To download or not to?

Intro

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

• awe
• literally
• obsession
• movement

• grapple
• guilt
• steal
• hotly debated

• mixed feelings
• illegal
• audience
• spread

• dunno

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

I remember the first time I heard about music-sharing websites, I was in awe that I could literally go to the web and find any song I wanted to find and download it for free. For me, as it was for a lot of people, downloading music became an obsession.
Months later, when I heard that there was a movement against the downloading of music, I had to grapple with my own sense of guilt. Had I really stolen something from those people who had recorded their music with the intention of selling it? Or was the act of downloading more about sharing than stealing?
As many people know, this argument is still a hotly debated issue and it seems that we are no closer to a “right” answer than we ever were before.
Let’s see what Zach and Steph have to say about the matter…

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.

Steph

Zach

Steph:  Last weekend my friends were asking me what I felt about downloading music. I’m really not sure what to think. What do you think about that?

Zach:  Well I have pretty mixed feelings. Um, I used to copy tapes, when I was a kid and I didn’t really feel too bad about it. Um, but I only did one or two here and there. Nowadays, you can download tons and tons of music and I’m not sure if I really feel great about it.

Steph:  Do you know anyone who does it, or do you do it yourself sometimes?

Zach:  Well I’ve downloaded a lot that I’ve actually paid for. So I have a big music collection and it’s all legal. So, it’s cool. It’s cool to have all the music. And, but I have some friends that have downloaded a lot of it illegally. And, it’s fun to be able to listen to all that stuff, but I’m not sure if I feel good about it.

Steph:  Right, I kinda feel the same way.

Zach:  I think some, some artists, um, are really against downloading music, but I think it actually makes a bigger audience for them sometimes.

Steph:  That, that’s true. Sometimes it helps spread their music. So, I dunno. I can’t wait till we get a right answer on this.

 

Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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