amazon rainforest).

Tribe: A group of people living together in a primitive social unit, typically having a common language and culture. (e.g. The indigenous tribes of the Pacific Islands)

Tall tales: Humorous or exaggerated stories that are not meant to be taken literally.

Veracity: Truthfulness; the quality of being truthful.

Audacity: Bold or reckless behavior.

Polymath: A person of wide-ranging knowledge or learning. (e.g. Leonardo da Vinci was a true polymath, excelling in art, science, and engineering).

Synonymous: Having the same or nearly the same meaning as another word. (e.g. "Happy" and "joyful" are synonymous).

Bragging: Boasting about oneself or one's achievements in a loud or annoying way. (e.g. The athlete's constant bragging turned off his teammates)

Factual: Based on facts or reality. (e.g. A factual news report).

Exaggeration: An act or statement of representing something as being bigger, better, or worse than it really is. (e.g. The movie was an exaggeration of real events).

 Fictional: Invented or imagined; not real or true. (e.g. Harry Potter is a fictional character).

Good-natured: Kind and pleasant. (e.g. The good-natured giant helped the lost children find their way home).

Settlement: An act of settling or being settled. (e.g. The pilgrims' settlement at Plymouth Rock)

Resistance: The act of opposing something with force or argument. (e.g. The French Resistance fought against Nazi occupation during World War II).

Abolitionist: A person who favors the abolition of slavery. (e.g. Harriet Tubman was a famous American abolitionist who helped slaves escape to freedom).

 Uprising: A violent rebellion against authority or control. (e.g. The Haitian Uprising overthrew French rule in the late 18th century).

Indian Reservation: An area of land in the U.S. that is kept separate as a place for Native Americans to live.

Grasshopper: Jumping insects with long hind legs. They are related to crickets and locusts.

Foreshadowing: A literary device where the author give a suggestion at what will happen later in the story.

Confederation: A group of states or organizations that agree to work together for a common purpose. The United States of America is a confederation of 50 states.

Annihilating: To destroy something completely. Annihilation can refer to the destruction of a physical object, a group of people, or an idea.

Battalion: A military unit typically made up of several hundred soldiers.

Prophetic: Able to predict the future, especially in a way that is inspired by a higher power.

Surrender: To give up in a fight or contest. When someone surrenders, they admit defeat and agree to the demands of the victor.

Frontier: The outer limits of a settled or known area. The American frontier was the region in the western United States that was not yet settled by Europeans.

Scout: A person who goes ahead of a group to find out information, especially about enemies or danger. Scouts are often used in the military or for exploration.

Prowess: Great skill or ability. Prowess can be used in relation to physical skills, mental skills, or social skills.

Rendition: a performance of something.

Lumberjack: A person who cuts down trees and prepares them for transport. Lumberjacks typically work in forests.

Outlaw: A person who breaks the law and avoids capture by the authorities. Outlaws are often depicted in cowboys and gangster movies.

Deed: something that is done: an act or action.

Lasso: A rope with a loop at one end that is used to catch animals. Lassoing is a skill that is often associated with cowboys.

Personification: The practice of representing a thing or idea as a person in art, literature, etc.

Entirety: The whole thing or amount. If you consider something in its entirety, you are considering all of its parts or aspects.

Bipedal: An animal that walks on two legs. Humans are bipedal creatures. (Compare to "quadrupedal" which means walking on four legs).

Humanoid: Resembling a human in shape. Humanoid robots are often featured in science fiction stories.

Groundhog: A small, furry North American animal that lives in the ground also known as a woodchuck.

Superstition: A belief that is not based on reason or science. Many people have superstitions about things like bringing bad luck.

Hooves: The hard, horny coverings on the feet of some animals, such as horses, cows, and sheep. Hooves help these animals to walk on rough terrain.

Emitting: To send or releasing something, such as light, heat, or sound. For example, the sun emits light.

Midwife: A trained person who assists a woman during childbirth. Midwives can deliver babies at home or in hospitals.

Betrayed: to hurt (someone who trusts you, such as a friend or relative) by not giving help or by doing something morally wrong. If someone betrays you, they have broken your trust.

Omen: A sign that is believed to be a prediction of the future. Omens can be positive or negative.

Critter: An informal word for a small animal. This is a casual way to refer to any small creature.

Merged: Combined to form a single thing. For example, two companies might merge to create a larger company.

Attributed: Given credit for something. An achievement can be attributed to a person's hard work.

Reindeer: A large deer with large horns that is native to Arctic regions. Reindeer are also known as caribou.

Decapitated: To cut off the head of someone (a person or animal).

Supernatural: Relating to things that are believed to be beyond the normal laws of nature. Ghosts, magic and spirits are often considered to be supernatural.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Chaos by Gerard Nolst Trenité

The Chaos is a well-known poem by Gerard Noist Trenite written in the 1920s. It shows the irregularities of English grammar and pronunciation (something any student of English knows well!). It's meant to be a humous look at the English language, and it can be good practice to test your pronunciation skills and vocabulary knowledge. Trenite, who was Dutch, became a teacher of English, and used the poem as a way of practicing difficult English words for Dutch people. In time, the poem became popular outside the Netherlands. Of course, the author, who certainly didn't give up learning English, is only joking at the end of the poem. The lines at the end of the poem are a good reminder that although we can feel like giving up sometimes, if we have a sense of humor, we can keep going and improve our English skills, and learn to manage the chaos! 

Dearest creature in creation

Studying English pronunciation,

   I will teach you in my verse

   Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.

I will keep you, Susy, busy,

Make your head with heat grow dizzy;

   Tear in eye, your dress you'll tear;

   Queer, fair seer, hear my prayer.

Pray, console your loving poet,

Make my coat look new, dear, sew it!

   Just compare heart, hear and heard,

   Dies and diet, lord and word.

Sword and sward, retain and Britain

(Mind the latter how it's written).

   Made has not the sound of bade,

   Say-said, pay-paid, laid but plaid.

Now I surely will not plague you

With such words as vague and ague,

   But be careful how you speak,

   Say: gush, bush, steak, streak, break, bleak ,

Previous, precious, fuchsia, via

Recipe, pipe, studding-sail, choir;

   Woven, oven, how and low,

   Script, receipt, shoe, poem, toe.

Say, expecting fraud and trickery:

Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore,

   Branch, ranch, measles, topsails, aisles,

   Missiles, similes, reviles.

Wholly, holly, signal, signing,

Same, examining, but mining,

   Scholar, vicar, and cigar,

   Solar, mica, war and far.

From "desire": desirable-admirable from "admire",

Lumber, plumber, bier, but brier,

   Topsham, brougham, renown, but known,

   Knowledge, done, lone, gone, none, tone,

One, anemone, Balmoral,

Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel.

