| Inventor: The Vase | |
February 9, 2015
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| He was an inventor. He was a skillful inventor. But today, he was struggling to invent something to match his customers' needs. She came to his office where it was on the second floor in the old building. She began to introduce her story to the inventor: She was a teacher. In her class at the elementary school, there was an 11 year old rough boy, and she couldn't handle him well. The boy always broke school things, didn't do his homework, and bullied other classmates. The boy's parents were the type of people who didn't care anything about him, leaving him alone at home to go out drinking every night. She met the parents a few times. They said they would change their ways, but they never did. She asked the boy about his concerns, but
The inventor replied, "I'm sorry but I'm not a counselor, so I don't know." He told her he would try to make something for her so come back again one week later. One week later, she came to the inventor's office. He showed her a gadget that he invented. She looked suspicious. It looked just like a ceramic vase, about twenty centimeters tall, ten centimeters wide in its body. The neck of the vase got narrower then broader at the lip. A typical flower vase. With a smirk, she said, "I hope you don't want me to arrange flowers for the kid to lift his spirits up." He started to explain how to use this machine. The next day, after class in the afternoon, she asked the boy to remain for a minute. The boy became nervous. She started to say, "What I'm going to say is completely different than what you might think. Although, this thing looks rather humorous." She then took out the vase-shaped-machine from the paper bag. She continued, "This is a special high-tech machine. It can mute our voice. You can shout into the vase whatever you want, the machine will mute the sound that you make. I don't know how or why. I don't know how its mechanisms work. But, it works. At first she thought to demonstrate it by shouting herself, but didn't. If she shouted something, no sound would come, and then the boy would think that she was just pretending to shout. This would make him harden and resist her efforts. The boy was staring at the machine without saying anything. She didn't know whether the boy trusted her or not. But, anyways, the boy was left holding the paper bag to his chest. She sighed. Last night, before her husband returned from work, she tried this machine. She switched on the button on the shoulder of the vase, and pressed her mouth at the mouth of the vase. She felt embarrassed, but spoke in a small voice, "Hello." Nothing happened. No sound. She said this again, this time in a middle ranged voice. No sound again. She was shocked. Then, she screamed, "HELLO!!!" No sound happened. There was absolutely no sound. Actually, this is the technology of 'noise cancelation', when she was shouting into the machine, it received her voice and generated the opposite wave sound, and interfered with her voice and nullified the sound. Soon she was completely attracted by the machine. She shouted for a full 10 minutes at the top of her lungs all her complaints about her husband; and, then about her school principle for another full 10 minutes. By the time her husband came back, she was feeling a heavy sense of refreshment. She smiled at the husband in a broad smile. Her husband suspiciously looked at her. The next day after the meeting, the boy came to her and asked if he could borrow the machine for a few more days. She of course said yes. After one week, he returned the machine to her. At that time, he said that he had something that he wanted to talk to her about. |
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*vase 花瓶
*struggle 奮闘する
*handle 扱う
*bully いじめる
*scold 叱る
*blankness 空白
*emotion 感情
*smirk 馬鹿にして笑う
*quip 辛辣に言う
*rather かなり
*whatever なんでも
*mute 音を消す
*pretend ふりをする
*absolutely 完全に
*cancelation 消す
*interfere 干渉する
*nullify 無にする
*rather かなり
*whatever なんでも