Hey everyone and welcome back to Easy English and today we are going to be reading a short story and learning new vocabulary from this story.
First I will read the story to you in slow, clear English, and then we will look at some of the new vocabulary.
Let's get started.
Okay, so the short story is called The Clockmaker of London.
And simply put, a clockmaker is someone who makes or builds, creates clocks.
So those things that tell the time and go tick tick tick tick every second.
Okay, so let's start.
I will read the story to you.
In a bustling corner of London, on a quiet street not far from St.
Paul's Cathedral, stood a tiny shop with a crooked sign that read Harrison's Clocks and Curiosities.
The shop was so old that its windows were clouded and its wooden door creaked whenever someone entered.
Inside shelves were crammed with clocks of every shape and size.
Grandfather clocks, pocket watches and cuckoo clocks.
The shopkeeper, Mr Harrison, was an elderly man with silver hair, round glasses and hands that were always covered with grease.
And this was from fixing the delicate gears of the clocks.
He was a quiet man, often so focused on his work that he barely even noticed when customers entered his shop.
One dreary November evening, a young woman named Sophie stepped into the shop.
She had been walking through the cold, foggy streets of London when the ticking sounds from the shop drew her inside.
Tick, tick, tick, tick.
Hello, she called, looking around.
The shop smelt of polished wood and old books.
Mr. Harrison looked up from his workbench.
Good evening, he said in a soft voice.
How can I help you?
Sophie held up a small silver pocket watch.
I found this in my grandmother's attic.
It doesn't work, but I thought it might be worth fixing.
Mr. Harrison took the watch carefully.
His eyes lit up as he inspected it and he said Ah, this is a special piece, very old and very rare.
Sophie was surprised.
Really?
My grandmother never mentioned it.
Mr. Harrison opened up the back of the watch and it revealed inside lots of intricate golden gears.
But there was also something unusual inside.
And that was a tiny folded piece of paper.
He handed it to Sophie.
She unfolded the paper and read aloud.
The clockmaker holds the key.
Seek the time that stands still.
What does it mean?
Sophie asked.
Her brow furrowed.
That means that she had a very serious face.
Mr. Harrison smiled mysteriously.
This watch was made by my great-grandfather.
He was known as the clockmaker of secrets.
Rumour has it he built hidden messages into his creations.
Perhaps this watch is one of them.
Sophie was very intrigued, she was very curious, and she asked if the watch could be fixed.
Of course, Mr. Harrison said, and he promised to have it ready in two days.
When Sophie returned, the watch was ticking perfectly, and it was just like new.
But Mr. Harrison had something else to show her.
Look closely, he said, pointing to the hour hand.
The hour hand didn't move past number seven, no matter how much time passed.
Instead when the clock struck seven.
So when it was seven o'clock, a tiny key came out of the side of the watch.
Fascinating, Sophie exclaimed.
That key, Mr. Harrison explained.
It unlocks something, but I don't know what.
Sophie thought about the mysterious note.
Seek the time that stands still.
After some research, she discovered that in the Tower of London there was an ancient old clock that had stopped working and had been frozen at 7 o'clock ever since.
She decided to visit the tower with the watch.
And sure enough, when she placed the tiny key into the clock's base, it clicked.
A hidden drawer opened, revealing a small velvet pouch.
Inside was a gold locket with a photo of a young woman and a man smiling.
Sophie realized that the woman in the photo was her grandmother and the man was someone she didn't recognize.
A folded note there read, My love, may time never keep us apart.
Sophie's heart grew.
The pocket watch had unlocked not just a secret, but a piece of her grandmother's past.
She returned to Mr. Harrison's shop, but to her surprise, it was empty.
The door was locked, and there was no sign of his shop.
It was gone.
Even though she never saw Mr Harrison again, Sophie kept the watch close to her, wondering if he had been sent to help her discover her grandmother's story.
Okay, so I hope you enjoyed that story.
There was a lot of difficult words in this story, but I'm going to focus on a few of them and we'll learn what they mean.
In general, when you listen to such a story, you should focus on the general meaning of the sentences.
So what is happening?
But it's great, of course, to learn some of these new words.
So the first word we are going to learn is right at the beginning of the story.
And that word is bustling.
The sentence says in a bustling corner of London, and the word bustling simply means that it is full of busy activity, noise and movement.
So you often sometimes hear streets or places described as bustling.
You could say a restaurant was bustling.
This bustling restaurant was full of customers.
That's just an example.
Okay, the next word we are going to look at is crammed.
Now let's read the sentence from the story.
Okay, it reads, inside shelves were crammed with clocks of every shape and size.
To be crammed means to be completely filled with no room left.
So there's lots of things on the shelves.
They are crammed.
The next word I want to look at was in the name of the shop, and that is curiosities.
So the shop is called Harrison's Clocks and Curiosities.
Curiosities are interesting or unusual objects.
So you can say that this shop was filled with curiosities.
Or for example, he had lots of curiosities in his house.
Okay, so the next word I want to look at is still, still.
And the sentence is from the piece of paper.
It says, seek the time that stands still.
So to be still, or the word still, is to not move.
To stand still, for example.
Or we would say still water.
That's water that isn't sparkling.
It is flat.
It is still.
It is not moving.
And in this case, they're talking about time not moving.
And it means obviously the clock that is not working.
It's not moving.
The clock is still.
Time is still.
Okay, so I think that is enough new words for today.
If you want, re-listen to the story again and listen out for the new words that you've just learned.
Thank you so much for listening.
If you've enjoyed this episode and the story, please like the video.
It really helps me out.
And comment below what you thought or what words were new for you.
Thank you and have a great, fantastic, wonderful, amazing day.
Goodbye.
