No Country for Old Men

Intro

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

• creepy
• Academy Award
• freaked out
• tails

• villainous
• call it
• flip
• at stake

• retire
• heads

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

“Call it,” says the strange man in dark clothes. He’s flipped a coin and covered it with his fingers. No matter how many times you ask, he won’t tell you what’s at stake. But if you guess wrong, he’ll kill you.

Sound scary? It’s supposed to be. The killer in the movie No Country for Old Men is scary even to the cowboys he fights. And cowboys are supposed to be tough.

You can imagine how freaked out Devan gets if anyone flips a coin around her. Or you can watch this video.

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

Dialog

1. Watch and Read - Watch the video and read the dialog at the same time.

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

Jason

Devan

Jason:  What should I get to drink?

Devan:  You want a beer? You want a margarita?

Jason:  Uh…I want one of those things. I’ll flip and if I get heads, I’ll get a margarita. If I get tails, I’ll get a beer.

Devan:  Whoa. Whoa. Wait. That is creepy.

Jason:  Why?

Devan:  Because, haven’t you seen No Country for Old Men?

Jason:  Tails. Beer. Uh…no.

Devan:  You can’t make decisions like that after that movie.

Jason:  What are you talking about?

Devan:  Because, Anton Chigurh – that’s how he decides if he’s going to kill people in the movie. It’s the creepiest thing ever.

Jason:  He flips a coin to decide if he’s gonna…

Devan:  Yes! He’s the creepiest villain I’ve ever seen in a movie.

Jason:  Does he, like, look at someone and say, “Heads, I’ll kill that person”?

Devan:  No. No. He brings it to the person. He gives them the coin and he says: “Flip this. Heads or tails.” And they don’t know why they’re flipping. And they say: “I don’t understand. Why am I flipping the coin?” And he won’t tell them. But the truth is whatever they flip that’s how he decides if he’s gonna kill them.

Jason:  Which means they get killed? Heads or tails?

Devan:  Um…I don’t know. But it’s really creepy and you can’t do that because that’ll make you like Anton Chigurh. You have to see that movie. It won all those Academy Awards.

Jason:  I do need to see it. Everyone else has seen it. That’s why I haven’t seen it.

Devan:  No, it’s amazing.

Jason:  Maybe I won’t go because I enjoy flipping coins to make decisions.

Devan:  And that actor won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for that role.

Jason:  For that role? I don’t know…

Devan:  I really think you need to retire the coin. You need to find a new way to make decisions.

Jason:  But I’ll have to stop if I see that movie, it sounds like.

Devan:  Yeah. You probably will.

Jason:  Well, I’ll flip until then.

Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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