American Idol

Intro

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

• huge
• cycle
• big
• fair-weather friend

• come in
• season
• blowing up
• fan base

• cursed
• jinxed

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

Have you ever lost a competition and felt really sad about it? Before you cry next time you come in second, think about the reality TV show American Idol. Singers compete in front of cruel judges for fame. But Amanda has noticed something about American Idol. So far, the second-place winners have been the most successful after the competition ends.

Listen to her tell Marni about her discovery.

3. Watch - Watch the video without reading the dialog.

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.

Amanda

Marni

Amanda:  Don’t you find it interesting and so very cool that the second-place winner of American Idol for the last four or five seasons is the one that ends up blowing up and has a huge fan base? And the winner? Nobody knows. You can’t even remember or name who the winner was.

Marni:  That’s true, because there was that guy, the Clay Aiken guy, and there was the other guy who…he actually won, right?

Amanda:  He actually won. Ruben.

Marni:  Ruben!

Amanda:  Sold maybe one album. Maybe. To his mother. That’s it.

Marni:  Oh, that is interesting.

Amanda:  It’s weird. It’s as if…if you win you’re jinxed. So you don’t want to win. You want to take second place, and then you’re huge. Katherine McPhee? Just released her CD. Second place.

Marni:  She was the last cycle?

Amanda:  Yes. Taylor Hicks won. Who cares about him? He’s in some car commercial and that’s about it,

Marni:  Okay! Yeah. Well, there was the first season where Kelly Clarkson won, and she was big, right…

Amanda:  And that’s the exception to the entire six years.

Marni:  Six years, huh?

Amanda:  I was thinking about trying out in Seattle next year. Do you wanna come with?

Marni:  Absolutely not. I think it would be so humiliating and those people are so mean.

Amanda:  You are such a fair-weather friend.

Marni:  I am.

Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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