世博英语

Conversation

Anna: Hi, can you tell me how to get to your movie theater?

(Movie theater worker on the phone gives directions.)

Anna: Oh, that’s easy. OK, thank you. Bye.

(Anna meets Pete outside of the theater.)

Anna: Hi, Pete! Thanks for the movie invitation.

Pete: Yeah, sure Anna.

Anna: I love movies. I love the plot! I love the set design! I love the costumes! I love –

Pete: Anna, I take movies very seriously. You’re not one of those people who talks during a movie, are you?

Anna: No.

Pete: Good.

Professor Bot: Anna loves movies. And..she loves talking about movies. And Pete doesn’t sound happy about that.

But he’s trying to be polite. He can do that with Indirect Questions.

We can ask a question directly: Where is your movie theater? or indirectly as Anna does:

Anna: Can you tell me how to get to your movie theater?

They have the same meaning. But indirect questions are more polite and a little more formal.

Many indirect questions begin with:

Can/Could you tell me…
Would/Do you mind…
Would it be possible…

or

Do you know…

Hmm, do you know if Anna will stop talking? I sure don’t.

Keep watching. And, this time look for indirect questions that begin with: Would you mind…

Anna: I love the smell of popcorn. I love seats that rock.

(Her chair makes noise as she rocks back and forth.)

Pete: I love when people are quiet.

(The lights go down and we see movie light on their faces.)

Anna: Ooh look, the previews are starting. I love to see what movies are coming out. Oh, this one looks good!

Pete: Anna, the previews are part of the movie experience. So, would you mind not talking?

Anna: Oh, sure, sure.

(Anna eats her popcorn loudly. Then, she begins drinking her milkshake loudly.)

Pete: Anna, I was wondering: are you almost finished with that?

Anna: No. There’s still a lot of milkshake at the bottom.

(She drinks loudly again. And again.)

Pete: Anna, do you mind not drinking so loudly?

Anna: I’ll try. But it’s really thick.

(She moves the straw around and makes even more noise.)

Pete: Anna, what are you doing?!

(A person in the audience shushes Pete.)

Person in audience: Shh!

(Pete tells the person what was happening.)

Pete: I’m not the one making all the noise.

Person in audience: Shhh!

Anna: I’m done now.

(Anna now holds many noisy boxes of candy. Finally, she chooses a candy bar.)

Pete: Anna, would you mind opening that a little bit more quietly?

Anna: I’ll try.

(She tries to open it quietly but cannot.)

Pete: Anna, just give it to me!

(He tears it open with his mouth. It makes a loud noise. Again, someone in the audience thinks he is making too much noise.)

Person in audience: Shhh!

Pete: (to the person) It’s not mine. I’m opening it for her. Here.

Person in audience: Shhhhhh!!

(He gives the candy bar quickly back to her.)

Pete: Here!

Anna: Thanks, Pete.

Pete: Now, would you mind being more quiet?

(The light of someone’s phone shines in Pete’s face. He asks the person a question.)

Pete: Excuse me, would you mind turning down your phone light?

(Then, Anna’s phone rings.)

Anna: Oh, sorry! I forgot to turn my phone off.

(She tries to turn it off but drops it under the seat.)

Anna: Oh no! I dropped it. Where is it?

(She looks under the seat in front of her.)

Pete: Anna, can you please turn off your phone?

(She speaks to the person Pete just asked to turn their phone light down.)

Anna: Excuse me, would you mind lending me your phone light for a minute?

Pete: No! I’ll get it!

Person in audience: Shhhhh!

(People shush Pete again. He finally has had enough.)

Pete: Look, people, I’m not the noisy one here! So, you all need to shush the right person. And I should know about shushing! I shush people all the time!!

Security guard: Excuse me, sir. You can’t yell in a movie theater. Would you mind coming with me?

Pete: You’re kicking me out? Me? But I’m always the quiet one in the movie!

(The security guard takes Pete out. Anna watches the movie and eats quietly from her bag of popcorn.)

Anna: Pete should know better. You have to be quiet in a movie theater. Shh, the movie’s starting!

Professor Bot: Well, that’s a surprise! I thought Anna would be the noisy one.

Well, she was … with her food. But Pete did all of the talking. At least he tried to be polite by using indirect questions.

Conversation

Professor Bot: In Part 1 of this two-part lesson, Ms. Weaver gave Anna and Pete an assignment. Ms. Weaver instructed them to do everything by themselves.

“Themselves” is a reflexive pronoun.

In today’s lesson, Ms. Weaver will look at Pete’s and Anna’s research. First, let’s see Pete’s experiment.

