Learn English with English, baby!

Join for FREE!

Social_nav_masthead_logged_in
 
Source Code
Source Code

Second Conditional

Date: Jun 22 2011

Grammar: Second Conditional

Intro

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

Go Super to Listen Go Super!

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

Go Super to Listen Go Super!

Imagine if you could go back in time and change something about the past. What would you do differently? Would you study harder in school? Take a different job? Try living in a foreign country?

Now imagine how much a single change like that could affect your entire life. You could end up pursuing a different career, meeting different people, even developing different opinions and views of the world.

Filmmakers seem to love exploring questions like these in their movies. The latest example is Source Code, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. It’s a thriller in which the main character keeps going back in time in order to try to stop a bomb from exploding on a train. Each time he returns to the past, he changes little things. And those small changes have huge effects not just on him, but also on others. Find out what Marni and Jason think about this film.

Dialog

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

Log in to Listen

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

Marni

Marni

Jason

Jason

Marni:  So it seems like there’s been a lot of films lately that are like these crazy alternate realities, but you have to like figure out the right one to save the day. Seems like a big premise. I was thinking of the Source Code.

Jason:  You must also be thinking of Inception.

Marni:  Right.

Jason:  The Bourne Identity, stuff like that.

Marni:  All these sort of films.

Jason:  The Source Code is kind of like that. Do you know how it works?

Marni:  Tell me about the Source Code.

Jason:  Jake Gyllenhaal is a soldier who gets sent back in time, basically, for eight minutes, in order to stop a bomb from going off on a train. And naturally he doesn’t do it, so he has to keep going back in time to the same point over and over, and each time he learns a few more things, and a few more things look different.

Marni:  Interesting. So it’s not completely the same each time he goes back, so he has to navigate that as well as…

Jason:  Yeah, there’s variations based on what he did. But it makes for a neat movie because it has these sort of intervals. It just sort of resets every few minutes.

Marni:  It sort of seems like it works with that premise, like basically if you didn’t do this one action, how it would affect everything. So if you’re going back in time and changing something, even subtly, it’s gonna affect everything. So that’s an interesting premise.

Jason:  Yeah, it’s fun to think about. Like if you could go back and change one thing that would have like this huge effect, what would you change, if you could change one thing?

Marni:  If I could go back and change one thing?

Jason:  Or learn one thing.

Marni:  I wish that I really would’ve stuck with my Spanish so I’d be more fluent.

Jason:  Oh wow. And you think that might’ve taken you different places.

Marni:  Perhaps, yeah. Definitely.

 

Grammar Point

Go Super to learn "Second Conditional" from this lesson Go Super!

Quizzes

Go Super to take Quiz Go Super!

 

Lesson MP3

Go Super to download full lesson MP3 Go Super!

The iTEP® test

  • Schedule an iTEP® test and take the official English Practice Test.

    Take Now >

Discussion

Go Super to Listen Go Super!

Jason tells Marni about the new movie Source Code. In the film, Jake Gyllenhaal plays a soldier who keeps going back in time to try to change the past and prevent a bomb from going off. Each time he goes back in time, he learns a new piece of information or changes something that brings him closer to his goal.

Marni says that the premise behind Source Code reminds her of other movies, like Inception. She thinks it is interesting to imagine how changing one thing in the past could affect one’s whole life.

Jason asks Marni what she would change if she could go back in time and change one thing about the past. She says she wishes she had stuck with studying Spanish. She thinks that becoming fluent in Spanish might have exposed her to different things and taken her different places.

If you could change one thing about your past, what would it be? How do you think that would affect your life?

 

Comments

Log in to Comment

Erosyu

China

I would go back and tell the girl I love you in my life time .

03:37 AM Jun 22 2011 |

spacedragon

Brazil

id like to live in other planet ….....

01:04 AM Jun 22 2011 |

 julito

julito

Argentina

If I could go back in time  I  would be more serious with my english lessons. Anyway ,as long as I live  I  learn . Marni, you can do it. go ahead with your spanish

12:13 AM Jun 20 2011 |

Likes (15):

See all >

Share this lesson:

  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Bebo
  • Share on Myspace
  • Share on Twitter
  • Email this to a friend
  • Share on Sina

Post Ebaby! lessons on your blog:

Ebaby! Cast