Learn English meaning of ‘fidget spinner’

Date: Nov 24 2017

Themes: Hobbies, Pop Culture

Grammar: Present Perfect Tense

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Intro

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Go Super to Listen

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

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Did you have a favorite toy when you were a kid? Perhaps, it was a surprise purchase from your Mom? Maybe, you played with this toy until it fell apart. Or maybe, you finally grew tired of it and became curious about something else. Your favorite toy then sat on a shelf, gathering dust and growing old. Your love for this toy went away and was replaced with a legitimate love for a new toy. Perhaps, that new toy is a fidget spinner.

Fidget spinners are the new must-have toy. The fidget spinner fad is a little out of control. These toys are very tactile and use ball bearings to spin, and spin, and spin. Some people say that fidget spinners can help relieve anxiety and stress. Once you start playing with fidget spinners, there’s no guarantee that you’ll ever stop. Just saying.

Andy recently bought a new toy. Do you think it could be a fidget spinner? Listen, and find out.

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.

Andy_H

Marni

Andy_H: Oh, my gosh, Marni!

Marni: Yes?

Andy_H: Guess what purchase I made today.

Marni: Oh, I can only imagine what you might have bought today.

Andy_H: My first fidget spinner!

Marni: Oh, wow.

Andy_H: I’ve been playing with it for… What time is it?

Marni: Yeah. You’re in deep, I can tell.

Andy_H: Hey, this thing is amazing. OK, first of all, it’s for special needs children. But it’s just such an amazing tool. Literally, you spin it once, it just keeps going.

Marni: It keeps going. I am…

Andy_H: For thirty minutes I had it going.

Marni: I’m well aware of how they work, and if, you know, fidgets are legitimate things that are created for kids that have tactile needs…

Andy_H: Uh-huh.

Marni: ...and helps them focus. But fidget spinners have created this whole new problem where everybody has them, so now everybody is just spinning out of control and not focusing on what they’re supposed to be doing.

Andy_H: With what? Their iPhones? Was that any better? All I’m saying is that fidget spinners are a really cool way to just show physics. I mean, it’s a bunch of wheels with ball bearings. And if a 2-year-old sees this thing spinning and doesn’t realize why it’s stopping, maybe it’ll make him a little more curious. Is that a bad thing?

Marni: That would not be a bad thing, but I guarantee you the majority of people using fidget spinners are not thinking about physics. Just saying.

Andy_H: Well, I think you need to have a little more faith in the fidget spinners.

Grammar Point

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Discussion

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Andy tells Marni that he just bought a fidget spinner. He’s been playing with it for hours. Marni can tell that Andy is in deep with his fidget spinner. Andy tells her that the fidget spinner is amazing. He spun it once, and it kept going for 30 minutes.

Marni knows that fidget spinners were originally made to help kids with tactile needs, but she thinks they have created a whole new problem. Now, everyone is just walking around, distracted by their fidget spinners. Andy thinks they are making kids curious about physics, and that’s not a bad thing.

Have you ever played with a fidget spinner? Do you think they are fun or annoying?

Comments

ola3

Ukraine

My fav toy never collected dust since it was a purse with a little doll snuggly fitting in its plastic window, made in Germany :)_It was a very good quality bag for the kids to play with and I would never have traded it for the fidget spinner. We didn’t have cell phones and watched TV like half a hour a day. We made doll houses, sew, knit, draw and I don’t think such a simplistic thing like a fidget spinner would have made our day. Would have traded on a piece of fur and would have made a cute attire for a doll. But today is different era of gadgets and electronics. And the fidget spinner I think is a destressing solution like spin – and now what?! play another video game…