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Mona Lisa Smile

Mona Lisa Smile

Date: Jan 07 2004

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

The new movie Mona Lisa Smile takes place in 1953, a time when women’s roles were rigidly defined. In the film, Julia Roberts plays Katherine Watson, a free-spirited, novice art history professor who begins teaching at the prestigious all-female Wellesley College. Despite having a very good reputation as a place to learn, Wellesley is actually a place where a student’s success is measured by whether or not she marries a good man.
Because she wants to change things, Watson encourages these women to strive for a more enlightened future. She inspires her students to look beyond the image of what is, and consider the possibilities of what could be.
Beth recently saw Mona Lisa Smile. Listen in to her conversation with Zach to hear what she has to say about it.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Zach

Zach

Beth

Beth

Zach:  Hey Beth, did you do anything fun this weekend?

Beth:  I did. I actually went and saw a really good film – Mona Lisa Smile. Have you heard about it?

Zach:  Yeah. I think so. I think I saw a trailer for it when I saw Elf, or something like that.

Beth:  That’s cool. This film was really interesting. It takes place at a New England college and it’s a women’s school, and what was really interesting is that there were all these art history themes and it’s all about, uh, young women becoming inspired by art.

Zach:  Oh, that sounds awesome. Yeah, I, I studied a little bit of art history when I was in college too. It sounds like a pretty cool, uh, topic.

Beth:  It was. The film takes place in the 50’s, so it was really interesting to see how they portrayed the, uh, modern, modern art and its impact on women in college.

Zach:  But I guess for modern art, that would have been modern art from the 50’s?

Beth:  Exactly. And it was totally cutting edge at the time, so it was a little controversial, and the women were, um, sort of inspired by it.

Zach:  Oh cool. I’ll check it out.

 

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Discussion

I saw the trailer for Mona Lisa Smile, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see the film until Beth convinced me. Now that I know more about it, I definitely want to see it as soon as I can.
Julia Roberts is definitely one of my favorite actresses. I really liked the movie she won the Academy Award for – Erin Brockovich.
See you at the movies!
Zach

 

Comments

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Ellemona

Ellemona

China

Great movie,enjoyed it one more time.Thanks!

05:42 AM Jul 06 2013 |

pooja2

India

Undecided

10:11 AM Nov 19 2008 |

HarryQ

HarryQ

China

Oh,I made a mistake!
I like Mona Lisa Smile very much!

04:19 AM Jan 22 2008 |

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