In this English lesson, I'm going to tell you a lie. I'm going to tell you two stories. One of the stories that I tell you, one of the stories will be true, and the other story will be a lie. But I'm not going to tell you which one is which. You will need to guess. So listen to both stories and maybe in the comments below, let me know which story you think is true, and which story you think is a lie. And then tomorrow, I will publish another video, just a short video, where I tell you which story was true, and which story was a lie. Let's get started.
Story number one, "The Pet Puppy." One day when I was about 10 years old, my parents told me that we would be getting a new puppy soon. Our dog Prince, was getting old and they thought it would be good to get a new dog while Prince was still around, so that the new puppy could learn how to behave from him.
My sister begged them to get a poodle, but my parents said that wouldn't be a good breed of dog for a farm. And that we'd be getting a dog from the neighbors, because it was free and both its parents were good farm dogs.
My sister and I were really excited. And we got a special place ready in the barn for the new puppy. We put some straw in a big cardboard box and got a couple old bowls from the kitchen for water and food. We even got to go to the pet store with our mom, to buy a bag of puppy chow.
A couple of days later, we went to the neighbor's farm to pick out our puppy. Their dog had, had a litter of seven pups and we would have first choice. We were excited. The puppies were about 10 weeks old and they were so cute. They were play fighting with each other and yipping and barking. Some were black and white, some were brown and white, and one was completely black.
My sister wanted the smallest one, a small brown and white puppy who was sitting in the corner, far from the rest of the litter. He looked scared and lonely. I wanted the black puppy, who was the biggest and most aggressive, just fighting with all of its brothers and sisters. For some reason, my mom and dad agreed with my sister and a few moments later, we were riding home in the car with the small brown and white scared little puppy, sitting on my sister's lap.
When we got home, we put the dog in the box and my sister played with it for the next few hours. She loved the dog from the moment she saw it. And it was clear that the dog liked her a lot too.
At the dinner table that night, we talked about names for the dog. I suggested Brutus, as I thought it sounded like a cool, tough name. My sister liked the name King, because our older dog was named Prince. My parents said that we could decide. I liked her idea. And so we named the dog King.
King grew quickly and soon learned to do all the same things that Prince did. He helped to bring in the cows at night. He barked when strangers came to the farm. He chased cats a lot. Although, that wasn't really one of his jobs, but he sure seemed to like it.
King lived a long and happy life on the farm. And it became clear over the years, that King was my sister's dog. As you probably know, dogs usually only have one real owner, even if they live with a whole family of humans. And he seemed to have chosen my sister. I was good with that. I'm not really a dog person anyways.
Story number two, "The Pet Spider." Once when I was a kid, I found a spider in my bedroom. It was a small brown spider, and I thought it was cute. It had spun a web up in the corner of the ceiling and was sitting in the middle of it. I got a small jar with a lid from my mom and I used the lid to flick the spider off its web into the jar and then quickly screwed on the lid.
When my dad came in for lunch, I showed him the spider in the jar and he told me I should find a bigger jar and put some small holes in the lid so the spider would have fresh air. My mom told me that I should catch flies in the kitchen and put them in the jar for the spider to eat. I'm not sure if she was excited that I had a pet spider, but she was certainly excited that I would be ridding the kitchen of flies each day.
I rummaged around in the cupboard below the sink and found a large glass jar with a lid. I went outside and found some stones, some small sticks and some blades of grass, and put them in the jar. I wanted the jar to be nice and cozy for my spider, so it would be happy. And I thought it would like the stones, sticks and grass. I asked to borrow my dad's hammer and a nail and punched some holes in the lid. I also filled an old bottle cap with water and slowly lowered it to the bottom of the jar, without spilling any of the water. I then carefully transferred the spider from the smaller jar to the bigger jar and screwed the lid on.
I wasn't sure where to put the jar in my room. I didn't know if spiders liked light or dark, but seeing the web up in the dark corner, I assumed they liked the dark. So I put the jar on my bookshelf, far from the window.
I named my spider Rick. And every day I would check to see if he had spun a web. I would catch flies and put them in the jar for Rick to eat. Unfortunately, Rick never made a spiderweb, so he never caught and ate any of the flies. When I watched him, he would just sit in one spot. I would never see him move. But he was always in a different place when I looked, so I knew he was still alive.
A couple of days after catching Rick, I went to the library and borrowed a book about spiders. In the book it said that spiders didn't make great pets. And that the best thing for them is to be in the wild. I was sad, but I knew I had to let Rick go. I carefully took the lid off the jar and set it on the floor in the corner of my room. A few flies flew out, but Rick just sat on his favorite stick. I decided to let him be. After all, he usually only moved when no one was watching him.
The next day, Rick was gone. He never came back. I thought maybe he would return in a day or two to his web in the ceiling, but he never did. And although I was sad that he was gone, I was also happy because he was free.
Well, do you think you know the answer? Do you know which story was a lie and which story was true? Please let me know in the comments below. And remember, in about 24 hours, in about a day or so, I'll put out another video, where I tell you which story was true and which one was a lie.
I hope you enjoyed learning English through story, with this video. Remember, if this is your first time here, please click that red Subscribe button over there. And give me a Thumbs Up, if this video helped you learn just a little bit more English. And if you wanna learn a bit more about secrets, lies and the truth, I do have a couple more lessons you could watch.