The Brothers Grimm

Intro

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

• putting down
• word-of-mouth
• folk tales
• compile

• fairy tale ending
• hard-nosed
• swooned
• legend

• horrified
• accusation

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

What is your favorite type of story? Tragedy or comedy? Horror or romance? Do you prefer stories with fairy tale endings, or something more hard-nosed?
The news is full of stories of all types. We wept over the tragic break up of Brad and Jen. We swooned over the short-lived romance between Ben Affleck and J-Lo. We were horrified by the accusations against Michael Jackson. Stories are what define a community and keep people interested in each other.
Over 150 years ago, two German brothers, now known as the Brothers Grimm, began putting down on paper word-of-mouth folk tales that were popular in Germany at the time. Many of these stories are with us today: Cinderella, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood and many, many more.
Many of the Grimm brothers’ stories have been adapted for film and now there is a fictional movie about the Grimm Brothers themselves. The Brothers Grimm stars Matt Damon and Heath Ledger.

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.

Dave

Derek

Dave:  Derek, have you seen that movie [about] the Grimm brothers?

Derek:  Ah, no, I’ve been wanting to see that. I’ve been reading all about it. It sounds like, really, an interesting subject.

Dave:  Yeah, do you know much about the Grimm brothers?

Derek:  Ah, just, you know, that they’re a couple of German brothers and they kind’ve compiled a lot of these old folk legends and put them together and, you know, created some classics like Cinderella or Little Red Riding Hood and…

Dave:  Yeah, now they’re the classic fairy tales with the happy ending.

Derek:  The whole subject matter is pretty interesting.

Dave:  Yeah, it is really interesting. And this movie, it’s supposed to star Matt Damon, Heath Ledger...

Derek:  Yeah, and, ah, Monica Bellucci is the queen. The one who talks in the mirror.

Dave:  Ah, yeah. It would be a good movie. I’m hoping to see it soon.

 

Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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