   Gertrude, German, wind and wind,

   Beau, kind, kindred, queue, mankind,

Tortoise, turquoise, chamois-leather,

Reading, Reading, heathen, heather.

   This phonetic labyrinth

   Gives moss, gross, brook, brooch, ninth, plinth.

Have you ever yet endeavoured

To pronounce revered and severed,

   Demon, lemon, ghoul, foul, soul,

   Peter, petrol and patrol?

Billet does not end like ballet;

Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.

   Blood and flood are not like food,

   Nor is mould like should and would.

Banquet is not nearly parquet,

Which exactly rhymes with khaki.

   Discount, viscount, load and broad,

   Toward, to forward, to reward,

Ricocheted and crocheting, croquet?

Right! Your pronunciation's OK.

   Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,

   Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Is your r correct in higher?

Keats asserts it rhymes Thalia.

   Hugh, but hug, and hood, but hoot,

   Buoyant, minute, but minute.

Say abscission with precision,

Now: position and transition;

   Would it tally with my rhyme

   If I mentioned paradigm?

Twopence, threepence, tease are easy,

But cease, crease, grease and greasy?

   Cornice, nice, valise, revise,

   Rabies, but lullabies.

Of such puzzling words as nauseous,

Rhyming well with cautious, tortious,

   You'll envelop lists, I hope,

   In a linen envelope.

Would you like some more? You'll have it!

Affidavit, David, davit.

   To abjure, to perjure. Sheik

   Does not sound like Czech but ache.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,

Rachel, loch, moustache, eleven.

   We say hallowed, but allowed,

   People, leopard, towed but vowed.

Mark the difference, moreover,

Between mover, plover, Dover.

   Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,

   Chalice, but police and lice,

Camel, constable, unstable,

Principle, disciple, label.

   Petal, penal, and canal,

   Wait, surmise, plait, promise, pal,

Suit, suite, ruin. Circuit, conduit

Rhyme with "shirk it" and "beyond it",

   But it is not hard to tell

   Why it's pall, mall, but Pall Mall.

Muscle, muscular, gaol, iron,

Timber, climber, bullion, lion,

   Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,

   Senator, spectator, mayor,

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour

Has the a of drachm and hammer.

   Pussy, hussy and possess,

   Desert, but desert, address.

Golf, wolf, countenance, lieutenants

Hoist in lieu of flags left pennants.

   Courier, courtier, tomb, bomb, comb,

   Cow, but Cowper, some and home.

"Solder, soldier! Blood is thicker",

Quoth he, "than liqueur or liquor",

   Making, it is sad but true,

   In bravado, much ado.

Stranger does not rhyme with anger,

Neither does devour with clangour.

   Pilot, pivot, gaunt, but aunt,

   Font, front, wont, want, grand and grant.

Arsenic, specific, scenic,

Relic, rhetoric, hygienic.

   Gooseberry, goose, and close, but close,

   Paradise, rise, rose, and dose.

Say inveigh, neigh, but inveigle,

Make the latter rhyme with eagle.

   Mind! Meandering but mean,

   Valentine and magazine.

And I bet you, dear, a penny,

You say mani-(fold) like many,

   Which is wrong. Say rapier, pier,

   Tier (one who ties), but tier.

Arch, archangel; pray, does erring

Rhyme with herring or with stirring?

   Prison, bison, treasure trove,

   Treason, hover, cover, cove,

Perseverance, severance. Ribald

Rhymes (but piebald doesn't) with nibbled.

   Phaeton, paean, gnat, ghat, gnaw,

   Lien, psychic, shone, bone, pshaw.

Don't be down, my own, but rough it,

And distinguish buffet, buffet;

   Brood, stood, roof, rook, school, wool, boon,

   Worcester, Boleyn, to impugn.

Say in sounds correct and sterling

Hearse, hear, hearken, year and yearling.

   Evil, devil, mezzotint,

   Mind the z! (A gentle hint.)

Now you need not pay attention

To such sounds as I don't mention,

   Sounds like pores, pause, pours and paws,

   Rhyming with the pronoun yours;

Nor are proper names included,

Though I often heard, as you did,

   Funny rhymes to unicorn,

   Yes, you know them, Vaughan and Strachan.

No, my maiden, coy and comely,

I don't want to speak of Cholmondeley.

   No. Yet Froude compared with proud

   Is no better than McLeod.

But mind trivial and vial,

Tripod, menial, denial,

   Troll and trolley, realm and ream,

   Schedule, mischief, schism, and scheme.

Argil, gill, Argyll, gill. Surely

May be made to rhyme with Raleigh,

   But you're not supposed to say

   Piquet rhymes with sobriquet.

Had this invalid invalid

Worthless documents? How pallid,

   How uncouth he, couchant, looked,

   When for Portsmouth I had booked!

Zeus, Thebes, Thales, Aphrodite,

Paramour, enamoured, flighty,

   Episodes, antipodes,

   Acquiesce, and obsequies.

Please don't monkey with the geyser,

Don't peel 'taters with my razor,

   Rather say in accents pure:

   Nature, stature and mature.

Pious, impious, limb, climb, glumly,

Worsted, worsted, crumbly, dumbly,

   Conquer, conquest, vase, phase, fan,

   Wan, sedan and artisan.

The th will surely trouble you

More than r, ch or w.

   Say then these phonetic gems:

   Thomas, thyme, Theresa, Thames.

Thompson, Chatham, Waltham, Streatham,

There are more but I forget 'em-

   Wait! I've got it: Anthony,

   Lighten your anxiety.

The archaic word albeit

Does not rhyme with eight-you see it;

   With and forthwith, one has voice,

   One has not, you make your choice.

Shoes, goes, does *. Now first say: finger;

Then say: singer, ginger, linger.

   Real, zeal, mauve, gauze and gauge,

   Marriage, foliage, mirage, age,

Hero, heron, query, very,

Parry, tarry fury, bury,

   Dost, lost, post, and doth, cloth, loth,

   Job, Job, blossom, bosom, oath.

Faugh, oppugnant, keen oppugners,

Bowing, bowing, banjo-tuners

   Holm you know, but noes, canoes,

   Puisne, truism, use, to use?

Though the difference seems little,

We say actual, but victual,

   Seat, sweat, chaste, caste, Leigh, eight, height,

   Put, nut, granite, and unite.

Reefer does not rhyme with deafer,

Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer.

   Dull, bull, Geoffrey, George, ate, late,

   Hint, pint, senate, but sedate.

Gaelic, Arabic, pacific,

Science, conscience, scientific;

   Tour, but our, dour, succour, four,

   Gas, alas, and Arkansas.

