16 Important English Phrases Read a Story With Me
Vanessa: Hi, I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Are you ready to read a story with me?
Let’s do it.
You’re invited to story time with my three-year-old
son, Theo.
I’m going to be reading him a classic story,
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel.
It’s from 1939.
And whenever we encounter new vocabulary that
I think would be useful for you, I’m going
to stop and explain it to you so that you’ll
be able to add it to your vocabulary.
If you enjoy reading in English or you’d like
to start reading in English, I’ll put a link
in the description to my top children’s books
in English, top books for beginner adults
in English, and also top books for intermediate
and advanced adults in English.
Check out the link in the description so that
you can continue reading in your own free
time.
All right.
Are you ready to get started?
Let’s read.
All right.
We’re going to read Mike Mulligan and His
Steam Shovel, story and pictures by Virginia
Lee Burton.
Are you ready, Theo?
Are you ready, Freddie?
All right.
Mike Mulligan had a steam shovel, a beautiful
red steam shovel.
Her name was …
Theo: Mike Mulligan.
Vanessa: Mike Mulligan.
Mike Mulligan is the man.
Do you remember what his steam shovel’s name
is?
Mary Anne.
Theo: Mary Anne.
Vanessa: That’s right.
Mary Anne.
Mike Mulligan was very proud of Mary Anne.
He always said that she could dig as much
in a day as a hundred men could dig in a week,
but he had never been quite sure that this
was true.
You heard the sentence, she could dig as much
in a day as a hundred men could dig in a week.
This is a wonderful comparison expression,
as much as.
We’re comparing what Mary Anne can dig and
what a hundred men can dig.
We could also insert the word dirt here, but
it’s just implied, so they’ve taken it out.
You could say she could dig as much dirt in
one day as a hundred men could dig in a week,
but we don’t need to say the word dirt.
It’s kind of understood a steam shovel usually
digs dirt.
Another example is I drank as much tea as
my dad.
Let’s continue.
Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne had been digging
together for years and years.
Mike Mulligan took such good care of Mary
Anne, she never grew old.
It was Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne and some
others who dug the great canals for the big
boats to sail through.
It was Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne, and some
others who cut through the high mountains
so that trains could go through.
You heard Mike Mulligan took such good care
of Mary Anne.
This word such is often used for emphasis.
Wow, that was such a good dinner.
Why would he say such a mean thing to you?
Let’s continue.
It was Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne and some
others who lowered the hills and straightened
the curves to make the long highways for automobiles.
Do you know what automobiles are?
Theo: No.
Vanessa: It’s cars.
It’s kind of an old fashioned way to say cars.
It was Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne and some
others who smoothed out the ground and filled
in the holes to make the landing fields for
the airplanes.
And it was Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne and
some others who dug the deep holes for the
sellers of the tall skyscrapers in the big
cities.
When people used to stop and watch them, Mike
Mulligan and Mary Anne used to dig a little
faster and a little better.
The more people stopped, the faster and better
they dug.
Some days they would keep as many as 37 trucks
busy taking away the dirt they had dug.
You heard the more people stopped, the faster
and better they dug.
I actually devoted an entire English lesson
to this advanced sentence construction with
the, the, you can check it out up here.
But just for a quick review, we have an action.
The more people stopped.
So people stopping is the action and then
we have the result, which is the faster and
better Mike and Mary Anne dug.
So we have an action with a result.
But if you’d like to use this in a deeper
way, feel free to click the link up here and
dive into it.
All right.
Let’s get back to our story.
Then along came the new gasoline shovels and
the new electric shovels and the new diesel
motor shovels and took all the jobs away from
this team shovels.
Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne were very sad.
Why are you happy?
Silly boy.
You heard and then along came the new gasoline
shovels.
This phrasal verb along came can also be used
in the inverse, then came along the new gasoline
shovels.
We use this phrasal verb when something big
or new is appearing or being invented.
For example, cassette tapes were pretty popular,
then along came CDs and MP3s.
Cassette tapes were pretty popular, then came
along CDs and MP3s.
Great.
Let’s get back to the story.
And all the other steam shovels were being
sold for junk or left out in old gravel pits
to rust and fall apart.
Mike loved Mary Anne.
He couldn’t do that to her.
He had taken such good care of her that she
could still dig as much in a day as a hundred
men could dig in a week.
