#0350 – A Movie Review, - Ang, mater, ESL Podcast McQuillan Jeff mp3+PDF
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English as a Second Language Podcast
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ESL Podcast 350 – A Movie Review
GLOSSARY
movie review –
an article in a newspaper, magazine, or website where the writer
gives his or her opinion about whether a movie was good or bad
* According to the movie review,
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
was a bad
movie, but we thought it was really funny!
premiere –
the first time that a movie or play is shown to the public
* The actors were nervous during the premiere, waiting to see how the audience
would react.
entertaining –
amusing and interesting; a good way to spend one’s time
* The professor tells a lot of jokes, so his classes are always interesting.
groundbreaking –
new and modern;
revolutionary; doing something differently
than how things have been done in the past
* His groundbreaking research helped doctors develop a vaccine for polio.
by any means –
at all; in any way
* The restaurant’s food isn’t gourmet by any means, but it is tasty and
inexpensive.
awful –
horrible; terrible; very bad
* They painted the store an awful orange color. It’s so ugly!
to walk out –
to leave a movie, play, speech, or other performance before it has
ended because it was very bad
* The play was terrible, so we walked out after the first scene.
acting –
the way in which actors move their bodies and say their lines while
performing
* The students’ acting was good, but their costumes were disappointing.
wooden –
stiff; without emotion; not showing enough expression
* The criminal made wooden replies to the judge’s questions, not showing any
emotion.
uninspired –
dull; uninteresting; not exciting or interesting; not unique; not
original
* Kaitlin eats an uninspired lunch of a ham sandwich and potato chips every day.
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ESL Podcast 350 – A Movie Review
direction –
leadership, especially in creating a movie or play; the instructions
received from a movie or play director
* Steven Spielberg has received many awards for his exceptional direction in
making movies.
amateur –
not professional; not skilled
* She was an amateur ice skater for six years before she decided to go
professional.
critical –
negative and harsh; always saying something negative about
something or someone
* My wife is so critical! No matter what I do, it’s never good enough for her.
debut –
the first time that one does something for the public; the first time that
one does something in front of other people
* His acting debut was in a soap commercial, but now he is a famous actor who
has been in many movies and popular TV shows.
screenplay –
script; the written words and instructions for making a movie
* Terrence wrote a screenplay about two men who rob a bank and then try to
escape to Canada.
predictable –
obvious; easy to know what is going to happen; without any
surprises
* A good mystery novel should not be predictable. The reader should be
surprised by the ending.
pretentious –
trying to appear more important, better, or bigger than something
really is
* Renaldo is so pretentious, always acting like he has more money and a better
job than he really does.
to bomb –
to fail; to be a disaster; to be a total failure
* Jackie bombed on the exam, getting only 14 out of 100 points.
to skip –
to decide not to do, have, or see something
* Because they are both trying to lose weight, they decided to skip the ice cream
after dinner and eat fruit salad instead.
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these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.
English as a Second Language Podcast
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ESL Podcast 350 – A Movie Review
COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
1. How would Sally describe the movie?
a) New and innovative.
b) Interesting and amusing.
c) Dull and with bad acting.
2. What does Marcus mean by saying, “The movie is going to bomb for sure”?
a) The movie has many exciting explosions.
b) The movie is going to be very popular.
c) The movie is going to fail very badly.
______________
WHAT ELSE DOES IT MEAN?
by any means
The phrase “by any means,” in this podcast, means at all or in any way: “Sharini
isn’t a great guitar player by any means, but she enjoys playing and practicing.”
The phrase “by all means” is used to invite someone to do something, or to show
that one has no objection to one doing something: “May I help you get dinner
ready?” – “Yes, please, by all means.” The phrase “by means of (something)”
means with the use or help of something: “They traveled to the San Juan Islands
by means of a large boat.” Finally, the phrase “a means to an end” is used to talk
about something that isn’t interesting or important by itself, but is used to get
something else: “For him, studying is a means to an end, because even though
he dislikes school, he wants to have a good career.”
critical
In this podcast, the word “critical” means negative and harsh, or saying
something negative about something or someone: “Don’t be so critical of Trey’s
artwork. After all, he’s only six years old.” The word “critical” can also mean
crucial or extremely important: “The president made a critical decision to expand
the company’s sales in the Western United States.” The phrase “critical
condition” is used to talk about one’s health when one is in danger of dying:
“After the accident, she was in critical condition for almost a month.” Finally, the
phrase “critical thinking” means the ability to evaluate all the facts and create
one’s own opinion about something: “The teacher is trying to develop her
students’ critical thinking skills by asking them to share their opinion about the
ideas in the book.”
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English as a Second Language Podcast
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ESL Podcast 350 – A Movie Review
CULTURE NOTE
Movie “marketing” (the ways in which companies try to get people to buy
something) has become very “intense” (strong and powerful). When new movies
are “released” (shared with the public), they are accompanied by many
advertisements, “trailers” (short pieces of the movie that are shown to the public
to get people interested in seeing the full movie), and “product promotions”
where, for example, images from the movie are shown on cereal boxes, or toys
based on movie characters are given away at restaurants.
Movie reviews can either help or “hinder” (make something difficult or impossible)
these marketing efforts. Most newspapers and magazines contain movie
reviews, or “film reviews” and many people read those reviews to decide whether
they want to see a movie. A movie review usually “summarizes” (states the most
important points of something) the “plot” (storyline, or what happens in a book or
movie) of the movie. Then the “reviewer” (the person who writes a review) states
his or her opinion about the movie, including the acting, direction, costumes, and
more. Sometimes a reviewer highly recommends a movie, but other times he or
she says that it is horrible.
“Film companies” (companies that make movies) often invite reviewers to see
their movies for free before their public debut so that the newspapers publish a
review before the movie’s premiere. However, if the film company doesn’t
believe that it has “produced” (made) a very good movie, sometimes it will not
invite reviewers to see it ahead of time. In this way, the film company tries to
minimize the damage of a bad review.
Many individuals like to “post” (share information with the public) their own
reviews online. As a result, people now have more “options” (choices) for
learning about whether movies are good or bad before they see them.
______________
Comprehension Questions Correct Answers: 1 – b; 2 – c
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English as a Second Language Podcast
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ESL Podcast 350 – A Movie Review
COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 350: A Movie
Review.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 350. I’m your host, Dr.
Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in
beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpod.com and download a Learning Guide for this episode.
That 8 to 10 page guide contains much information to help you improve your
English even faster, including a complete transcript of this episode.
This episode is called “A Movie Review.” It’s a conversation between Sally and
Marcus about a new, exciting movie that they saw. It includes a lot of vocabulary
that you might read or hear about in a movie review. Let’s get started.
[start of dialogue]
Sally: Did you see the new movie,
The McQuillan Story
? I’m writing a movie
review for the school paper.
Marcus: I went to the premiere last week. What did you think of it?
Sally: I liked it. I thought it was entertaining, although it wasn’t groundbreaking,
by any means.
Marcus: You thought it was entertaining? I thought it was awful. I almost
walked out. The acting was wooden and uninspired, and the direction was
amateur.
Sally: Aren’t you being too critical? It was the director’s first movie and I thought
his directorial debut wasn’t bad. If there was a problem, it was with the
screenplay.
Marcus: Don’t get me started on the screenplay! The story was so predictable
and the dialogue was pretentious. This movie is going to bomb for sure.
Sally: Oh, I don’t know. I think some people may enjoy it.
Marcus: If you want to do your readers a favor, you’d tell them to skip this movie
and save their money!
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These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2008). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.
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