Say manoeuvre, yacht and vomit,

Next omit, which differs from it

   Bona fide, alibi

   Gyrate, dowry and awry.

Sea, idea, guinea, area,

Psalm, Maria, but malaria.

   Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean,

   Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,

Dandelion with battalion,

   Rally with ally; yea, ye,

   Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, key, quay!

Say aver, but ever, fever,

Neither, leisure, skein, receiver.

   Never guess-it is not safe,

   We say calves, valves, half, but Ralf.

Starry, granary, canary,

Crevice, but device, and eyrie,

   Face, but preface, then grimace,

   Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.

Bass, large, target, gin, give, verging,

Ought, oust, joust, and scour, but scourging;

   Ear, but earn; and ere and tear

   Do not rhyme with here but heir.

Mind the o of off and often

Which may be pronounced as orphan,

   With the sound of saw and sauce;

   Also soft, lost, cloth and cross.

Pudding, puddle, putting. Putting?

Yes: at golf it rhymes with shutting.

   Respite, spite, consent, resent.

   Liable, but Parliament.

Seven is right, but so is even,

Hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen,

   Monkey, donkey, clerk and jerk,

   Asp, grasp, wasp, demesne, cork, work.

A of valour, vapid vapour,

S of news (compare newspaper),

   G of gibbet, gibbon, gist,

   I of antichrist and grist,

Differ like diverse and divers,

Rivers, strivers, shivers, fivers.

   Once, but nonce, toll, doll, but roll,

   Polish, Polish, poll and poll.

Pronunciation-think of Psyche!-

Is a paling, stout and spiky.

   Won't it make you lose your wits

   Writing groats and saying "grits"?

It's a dark abyss or tunnel

Strewn with stones like rowlock, gunwale,

   Islington, and Isle of Wight,

   Housewife, verdict and indict.

Don't you think so, reader, rather,

Saying lather, bather, father?

   Finally, which rhymes with enough,

   Though, through, bough, cough, hough, sough, tough??

Hiccough has the sound of sup...

My advice is: GIVE IT UP!

The Machine Stops, Chapter 1, Adapted

 

The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster

Adapted for intermediate level

Chapter I: The Air Ship

Imagine a small room. There is no window or lamp, yet it is filled with a soft light. There are no holes for air, yet the air is fresh. There are no musical instruments, and yet, at the moment the room is filled with beautiful music. A chair is in the center of the room and next to it is a desk—this is all the furniture. In the chair there sits a women of about average height with a very white face. This is her room.

A telephone rang.

The woman touched a button and the music was silent.

'I suppose I must see who it is', she thought, and moved her chair. The chair, like the music, was controlled by machine and it moved her to the other side of the room where the telephone still rang.

'Who is it?' she called. Her voice was angry, for she had been interrupted often since the music began. She knew several thousand people, in some ways human communication had advanced greatly.

But when she listened to the telephone, her white face began to smile, and she said: 'Very well. Let us talk. I do not expect anything important will happen for the next five minutes – for I can give you fully five minutes, Kuno. Then I must give my lecture on "Music during the Australian Period".'

'Be quick!' she said, her irritation returning. 'Be quick, Kuno; I have little time.'

But it was fully fifteen seconds before the tablet she held in her hands turned on. A video appeared on the screen, and she could see the image of her son, who lived on the other side of the earth, and he could see her. 'Kuno, how slow you are.'

He smiled seriously.

'I really believe you enjoy wasting time.'

'I called you before, mother, but you were always busy. I have something important to say.'

'What is it, dearest boy? Be quick. Why could you not send it by message?'

'Because I prefer saying such a thing. I want----'

'Well?'

'I want you to come and see me.'

Vashti watched his face on the screen.

'But I can see you!' she cried. 'What more do you want?'

'I don’t want to see you through the Machine,' said Kuno. 'I don’t want to speak to you through the boring Machine.'

'Oh, quiet!' said his mother, somewhat shocked. 'You mustn't say anything against the Machine.'

 

'Why not?'

'One mustn't.'

'You talk as if a god made the Machine,' cried her son.

'I believe that you pray to it when you are unhappy. Men made it, do not forget that. Great men, but men. The Machine is great, but it is not everything. I see something like you on this screen, but I do not see you. I hear something like you through this telephone, but I do not hear you. That is why I want you to come.  Come to visit me, so that we can meet face to face, and talk about the hopes that are in my mind.'

She replied that she hardly had the time for a visit.

'The air-ship takes less than two days to fly between me and you.'

'I dislike air-ships.'

'Why?'

'I dislike seeing the horrible brown earth, and the sea, and the stars when it is dark. I get no ideas in an air-ship.'

'I do not get them anywhere else.” He said.

'What kind of ideas can the air give you?'

He thought for a moment.

'Do you know those four big stars that form a rectangle, the three stars close together in the middle of the rectangle, and the three little stars inside the middle stars?'

'No, I do not. I dislike the stars. But did they give you an idea? How interesting; tell me.'

'I had an idea that they were like a man.'

'I do not understand.'

'The four big stars are the man's shoulders and his legs.

The three stars in the middle are like the belts that men wore once, and the three little stars are like a sword.'

'A sword?'

'Men carried swords about with them, to kill animals and other men.'

'It does not seem to me as a very good idea, but it is certainly original. When did it come to you first?'

'In the air-ship-----' He quickly stopped speaking, and she thought that he looked sad. She could not be sure, for the Machine did not teach people to focus on expressions of emotion, but only general thoughts.

 

'The truth is,' he continued, 'that I want to see these stars again. They are interesting stars. I want to see them not from the air-ship, but from the surface of the earth, as our ancestors did, thousands of years ago. I want to visit the surface of the earth.' She was shocked again.

'Mother, you must come, if only to explain to me what is the harm of visiting the surface of the earth.'

'No harm,' she replied, controlling herself. 'But no advantage. The surface of the earth is only dust and mud, no advantage. The surface of the earth is only dust and mud, no life remains on it, and you would need a respirator to breathe, or the cold of the outside air would kill you. One dies immediately in the outside air.'

'I know; of course I shall take all precautions.'

'And besides----'

'Well?'

She thought, and chose her words with care. Her son had a strange character and she wished to stop him from the journey.

'It is against the spirit of our time,' she stated.

'Do you mean by that, against the Machine?'

'In a way, but----'

He ended the video call.

'Kuno!'

For a moment Vashti felt lonely.

Then she turned to the buttons everywhere – buttons to call for food for music, for clothing. There was the hot-bath button. There was the cold-bath button. There was the button that brought literature. And there were of course the buttons by which she communicated with her friends. The room, though it contained nothing, was connected to all that she cared for in the world.

