Intro
1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.
2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.
What’s important to you may not be important to everyone. Your favorite soccer team could be playing the World Cup, making you jump and scream and even cry, and your neighbor could choose to sleep instead. Everyone has their own likes and dislikes. It’s what makes people so interesting!
It’s important to respect each other for their opinions, but not everyone does it. As an example, hundreds of years ago, rich people would buy and use snuff. Snuff is breathed in with your nose to make you sneeze. If a man was talking to a woman and the man didn’t like what she was saying, he would use snuff to sneeze at her. Doing this was thought to be very rude, because it meant that he had no respect for her or her opinions.
No one knows why people began sneezing at each other this way, but it’s how we got the expression nothing to sneeze at. And it’s still used today. If a person tells you that what she’s saying or showing you is nothing to sneeze at, then she’s saying that it’s important. You should pay attention to it. And definitely don’t think about opening a box of snuff!
Marni tells Sultan that what you can find at the library is nothing to sneeze at. Do you agree? Read on in today’s English lesson.
3. Watch - Watch the video without reading the dialog.
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.
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Sultan |
Marni: So, what do you think?
Sultan: They’re really good. What’s their name again?
Marni: Little May. They’re a band from Australia.
Sultan: How did you hear about them?
Marni: A friend of mine told me about them, and then I borrowed their CD from the library.
Sultan: You can borrow CDs from the library?
Marni: Absolutely. And their collection is nothing to sneeze at, either. Do you have a library card?
Sultan: No. Can anybody get one?
Marni: Yes. Even little kids can get one. Do you have an ID?
Sultan: I do. Do I have to go to a library to apply for a card?
Marni: You can apply for one on the library’s website, or you can go to a local branch.
Sultan: What else do libraries have?
Marni: Let’s see. Well, tons of books, of course. And CDs. Magazines and movies, too.
Sultan: And all of this is free?
Marni: It is. But remember, anything that you borrow, you’ll have to bring back by a certain date. And if you don’t bring it back by that certain date, you’ll have to pay a fine.
Sultan: Where is the closest library branch?
Marni: Well, there’s one downtown. I actually need to go there to return a stack of books. Do you want to come with me?
Sultan: Sounds good.
Marni: OK.
Sultan: Wow. That pile of books is nothing to sneeze at. Did you read all of them?
Marni: Every one of them. Thank you.
Grammar Point
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Discussion
Marni is sharing Little May’s music with Sultan. He likes it and asks how she heard about them. Marni learned of the the band from a friend and borrowed their CD from the library. She tells Sultan that he can also borrow movies, magazines, and, of course, books.
Sultan doesn’t have a library card, but it’s not difficult to get one. He simply needs to bring his ID to a local library branch. The one thing Marni feels that Sultan should understand is that he’ll have to pay the library if he brings anything back late. If he’s supposed to return a CD on January 1st but he returns it on January 2nd, there will be a fine.
Do you use the library? Is the number of books nothing to sneeze at, or do you wish there were more?
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