Hello, everybody. I'm an English learner. I wrote the following piece and awiait your comments. Your comments would be highly apprecited! Thanks.. ------------------------------------------- Once there lived in a village a group of monkeys. At first, all the monkeys lived in harmony, caring for each other and sharing whatever food they could get. If some mischievous monkey would behave in a way that might affect the group¡¯s interests, all the monkeys would sit together and decide what punitive measures were to be taken. ¡¡¡¡ ¡¡¡¡But as time went by, several monkeys, who were ¡°smarter¡° or ¡°stronger¡°, formed a clique, to which they gave the name ¡°party¡°, achieved greater social prominence and claimed to be the rulers of this village. ¡¡¡¡ ¡¡¡¡In order to consolidate their ruling, these ruling monkeys established a ruling hierarchy. They picked some monkeys to be the ¡°police¡°, whose duty was, in their words, to protect the mass monkeys and ensure public security, although in fact they were employed to suppress any opposition should any monkey felt inequality; They also set up another organization to collect food, which they cunningly named ¡°tax¡°. They announced all the food collected were allocated equally among all the monkeys. They had also established a lot of other agencies which together formed a monkey government. ¡¡¡¡ ¡¡¡¡Thus the monkeys¡¯ peaceful life was disturbed. ¡¡¡¡ ¡¡¡¡Those monkeys in the ruling class could get the best food and those in the running class, like the police and tax-collecting monkeys, could get the second-class food, while those in the bottom of the hierarchy could only get whatever was left, usually the worst quality and not favored by those in the ruling and running class. ¡¡¡¡ ¡¡¡¡So every monkey now aspirred after a post in the running class, if not the ruling class. That way, they could also enjoy privileges in selecting food. And some monkeys with ¡°connections¡°, a synonym for a family member, a friend or an acquiance, managed to send their young ones into the top hierarchy, usually by giving some food (which the human beings call ¡°bribes¡°) to that ¡°connection¡° and some other connections of that connection. ¡¡¡¡ ¡¡¡¡Those monkeys with no connections felt wronged. More and more monkeys sensed injustice. ¡¡¡¡ ¡¡¡¡This emotion caused a threat to the ruling class. So the ruling monkeys had a meeting and decided to set up still another organization to show all the monkeys how ¡°just¡° this government was, they gave this organization a name: ¡°media¡°. ¡¡¡¡ ¡¡¡¡So from then on, the media monkeys said day after day how perfect this government was, how they represented all the monkeys, how... and how... All the monkeys listened and listened, some believed, some didn¡¯t. ¡¡¡¡ ¡¡¡¡One day the media monkeys said: ¡°all monkeys are created equal¡°. A monkey in neither the ruling nor the running class thought: ¡°Yes, but aren¡¯t some monkeys more equal than others?¡°
For a shorter piece the message could be made clearer and less cribbed from Animal farm. Here is Aesops approach: The Frogs were living as happy as could be in a marshy swamp that just suited them; they went splashing about caring for nobody and nobody troubling with them. But some of them thought that this was not right, that they should have a king and a proper constitution, so they determined to send up a petition to Jove to give them what they wanted. "Mighty Jove," they cried, "send unto us a king that will rule over us and keep us in order." Jove laughed at their croaking, and threw down into the swamp a huge Log, which came downrplashto the swamp. The Frogs were frightened out of their lives by the commotion made in their midst, and all rushed to the bank to look at the horrible monster; but after a time, seeing that it did not move, one or two of the boldest of them ventured out towards the Log, and even dared to touch it; still it did not move. Then the greatest hero of the Frogs jumped upon the Log and commenced dancing up and down upon it, thereupon all the Frogs came and did the same; and for some time the Frogs went about their business every day without taking the slightest notice of their new King Log lying in their midst. But this did not suit them, so they sent another petition to Jove, and said to him, "We want a real king; one that will really rule over us." Now this made Jove angry, so he sent among them a big Stork that soon set to work gobbling them all up. Then the Frogs repented when too late. Better no rule than cruel rule.