Vashanti's next move was to turn on the public connection and the minutes came to her. The room was filled with the noise of bells, and speaking connections. What was the new food like? Could she recommend it? Has she had any ideas lately? Might one tell her one's own ideas? Would she make an appointment to visit the public nurseries at an early date?

To most of these questions she replied with irritation – a growing quality in that fast-paced age. She said that the new food was horrible. That she could not visit the public nurseries because she was busy with other appointments. That she had no ideas of her own but had just been told one – that four stars and three in the middle were like a man: she doubted there was much in it. Then she turned off her other connections, for it was time to give her lecture on Australian music. The old system of public gatherings in person had been ended a long time ago; Vashti and her audience listened to the lectures from their rooms. Seated in her chair she spoke, while they in their chairs heard her, fairly well, and saw her, fairly well. She opened with a funny story of music in the pre-Mongolian age, and went on to describe the great explosion of song that followed. Distance and ancient as were the methods of I-San-So and the Brisbane school, she still felt that study of them might repay the musicians of today: they had freshness; they had, above all, ideas. Her lecture, which lasted ten minutes, was well received, and at its conclusion she and many of her audience listened to a lecture on the sea; there were ideas to be got from the sea; the speaker had used a respirator and visited it lately. Then she ate, talked to many friends, had a bath, talked again, and called for her bed. She didn’t like the bed. It was too large, and she wanted a smaller bed.

Complaint was useless, for beds were of the same size all over the world, and to have had a different size would mean changes to the programming of the Machine. Vashti lay on her bed and reviewed all that had happened recently. Ideas? Hardly any. Events – was Kuno's invitation an event?

By her side, on the little desk, was item from past ages still used-one book. This was the Book of the Machine. In it were instructions against every possible event. If she was hot or cold or sick or didn’t know what to say, she went to the book, and it told her which button to press. The Central Committee published it.

Sitting up in the bed, she took it respectfully in her hands. She looked around the room as if someone might be watching her. Then, half ashamed, half joyful, she said quietly 'O Machine! O Machine!' and kissed the book three times with excitement. Her ritual performed, she turned to page 1367, which gave the times of the leaving of the air-ships from the island in the southern part of the planet, under whose ground she lived, to the island in the northern part of the planet, under which lived her son.

She thought, 'I don’t have the time.'

She made the room dark and slept; she awoke and made the room light; she ate and exchanged ideas with her friends, and listened to music and lectures; she make the room dark and slept. Above her, under her, and around her, the Machine made a continuous low sound; she did not notice the noise, for she had been born with it in her ears. The earth, carrying her, ran through silence, turning her now to the invisible sun, now to the invisible stars. She awoke and made the room light.

'Kuno!'

'I will not talk to you.' he answered, 'until you come.'

'Have you been on the surface of the earth since we spoke last?'

His image on the screen disappeared.

Again she checked the book. She became very nervous and sat back in her chair. Presently she directed the chair to the wall, and pressed an unfamiliar button. A door in the wall opened. Through the opening she saw tunnel so long that its end was not visible. Should she go to see her son, here was the beginning of the journey.

Of course, she knew all about the communication-system. There was nothing mysterious in it. She would call a car and it would fly with her down the tunnel until it reached the lift to the air-ship station: the system had been in use for many, many years, long before the Machine. And of course she had studied the civilization that had immediately come before her own – the civilization that had mistaken the functions of the system, and had used it for bringing people to things, instead of for bringing things to people. Those funny old days, when men went outside for a change of air instead of changing the air in their rooms! And yet – she was frightened of the tunnel: she had not seen it since her last child was born. Vashti was fearful of a direct experience of life. She moved back into the room, and the wall closed again.

'Kuno,' she said, 'I cannot come to see you. I am not well.'

Immediately a huge device fell on to her out of the ceiling, a thermometer automatically laid upon her head. She lay powerless as the sensors checked her. Kuno had sent a message to her doctor.

Vashti drank the medicine given to her by the Machine, and the devices went back into the ceiling. The voice of Kuno was heard asking how she felt.

'Better.' Then with irritation: 'But why do you not come to me instead?'

'Because I cannot leave this place.'

'Why?'

'Because, any moment, something wonderful may happen.'

'Have you been on the surface of the earth yet?'

'Not yet.'

'Then what is it?'

'I will not tell you through the Machine.'

She began her regular routine again.

But she thought of Kuno as a baby, his birth, his removal to the public nurseries, her own visit to him there, his visits to her – visits which stopped when the Machine had given him a room on the other side of the earth. Duties of parents,' said the book of the Machine,' end at the moment of birth.' True, but there was something special about Kuno – indeed there had been something special about all her children – and, after all, she must be brave and go on this journey if he desired it. And 'something wonderful might happen'. What did that mean? The silliness of a young man, no doubt, but she must go. Again she pressed the unfamiliar button, again the door opened, and she saw the long tunnel. Holding the Book tightly, she rose, and walked weakly on to the platform, and called the car. Her room closed behind her: the journey to the northern part of the earth had begun.

Of course it was perfectly easy. The car came and in it she found seats exactly like her own. When she signalled, it stopped, and she walked unsteadily into the lift. One other passenger was in the lift, the first person she had seen face to face for months. Few people travelled these days, for, thanks to the advance of science, the earth was exactly alike all over. Rapid transportation, from which the previous civilization had hoped for so much, had ended by destroying itself. What was the good of going to China when it was just like Briton? Why return to Briton when it would all be like China? Men seldom moved their bodies; all unrest was concentrated in the soul.

 

The air-ships were an old service from the former age. It was kept up, because it was easier to keep it up than to stop it, but most of the population no longer wanted to use it. Ship after ship would rise from the entrances of Rye or of Christchurch (I use the old names), would fly into the crowded sky, and would land at the stations of the south – empty. So nicely adjusted was the system, so independent of the weather, that the sky, whether calm or cloudy, was filled with these ships. The ship on which Vashti flew started either at sunset or at dawn. Night and day, wind and storm, ocean waves and natural disasters stopped humanity no longer. We had mastered the power of Nature. All the old literature, with its praise of Nature, and its fear of Nature, was like the silly words of a child.

Yet as Vashti saw the huge side of the ship, her fear of direct experience returned. It was not quite like the air-ship in the films. For one thing, it had a smell – not strong or unpleasant, but it did smell, and with her eyes closed she should have known that a new thing was close to her. Then she had to walk to it from the lift, while other passengers could look at her. The man in front dropped his Book – no great matter, but it disturbed them all. In the rooms, if the Book was dropped, the floor raised it mechanically, but the way to the air-ship was not so prepared, and the sacred book lay on the ground. They stopped – not knowing what to do – and the man, instead of picking up the book, was confused, and his arms seems almost not to know how to pick up things by themselves. Then someone actually said, 'We shall be late' – and they moved on to the ship.

