Iron Man

Intro

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

• pitch
• hits it out of the park
• a no brainer
• action film

• forked over
• engineer
• superhero
• comic book

• dying to
• nailing it

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

There’s a saying in English, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” It means that when you have to come up with something, you will. In the new movie Iron Man, a skilled engineer is kidnapped by terrorists. They want him to build them weapons. Instead he builds a suit of powerful armor that he uses to escape.

When he gets home, he keeps improving the suit. He uses it to become a superhero. Movies like this one that are based on comic books can sometimes be wild adventures and other times not so good. But Mason loved Iron Man so much, he wishes everyone would see it so that he could talk about it nonstop.

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.

Mason

Marni

Mason:  Marni, tell me if you’ve seen Iron Man yet because I can’t really stop talking about it.

Marni:  I have not but I’m dying to see it!

Mason:  Oh…

Marni:  Do tell! No! Let’s talk about it!

Mason:  So I have to give you the pitch rather than talk about it the way my heart yearns to.

Marni:  Yes.

Mason:  OK. So Robert Downey Jr. just hits it out of the park.

Marni:  That’s so great! That’s so great wonderful for him.

Mason:  It’s totally amazing. But that was kind of a no brainer for me. What kind of caught me by surprise was that Gwyneth Paltrow did a really good job with a kind of small role.

Marni:  I had no idea she was even in it. Where has she been?

Mason:  I think she’s been having her baby. Apple and Orange and Pear…

Marni:  The fruit bowl children.

Mason:  Right. So yeah, she kind of makes an appearance and does really well. What’s the guy who was in Hustle and Flow? Terrence...

Marni:  Terrence Howard?

Mason:  Terrence Howard’s in it.

Marni:  Love him.

Mason:  Really really good. So definitely excellent cast and Jon Favreau, right…

Marni:  Really?

Mason:  ...directed it. He really has no precedent for…

Marni:  He did Elf, right?

Mason:  He did Elf, which is funny, but Elf’s no huge action blockbuster, right? I don’t know who forked up the cash to him to think that he could do this…

Marni:  But did he do a good job?

Mason:  Does an amazing job, right?

Marni:  There you go. Somebody had faith.

Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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