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Beren is Acting Strangely

Date: Dec 09 2008

Themes: Friend

Grammar: Present Progressive Tense

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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 do you really know about Beren? She can be sensible and offer advice and support to the other characters on the soap opera. She also has a wild side. But really, she’s kind of a mystery.

Of course, her friends know a little more about her than you do, but just a little. They know what kinds of food and drinks she likes, and that’s enough to know that she’s not herself in today’s soap episode.

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.

Amanda

Beren

Devan

Amanda: Oh, this pizza’s so good. It’s so meaty.

Beren: Hey guys. Can I have some?

Amanda: Whoa, um…

Beren: Thanks.

Amanda: No. This is meat lovers. Sausage. Pepperoni. OK. That’s kinda weird.

Devan: That’s really weird. Beren’s a vegan. Why would she take a piece of meat lovers pizza?

Amanda: And clearly this is meat lovers, right? It’s not like those were vegetables.

Devan: Clearly. Yeah. I mean, she doesn’t even eat cheese anyway…

Amanda: Did you see what she was holding?

Devan: No.

Amanda: She was holding a Diet Coke.

Devan: What?

Amanda: And she only drinks full fat Coke.

Devan: Yeah.

Amanda: Like, religiously. I don’t know…

Devan: Yeah. I offered her a Diet Coke once and she said it was disgusting and that she hated it.

Amanda: I know.

Devan: You know?

Amanda: What?

Devan: I was at her house the other day and it was, like, a mess. And you know that Beren’s like…

Amanda: No. I don’t think that was her place then.

Devan: It was…

Amanda: Her place is immaculate all the time.

Devan: I know.

Amanda: What has gotten into her?

Devan: Should we be concerned?

Amanda: I don’t know. She’s eating meat, she’s drinking diet, her house is a mess…

Devan: I think I’m gonna make an Excel spreadsheet tonight and make a list of, you know, who she normally is to us and then some of the weird things that we’ve seen.

Amanda: She has been being so weird lately.

Devan: Like, departure from personality type thing.

Amanda: Yeah.

Devan: Yeah.

Amanda: And then we’ll have a meeting.

Devan: We should have a meeting.

Amanda: OK.

Grammar Point

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Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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Discussion

Amanda and Devan are eating pizza that’s covered in meat when Beren walks in and asks for a slice. She grabs one and walks off. Amanda and Devan are weirded out because last they checked, Beren was a vegan!

Then Amanda points out that Beren had a Diet Coke in her hand. She never drinks diet! She hates it! And Devan was at Beren’s place recently and it was really messy. But everyone knows Beren’s a neat freak and not a slob. What is going on here?

Amanda plans to gather evidence and have a meeting about Beren just like the intervention for Devan’s drug problem. But this isn’t a drug problem. Just some unusual behavior. Do you think Amanda’s overreacting?