Inside, her nervousness increased. The arrangements were old-fashioned and rough. There was even a women flight attendant, to whom she would have to speak if she needed or wanted anything during the flight. Some cabins were better than others, and she did not get the best. She thought the attendant had been unfair, and her body filled with anger. The doors had closed she could not go back. She saw the lift in which she had come going quietly up and down, empty. Under those halls were rooms, level below level, going far into the earth, and in each room there sat a human eating, or sleeping, or producing ideas. And buried deep on one of these levels was her own room. Vashti was afraid. 'O Machine!' she said quietly, and held her Book, and felt better.

Then the air-ship, coming from its tunnel, flew above the waters of a tropical ocean into the sky.

It was night. For a moment she saw the coast below, and then only the stars distracted her. They were not motionless, but moved slightly above her head, as if the universe and not the air-ship was moving. This made her feel uncomfortable. 'Are we to travel in the dark?' the passengers asked angrily, and the attendant, who had been careless, turned on the light, and pulled down the blinds. When the air-ships had been built, people still had the desire to look direct at things in the world. As a result, the extraordinary number of windows on the plane, and the discomfort to those who were civilized and cultured. Even in Vashti's cabin one star was still visible through a mistake in the blind, and after a few hours' uneasy sleep, she was disturbed by an unfamiliar glow, which was the sunrise.

As the ship quickly flew west, the earth had turned east quicker still, and had taken Vashti and her companions back towards the sun. Science could make the night longer, but only for a little, and those high hopes of stopping the earth's rotation had passed, together with hopes that were possibly higher. Airplanes had been built capable of extremely high speeds, and guided by the smartest people on the times. Around the globe they went, round and round, westward, westward, round and round, among humanity's praise. But they were not fast enough. Horrible accidents happened, and the Committee of the Machine, at the time becoming more important, stated that further attempts illegal, not best for the society, and punished by Homelessness.

 

About Homelessness more will be said later.

Without a doubt, the Committee was right. Yet the attempt to fly faster than the sun brought the last common interest that humanity experienced about the sun and planets, or indeed about anything. It was the last time that people thought of a power outside the world. The sun was still the winner, yet it was the end of his spiritual power. Sunrise, afternoon, sunset, the entire path of the sun touched neither humanity’s lives not their hearts, and science went away into the ground, to concentrate on problems that she was certain of solving.

So when Vashti found the light from morning entering her cabin, she was annoyed, and tried to put down the blind. But the blind flew up altogether, and she saw through the window small pink clouds, against a background of blue, and as the sun slowly went higher, its brightness entered direct, coming down the wall, like a golden sea. It rose and fell with the air-ship's motion, just as waves rise and fall, but it advanced steadily, as a wave advances. Unless she was careful, it would hit her face. She felt horror and she called for the attendant. The attendant too was horrified, but she could do nothing; she was not able to fix the blind. She could only suggest that the Vashti change her cabin, which she prepared to do.

People were almost exactly alike all over the world, but the attendant of the air-ship, perhaps because of her special duties, had become somewhat different. She often had to talk to passengers with direct speech, and this had given her a certain roughness and uniqueness of manner. When Vashti moved away from the sunlight with a cry, she behaved rudely– she put out her hand to stop Vashti from falling.

'How could you!' shouted Vashti. 'That's so rude!'

The woman was confused, and apologized for not letting her fall. People never touched each other. The custom had disappeared because of the Machine.

'Where are we now?' asked Vashti in an overly proud way.

'We are over Asia,' said the attendant, nervous to be polite.

'Asia?'

'You must excuse my common way of speaking. I have got into the habit of calling places over which I fly by their  before-machine names.'

'Oh, I remember Asia. The Mongols came from it.'

'Under us, in the open air, stood a city that was once called Simla.' 'Have you ever heard of the Mongols and of the Brisbane school?'

'No.'

'Brisbane also stood in the open air.'

'Those mountains to the right – let me show you them.' She pushed back the blind. The main part of the Himalayas was revealed. 'They were once called the Roof of the World, those mountains.'

 

'You must remember that, before the rise of civilization, they seemed to be an wall that touched the stars. It was supposed that no one but the gods could live above their tops. How we have advanced, thanks to the Machine!'

'How we have advanced, thanks to the Machine!' said Vashti.

'How we have advanced, thanks to the Machine!' repeated the passenger who had dropped his Book the night before, and who was standing in the passage.

'Cover the window, please. These mountains give me no ideas.'

The northern part of the Himalayas was in deep shadow: on the Indian side the sun had just started to be seen. The forests had been destroyed during the era literature for the purpose of making newspapers, but the snows could be seen in their morning glory. On the plain were seen the ruins of cities, with rivers going by their walls, and by the sides of these were sometimes the structures of the entrances to the tunnels under the earth, which lead to the cities of today. Over this area air-ships rushed, rising and flying  with ease above the earth and the roof of the world.

'We have indeed advanced, thanks to the Machine,' repeated the attendant, and hid the Himalayas behind the blind.

The day went  slowly forward. The passengers each sat in their own cabins, trying not to see each other with an almost physical dislike and hope to be once again under the surface of the earth. There were eight or ten of them, mostly young men, sent from the public nurseries to live in the rooms of those who died in different parts of the earth. The man who dropped his Book was on his journey home. He had been sent to Sumatra make a baby with a women there. Only Vashti was travelling by choice.

At noon she looked again at the earth. The air-ship was crossing another group of mountains, but she could see little, because of clouds. Big black rock were seen below her, and came together into grey. Their shapes were fantastic; one of them looked like  a man lying on the ground.

'No ideas here,' Vashti quietly said to herself, and covered the Caucasus mountains with the blind. In the evening she looked again. They were crossing a golden sea, in which lay many small islands and one peninsula. She repeated, 'No ideas here,' and covered Greece behind the blind.

 

Rang:  past tense of to ring; the sound a bell makes.

 Button: a switch press to controla piece of equipment:

To suppose: something that you should do.

Interrupted: to stop someone while they are talking or doing something, by saying or doing something yourself.

Advanced: having developed or progressed to a late stage.

appeared:  to start to be seen.

Pray: to speak to a god in order to show your feelings or to ask for something.

Air-ship: A type of airplane that the people in the story use for transportation.

Sword: a weapon with a long, metal blade and a handle, used especially in the past.

Ancestors: a relative who lived a long time ago.