At least he thought she could, but he wasn’t
quite sure.
Everywhere they went the new gas shovels and
the new electric shovels and the new diesel
motor shovels had all the jobs.
No one wanted Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne
anymore.
Then one day, Mike read in a newspaper that
a town of Popperville was going to build a
new town hall.
We’re going to dig the cellar of that town
hall, said Mike to Mary Anne.
And off they started.
You heard we are going to dig the cellar of
that town hall, Mike said to Mary Anne.
And off they started.
This phrasal verb to start off can also be
used in the inverse off they started or and
they started off.
It generally means that you are starting some
kind of journey.
So we might say we started off our road trip
by listening to some music.
Great.
Let’s get back to the story.
They left the canals and the roadways and
the highways and the airports in the big cities
where no one wanted them anymore and went
away out in the country.
You heard no one wanted them anymore.
I often see this mistake with English learners
that instead of using a negative and a positive,
no one wanted them anymore.
No one is the negative.
Any more is the positive.
Instead of using a negative and a positive,
I see English learners often using two negatives.
No one wanted them no more.
But in English, this is called a double negative
and it is incorrect and it is also extremely
confusing because in English two negatives
makes a positive.
So if you say I didn’t eat no carrots, this
actually means that I ate carrots because
there’s two negatives.
Didn’t and no means positive.
It’s so confusing in English.
So make sure that when you’re using this,
you use a negative and a positive.
Let’s look at another quick example.
No one ever has spoken all of the languages
in the world.
Here, we have a negative, no one, and then
a positive, ever.
No one ever has spoken all the languages in
the world.
You can not say no one never has spoken all
the languages.
It is very confusing.
All right.
Let’s get back to the story.
They crawled along slowly up the hills and
down the Hills till they came to the little
town of …
Theo: Popperville.
Vanessa: That’s right.
Popperville.
When they got there, they found the select
men were just deciding who should dig the
cellar for the new town hall.
Mike Mulligan spoke to Henry B. Swap.
One of the select men.
I heard, he said, that you are going to build
a new town hall.
Mary Anne and I will dig the seller for you
in just one day.
What, said Henry B. Swap, dig a cellar in
a day?
It would take a hundred men at least a week
to dig the cellar for our new town hall.
Sure, said Mike, but Mary Anne can dig as
much in a day as a hundred men can dig in
a week, though he had never been quite sure
that this was true.
Then he added, if we can’t do it, you won’t
have to pay.
Henry B. Swap thought this would be an easy
way to get part of the cellar dug for nothing.
So he smiled in a rather mean way and gave
the job of digging the cellar of the new town
hall to Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne.
You heard it would take at least a week for
a hundred men to dig our seller.
It would take, this is a hypothetical situation.
We often use the word if in these types of
sentences.
If I ate cookies every day, I would gain weight.
This is a hypothetical situation.
So the word would is essential.
All right.
Let’s continue.
They started in early the next morning just
as the sun was coming up.
Soon, a little boy came along.
Do you think you will finish by sundown?
He said to Mike Mulligan.
Sure, said Mike.
If you stay and watch us, we always work faster
and better when someone is watching us.
So the little boy stayed to watch.
Then Mrs. McGillicuddy, Henry B. Swap, and
the town constable came over to see what was
happening and they stayed to watch.
Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne dug a little faster
and a little better.
This gave the little boy a good idea.
He ran off and told the postman with the morning
mail, the telegraph boy on his bicycle, the
milkman with his cart and horse, the doctor
on his way home and the farmer and his family
coming into town for the day, and they all
stopped and stayed to watch.
That made Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne dig
a little faster and a little better.
They finished the first corner neat and square,
but the sun was getting higher.
You heard, they came over to see what was
happening.
This is a lovely phrasal verb, to come over.
You might say that during the lockdown, no
one came over to my house.
It just means to arrive at my house.
No one came over to my house.
If you’d like to see seven expressions using
the word come, check out this lesson that
I made up here to expand your vocabulary.
All right.
Let’s get back to the story.
Clang, clang clang, the fire department arrived.
They had seen the smoke and thought there
was a fire.
Then the little boy said, why don’t you stay
in watch?
So the fire department of Popperville stayed
to watch Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne.
