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Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon
Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

Learn English meaning of ‘six degrees of Kevin Bacon’

Date: Jan 12 2018

Themes: Celebrity, Pop Culture

Grammar: Direct vs. Reported Speech

Intro

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

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William Shatner was in the movie Star Trek III: The Search for Spock with John Larroquette. John Larroquette was in JFK with Kevin Bacon. Chris Pratt was in Moneyball with Brad Pitt. Brad Pitt was in Sleepers with Kevin Bacon. This game is called Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. The concept is that every actor can be connected to Kevin Bacon by six movies or less. The idea popped up at a college event where three students decided that Kevin Bacon was the center of the entertainment universe.

The Kevin Bacon game comes from the concept called six degrees of separation. This concept says that every human on the planet can be connected to another human through six people or less. So, Kevin Bacon went to acting school with a guy named Fred, who dated Judy, who cut hair for Amir, who was your cousin’s kindergarten teacher. Congratulations! You are six degrees from Kevin Bacon! Mind-blowing, huh?

Romeo is fascinated with the concept of six degrees of separation. Listen as he explains the concept to Dominique in today’s English lesson.

Dialog

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

Romeo

Romeo

Dominique

Dominique

Romeo:  I’ve got to ask you this. You know how, like, Facebook will do these event pages and they tell you about your, your know, your friends that you follow that are also going to the event?

Dominique:  Yeah.

Romeo:  So, one popped up for this event that was going on downtown. And, two of my friends, who have never met each other…

Dominique:  OK.

Romeo:  ...were both going to be at that event.

Dominique:  Mmm hmm.

Romeo:  And I just thought, wouldn’t that be crazy if, for some reason, my name just happened to come up, and they’re like, “Hey! I know that guy!” and then the other guy’s like, “Hey, I know him, too.” It’s like total six degrees of separation. I mean, we’re talking, two people, from two different cities, that don’t even know that they both know me, being at the same place at the same time.

Dominique:  That is pretty crazy.

Romeo:  That’s the kind of concept I’m talking about.

Dominique:  Like, my kindergarten teacher ended up being my Mom’s best friend from grade school and, also, my neighbor. What?! Crazy!

Romeo:  Mind-blowing, huh?

Dominique:  It’s ridiculous how that works. Like, the world is so small.

Romeo:  Six degrees of Kevin Bacon is not just a game. The world is so small that you’re almost always going to run into somebody, who knows somebody, who knows somebody else that you also both know.

 

Grammar Point

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Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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Discussion

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Romeo tells Dominique about a Facebook event that popped up. He has two friends attending this same event. But, these two friends have never met each other. He thinks it would be crazy if they met at the event, and then realize that they both know Romeo. The concept of six degrees of separation is totally crazy!

Dominique agrees. Her kindergarten teacher was her Mom’s best friend in grade school. And is also her neighbor! They both agree that the world is very small. Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon is not just game. It’s also real life!

Can you connect the actor Harrison Ford to Kevin Bacon? How many degrees away from Kevin Bacon are you?

 

Comments

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La Princesse de la vie

Egypt

I don’t think I’m able to play the Kevin Bacon game as I’m not that expert in movies and actors.


It happens that I meet people for the first time and by talking with them I realize we’re connected somehow. But still I can’t say Six degrees of separation is a generalized concept.

06:43 PM Jan 13 2018 |

ola3

ola3Super Member!

Ukraine

I think Kevin Bacon lives on the other planet from me. Hollywood, glamorous wolrd… that we can watch on TV..


And I totally agree with ShiningSun that the degree of your “separation” depends on how social you’re.

01:58 PM Jan 12 2018 |

ShiningSun

ShiningSun

United Kingdom

If you are socially active and extrovert than there are chances that you are six degrees separated from others in your locality but if you are truly a devoted introvert than chances are you are separated light years from others. :)

01:40 PM Jan 12 2018 |

The Last Joke

Yemen

Ah !I do remember something :
 ⚫the connecting between Harrison Ford to Kevin Bacon :


  🎥📹Harrison Ford was in Random Hearts  with Steve Altes..


 🎥📹Steve Altes was in Hollow Man  with Kevin Bacon

🔴 There wasn’t direct connecting but there was Steve Altes between them .



 Six degrees of separation says : all living things and everything else in the world are six or fewer steps away from each other so that a chain of “a friend of a friend” statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps.


Six degrees of Kevin Bacon
Theory that by six or less degrees of separation, every actor is connected to Kevin Bacon, possibly making him the center of the universe



  🔵I haven’t this Game “Six degrees of Kevin Bacon “  ,,so , I can’t tell you
( How many degrees away from Kevin Bacon am I !)


Anyway : I can’t believe ”  Six degrees of separation “

02:07 AM Jan 12 2018 |

The Last Joke

Yemen



 ⚫Most of us in” Arabic world”, we  can’t believe  with the concept of six degrees of separation “the idea” is that anyone in the planet can be connected to anyone else in just six steps.

However , most people in USA believe that they have about 6 degrees of separation (Small World theory), but I think  not everyone has 6 degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon or Harrison Ford  or any other given person


 
🔴Honestly ,this is the most stupid thing i’ve ever heard in all my life !!

01:42 AM Jan 12 2018 |

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