Surface

advantage

remains

respirator

immediately

The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster

Adapted for intermediate level

Chapter I: The Air Ship

Imagine a small room. There is no window or lamp, yet it is filled with a soft light. There are no holes for air, yet the air is fresh. There are no musical instruments, and yet, at the moment the room is filled with beautiful music. A chair is in the center of the room and next to it is a desk—this is all the furniture. In the chair there sits a women of about average height with a very white face. This is her room.

A telephone rang.

The woman touched a button and the music was silent.

'I suppose I must see who it is', she thought, and moved her chair. The chair, like the music, was controlled by machine and it moved her to the other side of the room where the telephone still rang.

'Who is it?' she called. Her voice was angry, for she had been interrupted often since the music began. She knew several thousand people, in some ways human communication had advanced greatly.

But when she listened to the telephone, her white face began to smile, and she said: 'Very well. Let us talk. I do not expect anything important will happen for the next five minutes – for I can give you fully five minutes, Kuno. Then I must give my lecture on "Music during the Australian Period".'

'Be quick!' she said, her irritation returning. 'Be quick, Kuno; I have little time.'

But it was fully fifteen seconds before the tablet she held in her hands turned on. A video appeared on the screen, and she could see the image of her son, who lived on the other side of the earth, and he could see her. 'Kuno, how slow you are.'

He smiled seriously.

'I really believe you enjoy wasting time.'

'I called you before, mother, but you were always busy. I have something important to say.'

'What is it, dearest boy? Be quick. Why could you not send it by message?'

'Because I prefer saying such a thing. I want----'

'Well?'

'I want you to come and see me.'

Vashti watched his face on the screen.

'But I can see you!' she cried. 'What more do you want?'

'I don’t want to see you through the Machine,' said Kuno. 'I don’t want to speak to you through the boring Machine.'

'Oh, quiet!' said his mother, somewhat shocked. 'You mustn't say anything against the Machine.'

 

'Why not?'

'One mustn't.'

'You talk as if a god made the Machine,' cried her son.

'I believe that you pray to it when you are unhappy. Men made it, do not forget that. Great men, but men. The Machine is great, but it is not everything. I see something like you on this screen, but I do not see you. I hear something like you through this telephone, but I do not hear you. That is why I want you to come.  Come to visit me, so that we can meet face to face, and talk about the hopes that are in my mind.'

She replied that she hardly had the time for a visit.

'The air-ship takes less than two days to fly between me and you.'

'I dislike air-ships.'

'Why?'

'I dislike seeing the horrible brown earth, and the sea, and the stars when it is dark. I get no ideas in an air-ship.'

'I do not get them anywhere else.” He said.

'What kind of ideas can the air give you?'

He thought for a moment.

'Do you know those four big stars that form a rectangle, the three stars close together in the middle of the rectangle, and the three little stars inside the middle stars?'

'No, I do not. I dislike the stars. But did they give you an idea? How interesting; tell me.'

'I had an idea that they were like a man.'

'I do not understand.'

'The four big stars are the man's shoulders and his legs.

The three stars in the middle are like the belts that men wore once, and the three little stars are like a sword.'

'A sword?'

'Men carried swords about with them, to kill animals and other men.'

'It does not seem to me as a very good idea, but it is certainly original. When did it come to you first?'

'In the air-ship-----' He quickly stopped speaking, and she thought that he looked sad. She could not be sure, for the Machine did not teach people to focus on expressions of emotion, but only general thoughts.

 

'The truth is,' he continued, 'that I want to see these stars again. They are interesting stars. I want to see them not from the air-ship, but from the surface of the earth, as our ancestors did, thousands of years ago. I want to visit the surface of the earth.' She was shocked again.

'Mother, you must come, if only to explain to me what is the harm of visiting the surface of the earth.'

'No harm,' she replied, controlling herself. 'But no advantage. The surface of the earth is only dust and mud, no advantage. The surface of the earth is only dust and mud, no life remains on it, and you would need a respirator to breathe, or the cold of the outside air would kill you. One dies immediately in the outside air.'

'I know; of course I shall take all precautions.'

'And besides----'

'Well?'

She thought, and chose her words with care. Her son had a strange character and she wished to stop him from the journey.

'It is against the spirit of our time,' she stated.

'Do you mean by that, against the Machine?'

'In a way, but----'

He ended the video call.

'Kuno!'

For a moment Vashti felt lonely.

Then she turned to the buttons everywhere – buttons to call for food for music, for clothing. There was the hot-bath button. There was the cold-bath button. There was the button that brought literature. And there were of course the buttons by which she communicated with her friends. The room, though it contained nothing, was connected to all that she cared for in the world.

Vashanti's next move was to turn on the public connection and the minutes came to her. The room was filled with the noise of bells, and speaking connections. What was the new food like? Could she recommend it? Has she had any ideas lately? Might one tell her one's own ideas? Would she make an appointment to visit the public nurseries at an early date?

To most of these questions she replied with irritation – a growing quality in that fast-paced age. She said that the new food was horrible. That she could not visit the public nurseries because she was busy with other appointments. That she had no ideas of her own but had just been told one – that four stars and three in the middle were like a man: she doubted there was much in it. Then she turned off her other connections, for it was time to give her lecture on Australian music. The old system of public gatherings in person had been ended a long time ago; Vashti and her audience listened to the lectures from their rooms. Seated in her chair she spoke, while they in their chairs heard her, fairly well, and saw her, fairly well. She opened with a funny story of music in the pre-Mongolian age, and went on to describe the great explosion of song that followed. Distance and ancient as were the methods of I-San-So and the Brisbane school, she still felt that study of them might repay the musicians of today: they had freshness; they had, above all, ideas. Her lecture, which lasted ten minutes, was well received, and at its conclusion she and many of her audience listened to a lecture on the sea; there were ideas to be got from the sea; the speaker had used a respirator and visited it lately. Then she ate, talked to many friends, had a bath, talked again, and called for her bed. She didn’t like the bed. It was too large, and she wanted a smaller bed.

Complaint was useless, for beds were of the same size all over the world, and to have had a different size would mean changes to the programming of the Machine. Vashti lay on her bed and reviewed all that had happened recently. Ideas? Hardly any. Events – was Kuno's invitation an event?

By her side, on the little desk, was item from past ages still used-one book. This was the Book of the Machine. In it were instructions against every possible event. If she was hot or cold or sick or didn’t know what to say, she went to the book, and it told her which button to press. The Central Committee published it.

