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Universal Studios

Date: Sep 04 2001

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.

Universal Studios is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Los Angeles. When you take the tour, you can see how some of your favorite movies were made. Universal Studios has attractions based on “Back to the Future,” “Jaws,” “Godzilla” and many others.
Nedra recently took a trip down to Los Angeles and went to Universal Studios. She had a great time. Here you can listen to her conversation with Miguel about it.

Dialog

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

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

Miguel

Nedra

Miguel: Nedra, how was Los Angeles?

Nedra: It was really fun. I had a lot of fun with my friend.

Miguel: What did you do?

Nedra: We went, drove around West Hollywood and she lives in Venice Beach so we went to the beach. But the real, uh, cool thing was we got to go to Universal Studios.

Miguel: Oh, really. I haven’t been there. Tell me about it.

Nedra: Well, it’s this huge theme park that has, um, all these movie-based rides and attractions that you can go walk through and learn how the movie was built and made.

Miguel: So, give me an example.

Nedra: Well we got… we stood in a line for an hour to go see the general studio tour, which shows you how they do special effects and, um, it was really cool. Like, we got to see “Jaws” and “Godzilla” and stuff like that.

Miguel: So, you mean, like, you got to see a model or a…

Nedra: Yeah we, um, we go through these big old, uh, like studio buildings and, like, one time the Godzilla monster came at us and then they showed us how it was built…

Miguel: Oh.

Nedra: And they would like give us a little bit of a warning but the kids would get all scared and start screaming and stuff.

Miguel: That sounds like fun! What was the best thing you saw there, like, the neatest thing?

Nedra: I’d have to say the “Backdraft,” um, uh, movie set was pretty neat.

Miguel: What was “Backdraft?” That was the one with the fire and stuff?

Nedra: Yeah. I think it was like the most memorable, or the most impressionable movie done with fire special effects and they, they got the room really hot for us and they, they had the fire going on everywhere and even in back of us there was fire and it felt really hot and then they sprayed us down with water.

Miguel: Was it scary?

Nedra: They even shuffled, um, the walkway beneath us so it made you feel like you were falling into the fire.

Miguel: Wow. So it’s really like, like an amusement park but with movies?

Nedra: Yeah, yeah. Only the “E.T.” one was closed for the time being and I really wanted to go see that one.

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Discussion

What do you think? Does Universal Studios sound like a cool place to visit? I’ve been there, and I have to agree with Nedra. It was pretty interesting. However, I wouldn’t count on seeing any famous people if I were you. They are usually hiding somewhere else.
If you’re thinking about coming to Los Angeles, there are some other places you should visit. Make sure you go to Hollywood and walk down Sunset Boulevard. Disneyland is always a fun trip, and Newport or Huntington Beach have great people-watching. The city is very spread out, so you’ll probably have to rent a car. It’s not like New York where everything is packed together and close.
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Your American friend,
John