Here’s a story about some argumentative matryoshka dolls…
Doll 10: Hey, the big one, you must be thinking you’re the foremost matryoshka doll here and you can regard the small dolls with contempt, right? Why would you bother to talk to such a lowly doll as me?
Doll 1: Well, I never said anything like that. Actually, you are so small that I didn’t even know you exist.
Doll 9: Look at the shrew. She doesn’t even know we exist! The fact that you were scooped out first doesn’t mean you can undermine our self-confidence.
Doll 1: That’s not what I’m trying to do, I just meant…
Doll 8: We know what you meant. Your shrewish tongue disgusts me. But wait, you will come crawling back to us for forgiveness.
Doll 1: I didn’t know you were so argumentative.
Doll 7 (speaking to the small dolls): Hey, listen to her! Now she’s talking down to us. She really thinks she’s head and shoulders above us.
Doll 6 (speaking to the small dolls): Exactly. Look at her, that roly-poly, stocky woman with greasy hair, chubby cheeks and a bloated face. She needs a dietician.
Doll 1: Hey, stop it. I don’t want to argue with you. You are all my daughters and granddaughters. I want to offer you an olive branch. Are we cool now?
Small dolls: OK, sorry about what we said. You know how cranky the small matryoshka dolls can be from time to time.
Doll 1: No problem, we’re cool.
Vocabulary
| foremost | most important |
| matryoshka (doll) | a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside another |
| contempt | a feeling that sb or sth is not worthy of any respect or approval |
| lowly | low in rank, position, or importance |
| shrew | (old-fashioned) an unpleasant, bad-tempered woman |
| scoop out | to make (a hole, hollow, etc.) by using a scoop, spoon, etc. |
| undermine | to make sb or sth weaker or less effective usually in a secret or gradual way |
| shrewish | (old-fashioned, of a woman) unpleasant and bad-tempered |
| disgust | to cause sb to feel very annoyed and angry |
| come/go crawling (back) to sb | to go to sb for help or approval in a way that shows you are weak or sorry for what you have done |
| argumentative | tending to argue, having or showing a tendency to disagree or argue with other people in an angry way |
| talk down to sb | to talk to sb in an overly simple way which suggests that he or she is not intelligent |
| head and shoulders above | used to say that sb or sth is much better than others |
| roly-poly | short and fat |
| stocky | short and heavy or broad |
| greasy | covered with grease or oil, dirty from grease or oil |
| chubby | somewhat fat |
| bloated | very swollen, too full of liquid, gas, food, etc. |
| dietician | a person whose job is to give people advice about what to eat in order to be healthy |
| olive branch | sth that is said or done to make peace or to show that you want peace, a symbol of peace |
| cranky | easily annoyed or angered |
| We’re cool. | = I forgive you. |