When they heard the fire engine, the children
in the school across the street couldn’t keep
their eyes on their lessons.
The teacher called a long recess and the whole
school came out to watch.
That made Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne digs
still faster and still better.
They finished the second corner neat and square,
but the sun was right up in the top of the
sky.
We’re going to be talking about two expressions
that you heard on this page.
The first one is the sentence, why don’t you
stay and watch?
This expression why don’t you is a polite
but very direct suggestion.
It’s no problem to use this with friends,
but I wouldn’t really recommend using it with
your boss because you don’t really want to
tell your boss what to do.
Why don’t you look at this report?
It’s a little too pushy.
But with friends, it’s no problem.
Why don’t you stay for dinner?
I’m making some soup and I would love to share
it with you.
Why don’t you stay?
But what happens if we use this phrase with
a harsh tone of voice?
Why don’t you ever pick up your socks?
All a sudden, it’s not a polite suggestion.
Instead, it’s an accusing tone of voice.
Why don’t you ever pick up your socks?
So you can use this why don’t you expression
in a polite way just to make a suggestion
or in a harsher way, depending on the tone
of your voice.
So make sure that the tone matches what you
want to say.
The second sentence that I want to talk about
from this page is the children in the school,
across the street, couldn’t keep their eyes
on their lessons.
To keep your eyes on something means that
you’re focusing on something, but it’s often
used in the negative.
Just like it was in the sentence.
To not keep your eyes on something.
It means you can’t focus.
They couldn’t keep their eyes on their lessons.
For example, when my husband is watching TV,
I can’t keep my eyes on my book.
It’s hard for me to focus on my book when
the TV is on.
But what happens if we change the last word
of this phrase?
What if instead of to keep your eyes on something,
we say to keep your eyes off something?
Suddenly, it has the opposite meaning that
you can’t stop focusing.
Let’s look at an example.
The children couldn’t keep their eyes off
of Mike Mulligan.
This means that they wanted to focus on Mike
Mulligan.
Hopefully, you can’t keep your eyes off of
this lesson.
You want to keep watching it.
Or we might say I can’t keep my eyes off the
TV when my husband is watching it.
We’ve got some lovely phrases on this page.
All right.
Let’s get back to the story.
Now, the girl who answers the telephone called
up the next towns of Bangerville and Bopperville
and Kipperville and Copperville and told them
what was happening in Popperville.
All the people came over to see if Mike Mulligan
and his steam shovel could dig the cellar
in just one day.
The more people came, the faster Mike Mulligan
and Mary Anne dug, but they would have to
hurry.
They were only halfway through and the sun
was beginning to go down.
You heard the sun was just going down behind
the hill.
We could also say the sun is coming up.
We use these two phrasal verbs, the sun is
going down, the sun is coming up, on a regular
basis.
You can also say the sun is rising in the
morning or the sun is coming up in the morning.
Or you might say the sun is setting at night.
The sun is going down at night.
All of these are used commonly in daily conversation.
They finished the third corner neat and square.
Oh boy, never had Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne
had so many people to watch them, never had
they dug so fast and so well and never had
the sun seemed to go down so fast.
Hurry, Mike Mulligan.
Hurry.
Hurry, shouted the little boy.
There’s not much more time.
Dirt was flying everywhere.
The smoke and steam were so thick that people
could hardly see anything.
But listen, bang, bang, crash, slam, louder,
louder, faster, and faster.
Then suddenly it was quiet slowly.
The dirt settled down and the smoke and steam
cleared away and there was the cellar all
finished.
Four corners neat and square, four walls straight
down, and Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne at the
bottom.
And the sun was just going down behind the
hill.
Hooray, shouted the people.
Hooray for Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel.
They have dug the cellar in just one day.
Suddenly, the little boy said, how are they
going to get out?
That’s right, said Mrs. McGillicuddy to Henry
B. Swap.
How is he going to get his steam shovel out?
Henry B. Swap didn’t answer, but he smiled
in a rather mean way.
Then everybody said, how are they going to
get out?
Mike Mulligan, how are you going to get your
steam shovel out?
Mike Mulligan looked around at the four square
walls and the four square corners and he said,
we’ve dug so fast and so well that we’ve quite
forgotten to leave a way out.
Uh-oh, nothing like this had ever happened
to Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne before and
they didn’t know what to do.
