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Doubt

Date: Mar 04 2009

Themes: Religion, School

Grammar: Simple Present Tense

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Intro

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

Strong beliefs are often good. But doubt can be an important tool, too, sometimes. If you don’t study for a test because you’re completely confident that you’ll pass, you might fail. And if you never doubt your judgments of other people, you might miss out on making some cool new friends.

Doubt is a new film that explores serious moral questions about doubt and faith. It’s about a nun who becomes convinced that a priest is taking advantage of one of his students. Beren saw the film recently, and it really made her think. Listen to her tell Ella 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.

Beren

Ella

Beren: I just went and saw that movie Doubt with Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Have you seen it?

Ella: No, I haven’t. But I heard it’s about Catholic school, so that takes me back to my Catholic school days.

Beren: That’s hilarious! Yeah, I know a lot of other people that say, like, just the preview reminds them of the stern-looking nuns. And like how judgmental and kind of backward-leaning people in Catholic school…and like authority…

Ella: Mm-hm. And how strict they are in the schools and the snap judgments they make without really looking into the situation. Isn’t there a priest who takes a vow of chastity in that movie?

Beren: It’s actually more based on kind of an ambiguous relationship between the priest and one of the students, who happens to be the only black student in the school.

Ella: Oh, OK.

Beren: And kind of how their relationship is misconstrued, possibly, by the headmistress, the nun.

Ella: Oh, that’s Meryl Streep.

Beren: Meryl Streep, yeah. And just kind of how her snap judgments end up destroying lives. The ending is ambiguous. The whole movie is ambiguous. And it’s basically doubt. It’s doubt. And I think the subtitle is “A Parable.” It’s…It’s pretty incredible. It’s also based on a play. And the whole arc of the movie is like first act, second act, and then the end.

Ella: So it’s a little different style.

Beren: Totally.

Grammar Point

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Discussion

Beren asks Ella if she’s seen the movie Doubt. Ella would like to see it because she thinks it would remind her of being in Catholic school.

One stereotype of Catholic schools is that they’re very strict. The nun in the film, played by Meryl Streep is stern and judgmental. She accuses a priest at the school of having an inappropriate relationship with a young boy. However, she does not have any evidence. She just has her own judgments.

The ending of the film is very ambiguous. You never find out the truth about the priest. It’s also an unusual film because the structure is more like a play. Beren really enjoyed the thought-provoking subject matter and unusual style of the film.

Are snap judgments bad? Do you think it’s more important to have faith or doubt?

Comments

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nancy ghabboun

Jordan

I have seen this film twice it is very good and I think it is better to have doubt in certain things lets say 70% of life issues but there should be red lines where passing over is totally forbidden lets say it is for 30 % of life issues these where should be snap judgments and may god help us

sefni

Indonesia

good movie!!

J-Joyce

China

sometimes snap judgement is really important

tanliyoung

China

RED pill or BLUE pill, which one do we prefer?

billtian

China

i have to say ,sometimes the faith is not very important ,it may hurt all of the people

okumamichael

United States

then how to see this film . it is so attracted for me

Marcelolic

Brazil

Only God can judge!
The judgement of the men have to be based on evidences to be fair!

Marcelolic

Brazil

Firts I think that judging is quite complicated…Only God has the perfect judgment,but no the men! So,what worth here on earth are the evidences!

iskierkax1991x

Poland

To my mind it's more important to have faith because it's your motivation and it can be very helpful if it's not excessive. Because then it can be pernicious so I think you should treat your abillities distantly not to be dissapointed when sth go bad.

ronnieluo

China

no conbinations now maybe~...but i prefer the latter..sts, snap judgments are kinds of conceit i think.and they may cause a bad impression. i'll never be like that > _ <

lylymiranda

Russian Federation

There are different situations in life…

Benjamin Elizondo

Mexico

snap judgment is the worst thing you can do if you want you become friend of somebody, jajai just wanted to write something

hadjira

Algeria

In my opinion snap judgments are bad because you are going to make decision for someone without knowing his fact and probably you'll be prejudiced , and in other case all people have faith and doubt but it depend in your personality.so, it's not more important, you just have to know, why you are in this situation, i mean to have doubt?

jack china

China

This is my first go to this web.feel so good …....so nice,People all over the world,

Enrique Muñoz

Spain

This movie is ambiguous itself. Nobody is totally guilty or totally inocent. Meryl Streep plays the part of the old church but at the same time she is a strong woman standing up for the truth and against child abuse, let apart her iron-maiden method and the fact the boy is a kind of Lolita or not. Anyway, the priest is the wolf in sheep's clothing. Eventually, he moves out to another parish when she said she has talked to a nun who knows him so well… It's kind of "Excusatio non petita, accusatio manifesta". There is no excuse for being phaedofile. Nobody, not even the sage greeks, can justify this aberration "morally".

LunaCSI05

Germany

I really like this movie, especially Meryl Streep's acting, as well as Phillip Seymour Hoffman of course. They both are the best in acting. Amy Adams did a good job, too

uplife1

South Korea

No matter what you think of other people, they are themselves, not the people you think in snap judgment. It's not important how you think of them. The most important thing is who they truly are. might be they abide by backward-leaning way or devote their life for vow of chastity. It's not a parable. this is a real life story. there is saying "different strokes for different folks." It's true. We misconstrue many people and vice versa as does characters in Doubt. I think we should be more open-minded and generous so we could get along together!!!