Sitting up in the bed, she took it respectfully in her hands. She looked around the room as if someone might be watching her. Then, half ashamed, half joyful, she said quietly 'O Machine! O Machine!' and kissed the book three times with excitement. Her ritual performed, she turned to page 1367, which gave the times of the leaving of the air-ships from the island in the southern part of the planet, under whose ground she lived, to the island in the northern part of the planet, under which lived her son.

She thought, 'I don’t have the time.'

She made the room dark and slept; she awoke and made the room light; she ate and exchanged ideas with her friends, and listened to music and lectures; she make the room dark and slept. Above her, under her, and around her, the Machine made a continuous low sound; she did not notice the noise, for she had been born with it in her ears. The earth, carrying her, ran through silence, turning her now to the invisible sun, now to the invisible stars. She awoke and made the room light.

'Kuno!'

'I will not talk to you.' he answered, 'until you come.'

'Have you been on the surface of the earth since we spoke last?'

His image on the screen disappeared.

Again she checked the book. She became very nervous and sat back in her chair. Presently she directed the chair to the wall, and pressed an unfamiliar button. A door in the wall opened. Through the opening she saw tunnel so long that its end was not visible. Should she go to see her son, here was the beginning of the journey.

Of course, she knew all about the communication-system. There was nothing mysterious in it. She would call a car and it would fly with her down the tunnel until it reached the lift to the air-ship station: the system had been in use for many, many years, long before the Machine. And of course she had studied the civilization that had immediately come before her own – the civilization that had mistaken the functions of the system, and had used it for bringing people to things, instead of for bringing things to people. Those funny old days, when men went outside for a change of air instead of changing the air in their rooms! And yet – she was frightened of the tunnel: she had not seen it since her last child was born. Vashti was fearful of a direct experience of life. She moved back into the room, and the wall closed again.

'Kuno,' she said, 'I cannot come to see you. I am not well.'

Immediately a huge device fell on to her out of the ceiling, a thermometer automatically laid upon her head. She lay powerless as the sensors checked her. Kuno had sent a message to her doctor.

Vashti drank the medicine given to her by the Machine, and the devices went back into the ceiling. The voice of Kuno was heard asking how she felt.

'Better.' Then with irritation: 'But why do you not come to me instead?'

'Because I cannot leave this place.'

'Why?'

'Because, any moment, something wonderful may happen.'

'Have you been on the surface of the earth yet?'

'Not yet.'

'Then what is it?'

'I will not tell you through the Machine.'

She began her regular routine again.

But she thought of Kuno as a baby, his birth, his removal to the public nurseries, her own visit to him there, his visits to her – visits which stopped when the Machine had given him a room on the other side of the earth. Duties of parents,' said the book of the Machine,' end at the moment of birth.' True, but there was something special about Kuno – indeed there had been something special about all her children – and, after all, she must be brave and go on this journey if he desired it. And 'something wonderful might happen'. What did that mean? The silliness of a young man, no doubt, but she must go. Again she pressed the unfamiliar button, again the door opened, and she saw the long tunnel. Holding the Book tightly, she rose, and walked weakly on to the platform, and called the car. Her room closed behind her: the journey to the northern part of the earth had begun.

Of course it was perfectly easy. The car came and in it she found seats exactly like her own. When she signalled, it stopped, and she walked unsteadily into the lift. One other passenger was in the lift, the first person she had seen face to face for months. Few people travelled these days, for, thanks to the advance of science, the earth was exactly alike all over. Rapid transportation, from which the previous civilization had hoped for so much, had ended by destroying itself. What was the good of going to China when it was just like Briton? Why return to Briton when it would all be like China? Men seldom moved their bodies; all unrest was concentrated in the soul.

 

The air-ships were an old service from the former age. It was kept up, because it was easier to keep it up than to stop it, but most of the population no longer wanted to use it. Ship after ship would rise from the entrances of Rye or of Christchurch (I use the old names), would fly into the crowded sky, and would land at the stations of the south – empty. So nicely adjusted was the system, so independent of the weather, that the sky, whether calm or cloudy, was filled with these ships. The ship on which Vashti flew started either at sunset or at dawn. Night and day, wind and storm, ocean waves and natural disasters stopped humanity no longer. We had mastered the power of Nature. All the old literature, with its praise of Nature, and its fear of Nature, was like the silly words of a child.

Yet as Vashti saw the huge side of the ship, her fear of direct experience returned. It was not quite like the air-ship in the films. For one thing, it had a smell – not strong or unpleasant, but it did smell, and with her eyes closed she should have known that a new thing was close to her. Then she had to walk to it from the lift, while other passengers could look at her. The man in front dropped his Book – no great matter, but it disturbed them all. In the rooms, if the Book was dropped, the floor raised it mechanically, but the way to the air-ship was not so prepared, and the sacred book lay on the ground. They stopped – not knowing what to do – and the man, instead of picking up the book, was confused, and his arms seems almost not to know how to pick up things by themselves. Then someone actually said, 'We shall be late' – and they moved on to the ship.

Inside, her nervousness increased. The arrangements were old-fashioned and rough. There was even a women flight attendant, to whom she would have to speak if she needed or wanted anything during the flight. Some cabins were better than others, and she did not get the best. She thought the attendant had been unfair, and her body filled with anger. The doors had closed she could not go back. She saw the lift in which she had come going quietly up and down, empty. Under those halls were rooms, level below level, going far into the earth, and in each room there sat a human eating, or sleeping, or producing ideas. And buried deep on one of these levels was her own room. Vashti was afraid. 'O Machine!' she said quietly, and held her Book, and felt better.

Then the air-ship, coming from its tunnel, flew above the waters of a tropical ocean into the sky.

It was night. For a moment she saw the coast below, and then only the stars distracted her. They were not motionless, but moved slightly above her head, as if the universe and not the air-ship was moving. This made her feel uncomfortable. 'Are we to travel in the dark?' the passengers asked angrily, and the attendant, who had been careless, turned on the light, and pulled down the blinds. When the air-ships had been built, people still had the desire to look direct at things in the world. As a result, the extraordinary number of windows on the plane, and the discomfort to those who were civilized and cultured. Even in Vashti's cabin one star was still visible through a mistake in the blind, and after a few hours' uneasy sleep, she was disturbed by an unfamiliar glow, which was the sunrise.

As the ship quickly flew west, the earth had turned east quicker still, and had taken Vashti and her companions back towards the sun. Science could make the night longer, but only for a little, and those high hopes of stopping the earth's rotation had passed, together with hopes that were possibly higher. Airplanes had been built capable of extremely high speeds, and guided by the smartest people on the times. Around the globe they went, round and round, westward, westward, round and round, among humanity's praise. But they were not fast enough. Horrible accidents happened, and the Committee of the Machine, at the time becoming more important, stated that further attempts illegal, not best for the society, and punished by Homelessness.

