We Want You

Intro

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

• disturbed
• voluntary
• trick
• enticement

• recruiter
• enlist
• nab
• cafeteria

• war
• signed on the dotted line

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

The United States military is the largest in the world. It has bases on every continent and 1.4 million active soldiers. The military has to work hard to keep new people signing up.

Military recruiters come to high schools and encourage students to become soldiers when they graduate. In the US, you can’t drink until you’re 21 years old, but on your 18th birthday you’re legally able to commit a number of years to military service. Kevin knows an 18-year-old who just joined the Army and it frightens him.

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.

Kevin

Mason

Kevin:  A good friend of mine called me the other day and she’s, she’s concerned because her 18-year-old son enlisted in the army.

Mason:  Really?

Kevin:  Yeah.

Mason:  Did he get nabbed by a recruiter or something?

Kevin:  Well you know how they sometimes go into the high schools…

Mason:  The guy was in my cafeteria and he’s got stickers and pencils and all that trying to get everybody to enlist.

Kevin:  So what you can do is…once you’re 18 of course, he’s an adult, so he went down to the enlistment office…

Mason:  What do they call it…recruitment office?

Kevin:  ...and he signed up. There’s nothing the parents can do. There’s nothing a parent can do if that person’s 18.

Mason:  He can legally, I mean, he’s an adult now at 18.

Kevin:  And he signed on the dotted line, so he’s in.

Mason:  I mean, I always get kind of disturbed because our military is voluntary, but it feels like they’re almost tricking people into signing up. They say we’re going to pay for you to go to college or do all these that are enticements. But to me it’s the exact wrong reason that you should be signing up for the military.

Kevin:  No, at the same time, I know people who have been in the military and feel like they’ve greatly benefited from it. I think the current situation is very different because all these people are being sent to a war.

Mason:  Yeah, nobody actually joins the military to be in a war.

Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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