speed
method pay
section dress
cloud surprise
quiet stone
tiny climb
cool design
poor experiment
bottom key
iron single
stick flat
skin smile hole
trade trip
office receive
row mouth
exact symbol
die least
trouble shout
except
seed tone
join suggest
clean break
yard rise
Added Work Words - commission sell sweater accessory register reverse vent resist dimension rack
WAITING FOR JUDY
Gabriella was surprised when Nina called her. "Hi Nina…Tim is still on that long bus trip from work."
"That's OK. I was calling you, not my brother. A friend of mine, Judy, is the manager at a dress store near here. She asked me if I knew anyone who wanted to work there. Are you interested?"
"I wanted to start
"Then I suggest you talk with Judy," said Nina, with a happy tone, "She pays money. And if you can sell dresses, you receive a commission for every dress you sell."
"Well, I don't exactly know everything about the dress trade."
"You'll come up to speed quickly. And you speak two languages which is wonderful for selling. It's a good symbol for a store in this city."
"Maybe you're right. OK, I'll call her, at least."
Nina gave her Judy's number at the store. And then she called Judy to tell her to be sure to talk with Gabriella. Planting seeds like this was Nina's method of making good things happen.
Judy sounded happy to hear Gabriella the next morning. "Yes, Nina said you might be good here because you speak two languages. Can you come to the store's back office and see me at 11 o'clock tomorrow?"
Gabriella put on her best dress, which was not a very good one, and came to the store at 11. The store was full of people looking through the rows of dresses. Judy was very busy selling dresses, but said a few words to Gabriella. "This never happens. I don't know why so many people are here. Could you wait a while for me? I'm sorry."
"Sure," said Gabriella, "If people want to buy dresses right now, then that's the main thing. I’ll just look around the store for a while."
"Oh, thank you, thank you Gabriella, "said Judy, "This just never happens, getting so many people in here in the morning." She moved off quickly, going back to help the person she had left for a second.
Gabriella felt very poor as she look through all these wonderful dresses. Then she heard a voice behind her.
"Do you work here? Could you help us?" said two of the people close to Gabriella in the same section of the store.
"Well no," Gabriella said quietly, with a small smile. "I was just looking."
They were holding three dresses each. "Could we trouble you to tell us which of these look better for a long trip on a ship?"
Gabriella could see they needed help. "No trouble." She observed as the first person held the first dress up to her tiny body.
"I might say No to that one," Gabriella said. "The color is not good for your skin."
"Oh…oh, maybe you are right. What about this one?" She held up the second dress.
"Better," said Gabriella, moving from one side to the other, her eyes climbing from top to bottom. "Put that one over to the side. But with your tiny body, you might want one with a single pattern in it. Like this one." She took a dress with a pattern of little stones in it, and held it up.
"Really?" Then she turned to the other person. "Mother, I think I want both of these."
"That's no more than a yard of material," said her mother in her first language, "But I thought we came in to buy a dress for me!"
"Now, I think you need a clean, flat design," Gabriella said to her in that language, handing the two dresses over to the girl quickly before looking up and down the mother. She took a longer dress from a larger section. "Now I wish I could put this on myself, but it looks like it might be just right for you."
"It is good-looking," the mother said, holding it up to her body, which had larger dimensions than the girl's.
"It's wonderful on you, mother. And easy to iron."
Gabriella said to the girl in English: "Do you want to try those dresses on while your mother and I experiment a little with some belts for her dress?"
"OK," said the girl and went to changing room with the patterned dress, sticking the first dress back on the rack with the others.
Gabriella looked over at Judy, who was still busy with the same person. Judy rolled her eyes and Gabriella let a little laugh out of her mouth.
"What's funny?" said the mother.
"Oh, I just came in to see Judy, and she's still very busy."
They looked at belts, and other accessories, and then a light weight sweater and a reversible windbreaker that was both vented and water-resistant for cool, windy nights on the ship.
"Mother, I love this dress," the girl almost shouted, coming out of the changing room with the patterned dress on. "It makes me feel like I'm rising on a cloud. I could die for this dress."
"All right," said the mother, "Now I get my turn to try these on."
Both the mother and her girl told Gabriella they wanted everything they tried on. Now she had a problem. Judy was free now and they went to the register.
"Judy," she said, "I hope it's OK, but these people wanted to buy these dresses."
Judy smiled and put the dresses on the counter. "More than OK…" And then to the girl and her mother: "I hope you were able to see everything you wanted."
"Oh yes," said the mother, as Judy touched the keys on the register. "Your friend here knew everything we needed."
Gabriella started to say "But…"
Judy cut in with a smile that was too large. "Yes, we're good friends…I was going to try to get her to join us here. But I know she might do better in a larger store…This is just a little hole in the wall."
"It's a great little store," said the mother, "And she might be just right here…She sure helped us."
As soon as they left, Judy said to Gabriella, "What do you think you are doing? This is my store and you come in acting like you are working here. That's like a lie. I think you should leave now, and don't come back."
See and hear these new words in another F-story!
accessory - items that go along with a main dress or other outfit. (to Story)
bottom -- the lowest or deepest part (to Story)
8 PARTS OF SPEECH
There are a few different ways to talk about language. Parts of Speech are
useful to name the kinds of words we use. You know some
of them already. Here are all 8 of them together (click for detail):
1. Verb
2.
Noun
3.
Pronoun
4.
Preposition
5. Adjective
6. Adverb
7. Conjunction
8. Interjection
1. Verb - the action or state of something
be, am, are, is, was, were are some state
words.
He is a teacher.
like, run, sing, take are some action words.
They like Mary.
Top
2. Noun - a person, place, or thing
John, hand, house, Korea and Paris are all
nouns.
John likes his house in Paris.
Top
3.
Pronoun - use in place of a noun
I, you, he, she, it, we, they, and none
are Pronouns.
I like it.
There are many kinds of pronouns for many uses. Other Pronouns
include: who, me, your, that, everyone,
his, and myself.
Top
4. Preposition - ties a noun or a
verb with
another word.
Prepositions go with nouns of time or
place.
to, at, over, with, in, before, and through are
Prepositions.
Tom is flying in his plane over the mountain.
Prepositions go with verbs in Phrasal Verbs.
get up, take off, put in, and bring out are
all Phrasal Verbs with Prepositions.
Top
5. Adjective - tells about a noun.
a/an, the, red, good, 12, and shining
are all adjectives.
A heavy man ran into the red house.
Top
6. Adverb - tells about a verb, an
adjective, or another adverb.
loudly, happily, quite, and sadly are
adverbs.
A heavy man ran very quickly into the
bright red house.
Top
7. Conjunction - ties words or
sentences or clauses together
and, but, because, since and therefore are all
Conjunctions.
John and Bob stayed at home because Barbara
and Mary were shopping.
Top
8. Interjection - a word or a few
words of emotion or statement. May be inserted in a sentence.
"Help!" "OK." "Ah ha..." and "Well..." are all
Interjections.
"Hey, there...", "Say..." and "Freeze" are
Interjections as well.