Learn English with English, baby!

Join for FREE!

Social_nav_masthead_logged_in
 
Wanderlust
简体
Wanderlust
《漫游》

How to Use the Unreal Past Tense

Date: Feb 07 2012

Themes: Travel

Grammar: The Unreal Past

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!

There’s an expression in English, “the rat race,” that describes what life is like for many people who live in big cities and spend all their time trying to get ahead. They exhaust themselves by working too hard and running in circles in order to get more money and power. It’s a stressful way to live, but many people feel it’s the only way.

The new movie Wanderlust is about a couple who are caught in the rat race, living in New York City and working important jobs, until one of them gets fired. Then they both decide to leave the city and try to find a different, better way to live. Hear Amy and Mason talk about the movie, and their own desire for a different way of life.

英文中有个词句叫“老鼠赛跑”,指那些居住在大城市,分分秒秒都在努力提升自我的人的生活。他们工作过于辛苦,把自己累得精疲力竭,为了赚取更多的金钱和权力忙的团团转却没有结果。这样的生活方式充斥着压力,但是许多人觉得这是唯一的方式。
新电影《漫游》讲述的是一对身处激烈竞争的夫妇,他们生活在纽约,从事重要的工作,直到他们中的一个人被炒了鱿鱼。于是他们决定离开纽约,去寻觅另一种不同的、更好的生活方式。听听艾米和梅森评论这部电影以及他们自己向往的不同生活方式。

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.

Amy

Amy

Mason

Mason

Amy:  I normally do not like Jennifer Aniston, but she is in a new movie called Wanderlust with Paul Rudd.

Mason:  Oh really, I haven’t heard about it.

Amy:  I have to say, it was pretty good.

Mason:  What’s it about?

Amy:  Well, she and Paul Rudd are this couple living this kind of fast paced lifestyle in Manhattan. He loses his job, and so they decide to kind of start over and figure out a different way to live. You know, get out of the rat race, hit the road, drop out. And they end up living on this hippie commune.

Mason:  So did you get thinking about any sort of changes in what you think is most important? Like would you ever leave it all behind and go do something totally different?

Amy:  Well, I think like most people probably, I always have that fantasy going on somewhere in the back of my mind, like, “What if I just could be a farmer and live on the land, you know, and not have to worry about having a regular job and all that?” What about you?

Mason:  Yeah, it’s funny. I went to a wedding this summer that was out on this farm. And it was more like an artist commune farm, maybe like this movie. The people who own it, they don’t really do any farming, they just have concerts there and events and weddings. It was so nice and so super chill, and I was like, “Wow, this is a thing that some people do for their life.”

Amy:  Right.

Mason:  Maybe that would be OK.

 

Grammar Point

Go Super to learn "The Unreal Past" 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!

Amy tells Mason about the new movie, Wanderlust. In the film, Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd play a Manhattan couple who leave the rat race behind and start a new life on a commune. Amy said she enjoyed the movie, even though she doesn’t usually like Jennifer Aniston.

Mason asks if the movie made Amy want to drop out and change her life, too. Amy says that she often thinks about how nice it might be to live a simple life in the country instead of living in the city and having a regular job.

Do you feel like you are caught in the rat race? Do you ever wish you could have a simpler way of life?

 

Comments

Log in to Comment

Mexican Curious

Mexico

I imagine to Snoopyboy as a redhead man, wearing a big jacket and eating fat food while writing…



04:06 PM Feb 07 2012 |

snoopyboy

snoopyboy

Antarctica

just picture bozo the clown


:)

04:04 PM Feb 07 2012 |

1 person likes this

 julito

julito

Argentina

Lesya, the game is over ,  we must press him to come forward and show  his real identity.  

04:03 PM Feb 07 2012 |

kotlesya

kotlesya

Belarus

Snoopyboy is a very wise guy. He definitely hide his face from us in hope we will imagine him in the way we like. For example, I can imagine him with an appearance of a famous actor I like so much.


Anja, for example can imagine his appearance with a singer she likes.


You, Julito also can easily imagine him in the way you like.


Snoopyboy has done a wise step to be a “spy” under the cover ;) 

04:00 PM Feb 07 2012 |

1 person likes this

snoopyboy

snoopyboy

Antarctica

a sapien sapien


:)

03:50 PM Feb 07 2012 |

1 person likes this

 julito

julito

Argentina

LESYA,  I am not good at painting otherwise I could  make a  profile sketch of Snoopy. What about you  ,are you good at painting ? how would you  think Snoop looks  like  ?Innocent

03:48 PM Feb 07 2012 |

snoopyboy

snoopyboy

Antarctica

About an hour drive Lesya… It was  always an exciting ride : )


I like being the outsider at school, Hippies are okay, but some people take it too far


Swinging in trees like Tarzan and surviving off cucumbers and honey alone…: )

03:47 PM Feb 07 2012 |

1 person likes this

kotlesya

kotlesya

Belarus

Snoopyboy, how long was the the way to school? The headline of the post is perfect!!! :)


It is a pity, that you are not a naturalist-hippie- maniac :)

03:43 PM Feb 07 2012 |

1 person likes this

i love life

Palestinian Territory, Occupied

There are  many ways in order to change our life .

I am not agree with idea which says The most important thing in our lives is money .

you  should struggle until achieve  some of your dreams , The life isn’t  anything without challenge .

In my opinion you should depend on  your self , your happiness became true if you work hard , on the other hand I don’t like lazy person .

