Master and Commander

Intro

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

• Napoleonic Wars
• suddenly
• superior
• injured

• bold
• high stakes
• intercept
• foe

• fate
• cool
• not a big fan
• heroically

• battle
• type cast
• dominant male
• Academy Award

• cinematography
• lived up to its expectations

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

In Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Russell Crowe plays Lucky Jack Aubrey, the captain of the H.M.S. Surprise during the Napoleonic Wars. When the ship is suddenly attacked by a superior enemy, it is badly damaged and much of his crew is injured. In a bold and dangerous move, Aubrey decides to set sail in a high stakes chase across two oceans to intercept and capture their foe. It’s a mission that can decide the fate of a nation – or destroy Lucky Jack and his crew. 
Miguel watched Master and Commander last week. Listen to him tell John about it.

Dialog

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

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

Miguel

John

Miguel:  Have you seen Master and Commander yet?

John:  Isn’t that movie with Russell Crowe?

Miguel:  Yeah. It’s Russell Crowe and then, seems like about a hundred other guys who are all on this boat. It’s really a pretty cool story.

John:  You know, I usually don’t like Russell Crowe that much.

Miguel:  Yeah. I’m actually not a big fan of him either, but this movie made me start thinking I might change my mind.

John:  What was it about him that you liked this time? Was it the clothes that he wore?

Miguel:  No, it wasn’t so much the costumes. It’s just that he plays kind of a heroic figure. He’s the captain of a ship. And, uh, he actually turns out to be a really nice guy. And, also, he’s victorious in battle, so he just, he seems like a guy to admire.

John:  Isn’t he kinda type cast like that all the time. I mean, in Gladiator and other movies he always plays that role where he’s the dominant male.

Miguel:  Yeah. That’s true. That’s kind of, uh, that kind of fits his personality. But, he was in Beautiful Mind and that wasn’t quite the same.

John:  That’s right. That was a good movie. So I should go see Master and Commander?

Miguel:  I’d definitely recommend it. I think it won the Academy Award for best cinematography and it definitely lived up to the award.

Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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