LearnEnglish would like to thank the Sage Arts Unlimited (Martial Arts & Fitness Training) website for letting us reproduce this story, which is on their site.
Double-click on any word and see its definition from Cambridge Dictionaries Online.
Before reading the story, you may like to look at the glossary which will help you with dificult words from the text. After reading, try a comprehension activity, then do some writing yourself.
You can also listen to this story:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
To download, right-click on the link above, choose 'Save target as', and select where you want to save the file. If you're a using a Mac, simply double-click on the link and use the on-screen window to select the file's destination.
If you want to listen on your PC, just left click and the file will play in your default player. For Mac users, click the link.
(See/print audio script) (pdf doc)
Once upon a time there was a stone cutter. The stone cutter lived in a land where a life of privilege meant being powerful. Looking at his life he decided that he was unsatisfied with the way things were and so he set out to become the most powerful thing in the land.
Looking around his land he wondered to himself what is it to be powerful. Looking up he saw the Sun shining down on all the land. "The Sun must be the most powerful thing that there is, for it shines down on all things, and all things grow from it's touch." So he became the Sun.
Days later, as he shone his power down on the inhabitants of the land, there came a cloud which passed beneath him obstructing his brilliance. Frustrated he realized that the Sun was not the most powerful thing in the land, if a simple cloud could interrupt his greatness. So he became a cloud, in fact, he became the most powerful storm that the world had ever seen.
And so he blew his rain and lightning, and resounded with thunder all over the land, demonstrating that he was the most powerful. Until one day he came across a boulder.
Down and down he poured and his thunder roared, lightning flashed and filled the sky, striking the ground near the boulder. His winds blew and blew and blew, and yet, despite all his efforts, he could not budge the boulder.
Frustrated again, he realized that the storm was not the most powerful thing in the land, rather it must be the boulder. So he became the boulder.
For days he sat, unmovable, and impassive, demonstrating his power, until one day, a stone cutter came and chiseled him to bits.
The Moral of the Story
Sometimes the most important thing to remember is that you have everything you need already, right inside of you. Power is an illusion.
THE END
boulder (n): a very large rock.
brilliance (n): state of being full of light, shining or bright in colour.
budge (v): if something will not budge or you cannot budge it, it will not move.
chisel (v): to use a tool with a long metal blade that has a sharp edge for cutting wood, stone, etc..
frustrated (adj): feeling annoyed or discouraged because you cannot achieve what you want.
illusion (n): an idea or belief which is not true; something that is not really what it seems to be.
impassive (adj): describes a person's face when it expresses no emotion, because they seem not to be affected by the situation they are experiencing.
inhabitant (n): a person or animal that lives in a particular place.
interrupt (v): to stop something from happening for a short period.
lightning (n): a flash of bright light in the sky which is produced by electricity moving between clouds or from clouds to the ground.
obstruct (v): to block a road, passage, entrance, etc. so that nothing can go along it, or to prevent something from happening correctly by putting difficulties in its way.
pour (v): to (cause to) flow quickly and in large amounts.
privilege (n): an advantage that only one person or group of people has, usually because of their position or because they are rich.
resound (v): to sound loudly or for a long time.
storm (n): an extreme weather condition with very strong wind, heavy rain and often thunder and lightning.
thunder (n): the sudden loud noise which comes from the sky especially during a storm.
unsatisfied (adj): unhappy because you have not got what you wanted, or because something has happened in a way that you didn’t want.
wonder (v): to ask yourself questions or express a desire to know about something.
Write a story with a moral and send it to us.
| 
