Srory starts at: 5:45
The words with more stress are shown in red. Notice that they are key words with a lot of meaning such as verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs. Negatives also receive stress:
'Come on, you’ll like them! They really are super people!'
Simon Willoughby wasn’t convinced. He had never been keen on theatres and actors.
On the only occasion Simon had actually been to the theatre, he had felt terrified. On this visit, he was sitting just two rows back from the front, when, during the play, one of the performers had come down from the stage. She asked if someone would like to come up and take part in the play. As nobody raised their hand, the actress came among the audience to look for someone.
For one terrible moment, Simon thought it was going to be him. He closed his eyes, and his heartbeat raced while sweat* poured off his face and hands. Fortunately, for Simon, the actress chose another person, who had been sitting right next to him. Simon could breathe normally again. In fact, feeling worried that the same thing might happen later on in the performance, Simon got up and quietly walked out of the theatre. He’d never been back.
How he had become friends with his department’s manageress, Simon couldn’t even guess. She seemed to like him. Her name was Phillipa, and she had asked Simon to come into her office to talk about his work in the company. He couldn’t really understand why he deserved the attention. His work as a computer programmer was hardly important, as what he did was simple and even rather dull.
Then Phillipa started talking about the amateur dramatics* theatre group she attended, and suggested Simon came along too.
Why did she do that? Did she somehow know Simon was shy? Did she think it would be good for him to get out and meet people? Was Phillipa doing him a favour? However, Simon didn’t think it was about that. She just seemed to like him. It was as though she wanted to get to know him better. Simon was confused.
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