You just heard nothing like this had ever
happened to them before.
Does this sentence construction sound familiar?
I wanted to review it because it is essential.
We have a negative word, nothing.
And then later in the sentence, we have a
positive word, ever.
Nothing like this had ever happened to them
before.
I hope that this helps to reinforce this concept.
All right.
Let’s go back to the story.
Nothing like this had ever happened before
in Popperville.
Everybody started talking at once and everybody
had a different idea and everybody thought
his idea was the best.
They talked and they talked and they argued
and they fought until they were worn out and
still no one knew how to get Mike Mulligan
and Mary Anne out of the cellar they had dug.
Then Henry B. Swap said the job isn’t finished
because Mary Anne isn’t out of the seller,
so Mike Mulligan won’t get paid.
And he smiled again in a rather mean way.
Now the little boy who had been keeping very
quiet had another good idea.
He said, why couldn’t we leave Mary Anne in
the seller and build the new town hall above
her.
Let her be the furnace for the new town hall
and let Mike Mulligan be the janitor, then
you wouldn’t have to buy a new furnace and
we could pay Mike Mulligan for digging the
seller in just one day.
You heard the little boy who had been keeping
quiet had another good idea.
This expression to keep quiet means to remain
quiet.
We often use the word, keep, to talk about
something that’s continuing.
To keep quiet, to stay quiet or remain quiet.
You might also say I can’t keep quiet anymore.
I need to tell the world that I love you.
Do you also in this sentence, we are really
emphasizing this point, the negative and the
positive words?
I can’t, that’s a negative word, keep quiet
anymore.
Any is a positive word.
So here we have a negative and a positive.
I can’t keep quiet anymore.
I need to tell the world that I love you.
All right.
Let’s go back to this story.
Why not?
Said Henry B. Swap and smiled in a way that
was not quite so mean.
Why not?
Said Mrs. McGillicuddy.
Why not?
Said the town constable.
Why not?
Said all the people.
So they found a ladder and climbed down into
the cellar to ask Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne.
Why not?
Said Mike Mulligan.
And so it was decided and everybody was happy.
You heard why not?
Said Henry B. Swap.
Even though this seems like a negative question
because there’s the word not, really it’s
just another way to say, sure.
It really implies I don’t see a reason why
we shouldn’t do it, so okay.
Why not?
They built the new town hall right over Mike
Mulligan and Mary Anne.
It was finished before winter.
Every day, the little boy goes over to see
Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne and Mrs. McGillicuddy
takes him nice hot apple pies.
And Henry B. swap spends most of his time
in the cellar of the new town hall listening
to the stories that Mike Mulligan has to tell
and smiling in a way that isn’t mean at all.
Now when you, Theo, and you, Freddy, go to
Popperville to go in the cellar of the new
town hall, there there’ll be, Mike Mulligan
and Mary Anne.
Mike in his rocking chair smoking his pipe
and Mary Anne beside him warming up the meetings
in the new town hall.
The end.
I hope you enjoyed this story of Mike Mulligan
and his steam shovel and also the added vocabulary
that you can learn from even a simple kid
story.
I think my three-year-old doesn’t quite understand
why Mary Anne isn’t needed anymore as a steam
shovel and why she has to become a furnace.
Someday, he’ll understand that it’s okay.
He just likes this story because there are
construction trucks in it.
So if you would like to check out some other
kids stories or books for adults that I recommend,
make sure you check out the link in the description
so that you can continue reading in English.
And now I have a question for you.
What kind of books did you like to read as
a child?
Do you have any children’s book recommendations?
I love to check out books for kids from around
the world.
It would be quite interesting to me and maybe
my kids would like it too.
Well, thanks so much for learning with me
and I’ll see you again next week on Friday
for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.
Bye.
Theo is getting paid for helping with my YouTube
channel, with my business.
Dan: Really?
Vanessa: What am I going to pay you with?
Am I going to give you money?
Theo: Tell him.
Vanessa: I’m going to give you some.
Theo: Chocolate.
Vanessa: I’m going to give him a little piece
if chocolate for helping me with this video.
The next is to download my free ebook Five
Steps to Becoming a Confident English Speaker.
You’ll learn what you need to do to speak
confidently and fluently.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel
for more free lessons.
Thanks so much.
Bye.