The most moments  precious in our lives when we feel it each other .


There are a lot of scenes  we can select some of them


we can go to spend some time on the beach .


we can travel by plane to anywhere.


The mian thing when you decided to change your life.


God created us poor people but the big shame when you die a poor person .

03:39 PM Feb 07 2012 |

snoopyboy

snoopyboy

Antarctica

I work in the city but I sleep in the countryside.


To speak honestly I don’t see myself living in the city. I grew up on hilly village, it was tiny in area but very lively, it wasn’t the stereotypical remote living area in the mountain, but it was as peaceful and as green, we had everything we wanted expect for a school, and of course beaches. Everything else could be found in the local market or it’s grown in our backyards. I remember as a kid I was always stupefied by the drastic change of environment between my village and the city, which are only one-hour commute apart. I used to love the contrast between the leafy trees that I left home and the concrete edifices of the city; the confining paths versus the vast urban drags. However I found the city a little too flashy and fast for my taste, I never felt tempted to reside in it. I didn’t like these man-made sceneries I was surrounded by, the neon lights and oversized billboards never excited me and I didn’t care for anything they were displaying. I always felt out of my comfort zone there, a world of papers, news and sales, a wired panorama, supersonic pedestrians and a world of no eye contacts.


But as I grew older I started to understand why everyone migrated to the city on the daily, I realized that the city had more working opportunities, more entertainment and more educational options. But I really started to become more tolerant about the urban life after I landed my first job there. I was very ecstatic and I got acclimatized very quickly. There’s not a doubt that the rat race was stressful, but I liked the challenges, the deadlines and rapid decision makings I had to live up to. Soon I found out that there existed a contrast in my persona too, I was the mellow type of person at home, but at work I was more energetic and engaging and more productive in a sense. It was thrilling the impact the city had on me, how it had adopted me and changed my perception of life. The city had matured me. But I could only bear the city’s atmosphere and its constraint for a certain amount of time. Whenever the workload piles up too high, when the streets begin to get crammed and frantic I’d miss my tranquil village where I could lay and unwind. The place that will cradle me to a peaceful and revitalizing rest. A rural hospitality and peace of mind that the city can never provide, that’s where I want to live.


 I understand that if you live next door to where you work, it will always seem as if you were still in your cubicle. But I think if someone is career-oriented they shouldn’t venture to far away from the rat race. I can’t live off  eating ants and bamboos and drink off the river’s water, and sleep out in the open like a naturalist-hippie- maniac, I think like Julito said finding the right balance is key, we can still run the race and rest our feet in a eco-friendly environment and melt away the daily stresses.The challenges of l ife will haunt wherever you are.


Jennifer Aniston and Paul Ruud both have mansions in Malibu, they just like to play poor in movies : )

03:34 PM Feb 07 2012 |

kotlesya

kotlesya

Belarus

CatcheR, how wise your words are!!!! – “we don’t realised one day we will surely leave all this ” and there will be NO recollection about life we had, about people we loved…....... 

03:17 PM Feb 07 2012 |

kotlesya

kotlesya

Belarus

CatcheR, I can imagine that you don’t do things I mentioned below. You live in the modern farm. I tried to draw the picture of the classical life in the farm.Smile

03:12 PM Feb 07 2012 |

islamismail88

Egypt

rate race ah, it creates alot of stress in one’s life and stops you from doing more success

03:05 PM Feb 07 2012 |

it's me Riza

Indonesia

‘Rate Race’ full of crowding , stressing, competing.. We need hard struggle to face this, because life in a big city has many challenges and we may not be a weakness person. There are many chance to be a SUCCEED person if we life in a big City. Because everything we need is available. Of course in the small city or village are not as good as in the big city. 
But According to me .. Whenever we live, as long as we enjoy and we do seriously our job and carrier. We will be a SUCCEED Person. The important things are : Always Pray to ALLAH SWT and never give up to raise our ambition

02:25 PM Feb 07 2012 |

khaled_islam

Yemen

 we need sometimes to travel anywhere for change and relax of work. hoo we need that. but we’re in speed world . work work  hoo my heart.Cry

01:58 PM Feb 07 2012 |

Miss Florida

China

in china,someone says:”somewhere people,somewhere competition” or”rivers and lakes”.just these competitions make people want to escape the life they are living now.yes,as for big cicies,there is more competition than countrysides,so some of them eager for countryside and being a hermit,but what a unmature idear!i like one setence:change what you can change,adapt what you can not change

01:27 PM Feb 07 2012 |

CatcheR

CatcheR

Iceland

Haha, people are never enough, people are greedy, they want more and more and never be grateful for what they had, that’s the main character of people, Everyone is hungry for satisfaction, loving world more than anything than life it self, we don’t realised one day we will surely leave all this .

01:03 PM Feb 07 2012 |

SÉRGIO

SÉRGIO

Brazil

You don’t need to move from big cities to have a calm life! it just depends on how your lifestyle is!Cool

01:00 PM Feb 07 2012 |

indah said

indah said

Indonesia

I think I never feel like that, but it’s a one of my wish …....

12:47 PM Feb 07 2012 |

 julito

julito

Argentina

I  think that  excessive craving for money and power  at the cost  of neglecting  our family life  is a big mistake. Is nothing wrong with working hard ,have ambitions  to be financially secured  but the key is to  find a balance  .I know of people who are workaholics ,business always comes first . 

11:48 AM Feb 07 2012 |

Likes (27):

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