 

About Homelessness more will be said later.

Without a doubt, the Committee was right. Yet the attempt to fly faster than the sun brought the last common interest that humanity experienced about the sun and planets, or indeed about anything. It was the last time that people thought of a power outside the world. The sun was still the winner, yet it was the end of his spiritual power. Sunrise, afternoon, sunset, the entire path of the sun touched neither humanity’s lives not their hearts, and science went away into the ground, to concentrate on problems that she was certain of solving.

So when Vashti found the light from morning entering her cabin, she was annoyed, and tried to put down the blind. But the blind flew up altogether, and she saw through the window small pink clouds, against a background of blue, and as the sun slowly went higher, its brightness entered direct, coming down the wall, like a golden sea. It rose and fell with the air-ship's motion, just as waves rise and fall, but it advanced steadily, as a wave advances. Unless she was careful, it would hit her face. She felt horror and she called for the attendant. The attendant too was horrified, but she could do nothing; she was not able to fix the blind. She could only suggest that the Vashti change her cabin, which she prepared to do.

People were almost exactly alike all over the world, but the attendant of the air-ship, perhaps because of her special duties, had become somewhat different. She often had to talk to passengers with direct speech, and this had given her a certain roughness and uniqueness of manner. When Vashti moved away from the sunlight with a cry, she behaved rudely– she put out her hand to stop Vashti from falling.

'How could you!' shouted Vashti. 'That's so rude!'

The woman was confused, and apologized for not letting her fall. People never touched each other. The custom had disappeared because of the Machine.

'Where are we now?' asked Vashti in an overly proud way.

'We are over Asia,' said the attendant, nervous to be polite.

'Asia?'

'You must excuse my common way of speaking. I have got into the habit of calling places over which I fly by their  before-machine names.'

'Oh, I remember Asia. The Mongols came from it.'

'Under us, in the open air, stood a city that was once called Simla.' 'Have you ever heard of the Mongols and of the Brisbane school?'

'No.'

'Brisbane also stood in the open air.'

'Those mountains to the right – let me show you them.' She pushed back the blind. The main part of the Himalayas was revealed. 'They were once called the Roof of the World, those mountains.'

 

'You must remember that, before the rise of civilization, they seemed to be an wall that touched the stars. It was supposed that no one but the gods could live above their tops. How we have advanced, thanks to the Machine!'

'How we have advanced, thanks to the Machine!' said Vashti.

'How we have advanced, thanks to the Machine!' repeated the passenger who had dropped his Book the night before, and who was standing in the passage.

'Cover the window, please. These mountains give me no ideas.'

The northern part of the Himalayas was in deep shadow: on the Indian side the sun had just started to be seen. The forests had been destroyed during the era literature for the purpose of making newspapers, but the snows could be seen in their morning glory. On the plain were seen the ruins of cities, with rivers going by their walls, and by the sides of these were sometimes the structures of the entrances to the tunnels under the earth, which lead to the cities of today. Over this area air-ships rushed, rising and flying  with ease above the earth and the roof of the world.

'We have indeed advanced, thanks to the Machine,' repeated the attendant, and hid the Himalayas behind the blind.

The day went  slowly forward. The passengers each sat in their own cabins, trying not to see each other with an almost physical dislike and hope to be once again under the surface of the earth. There were eight or ten of them, mostly young men, sent from the public nurseries to live in the rooms of those who died in different parts of the earth. The man who dropped his Book was on his journey home. He had been sent to Sumatra make a baby with a women there. Only Vashti was travelling by choice.

At noon she looked again at the earth. The air-ship was crossing another group of mountains, but she could see little, because of clouds. Big black rock were seen below her, and came together into grey. Their shapes were fantastic; one of them looked like  a man lying on the ground.

'No ideas here,' Vashti quietly said to herself, and covered the Caucasus mountains with the blind. In the evening she looked again. They were crossing a golden sea, in which lay many small islands and one peninsula. She repeated, 'No ideas here,' and covered Greece behind the blind.

 

Vocabulary 

Rang:  past tense of to ring; the sound a bell makes.

Button: a switch to press to control a piece of equipment.

To suppose: something that you should do.

Interrupted: to stop someone while they are talking or doing something, by saying or doing something yourself.

Advanced: having developed or progressed to a late stage.

Appeared:  to start to be seen.

Pray: to speak to a god in order to show your feelings or to ask for something.

Air-ship: A type of airplane that the people in the story use for transportation.

Sword: a weapon with a long, metal blade and a handle, used especially in the past.

Ancestors: a relative who lived a long time ago.

Surface: the outside or top layer of something.

Advantage: a quality of something that makes it better or more useful.

To remain:  to still be present after the other parts have been removed, used, etc.; to continue to exist.

Respirator: a piece of equipment that makes it possible for somebody to breathe over a long period when they are unable to do so naturally.

Immediately: at once; without delay; instantly.

Precautions: Actions taken to prevent something unpleasant or dangerous from happening.

Nurseries: Places where young plants, flowers, or trees are grown and cared for.

Fast-paced: Happening quickly or at a high speed.

In person: Meeting or communicating directly with someone face-to-face.

Ancient: Very old, often referring to things from a long time ago.

Complaint: A statement expressing dissatisfaction or unhappiness about something.

Ashamed: Feeling guilty or embarrassed about one's actions.

Direct experience: Personal involvement or participation in a situation without any intermediary.

Duties: Tasks or responsibilities that someone is required to do.

Unsteadily: In an unstable or shaky manner.

Praise: Expressing approval or admiration for someone's achievements or qualities.

 Disturbed: Feeling upset, troubled, or bothered.

Scared: Feeling afraid or frightened.

To pick up: To lift or take something from a surface.

Arrangements: Plans or preparations made for a particular purpose.

Old-fashioned: Outdated or not in style anymore.

Flight attendant: A person who works on an airplane, helping passengers and ensuring their safety.

Buried: Covered or hidden beneath something.

Blinds: Window coverings that can be adjusted to control the amount of light entering a room.

Homelessness: The state of being without a permanent home.

Indeed: Used to emphasize the truth of a statement or to agree with something said.

Background: The information, environment, or circumstances that precede an event or situation.

Alike: Similar or having resemblances.

Manner: The way in which something is done or happens.

Confused: Feeling uncertain or bewildered, lacking clarity.

Custom: A traditional way of behaving or doing something that is specific to a particular society or group.

Himalayas: A mountain range in Asia, known for its high peaks.

Glory: Great honor, praise, or distinction.

Plain: Simple or not elaborate, without decorations.

Ruins: The remains of something that has been destroyed or severely damaged.