(Pete throws the bag of flour on his chair and throws many other things on his flour baby. Next, we see him outside enjoying ice-cream without his flour baby.)

Ms. Weaver: Okay, Pete, let me see your research first.

(Pete hands her a big binder filled with research.)

Ms. Weaver: That’s a heavy binder. And you and your Baby look great.

Pete: Thanks, Ms. Weaver. We feel great!

Ms. Weaver: Anna. Anna, you’re next. Anna? Anna wake up!

(She wakes up but is very confused.)

Anna: I’m here, Baby! I’m here! I’m here! Here’s your bottle.

(She accidentally squirts her bottle and milk goes everywhere.)

Ms. Weaver: Anna, you and your baby look awful. What happened?

Anna: Well, I took her everywhere. Everywhere. And I fed her every three hours. So, I haven’t slept since … what day is it?

Ms. Weaver: It’s Friday. What happened there?

(Ms. Weaver points to a large bandage on Anna’s flour baby.)

Anna: Oh, that. Oh, that. I was making myself a salad and had a little accident with a knife. I put my flour baby in front of me. And then I accidentally stabbed it. But I gave it First Aid!

Ms. Weaver: Is that a burn?

Anna: Yes. Yes it is. While I was making myself dinner, I put Baby next to me. I accidentally knocked her into the sink. So I put her in the microwave to dry. That’s when she caught fire.

(Pete smiles, thinking he’s won.)

Professor Bot: Okay. So, we use a reflexive pronoun when it refers to the subject of a sentence or clause.

But we DON’T use a reflexive pronoun with prepositions of place.

Anna uses examples of both in one sentence: While I was making myself dinner, I put Baby next to me.

We use a reflexive pronoun in the first part of the sentence. “Myself” refers to the subject “I.”

But in the second part of the sentence, we don’t use a reflexive pronoun in the prepositional phrase. We use the pronoun “me.” Why? “next to” is a preposition of place.

(Back in the meeting room, we’re about to learn who won the parenting experiment. Pete is smiling, thinking he won.)

Ms. Weaver: Anna, Anna, you should be very proud of yourself.

Pete: Proud? She stabbed and burned her baby!! And she only did one page of research…and it’s covered in milk. Ew.

Ms. Weaver: Yes, Pete. But she followed instructions.

Pete: Hey, I did …

Ms. Weaver: Please, Pete. Anna, I think your baby has lost some weight. Is there something else you want to share?

Anna: Yes. I’d like to share … these! I made them myself this morning.

Pete: You baked your baby? You should be ashamed of yourself!

Anna: I baked them at the end of the experiment, Pete. At that point, this was just a bag of flour.

Pete: It was always just a bag of flour!!

Ms. Weaver: Pete, will you listen to yourself?! You sound crazy.

Pete: I sound crazy! This whole experiment was crazy!! She was the one who carried around and fed it and …

(Anna puts a cookie into his mouth. He chews it and begins to smile.)

Pete: Mmm. That is good.

(They all agree and eat the cookies.)

Professor Bot: So, what have we learned? We’ve learned when to use reflexive pronouns and when not to.

Go to our website for more information! You can practice using reflexive pronouns in our comments section.

Conversation

Ms. Weaver: Anna, Pete, I have a new assignment for you — a show on single parents! What is it like for a mother or a father to raise a child by herself or himself?

Anna: We can interview single parents. They can share their experiences themselves.

Ms. Weaver: Yes, but you need to experience parenthood yourselves.

Anna: Ourselves?

Peter: Yeah, how do we do that? We’re not parents.

Ms. Weaver: I asked myself the same question. I said, “Caty, how are they gonna do that?” Then an idea came to me. I will give you the babies!

Professor Bot: You may be asking yourself the same thing that I’m asking myself: what is Ms. Weaver talking about!? I am sure we will find out shortly.

This lesson teaches reflexive pronouns.

Reflexive pronouns refer back to the subject of a sentence or clause. We use them when the subject and the object are the same person or thing.

For example, Ms. Weaver says, “I asked myself the same question.”

“I” is the subject and “myself” refers back to it. Here, she would not use the pronoun “me.” You need to use the reflexive pronoun “myself.”

Reflexive pronouns are easy to find: they end in “self” or “selves.” I have a feeling we are going to see a lot of reflexive pronouns. Listen for them!

(Pete and Anna continue their meeting with Ms. Weaver. She puts two bags of flour on the table. Pete and Anna still look confused.)

Ms. Weaver: Here are your babies!

Pete: Those are bags of flour.

Ms. Weaver: No, Pete, for the next six days, this is your baby. Here are your instructions. Do not leave your babies alone. A baby cannot take care of itself. And you two must do everything by yourselves.

We will meet next Friday. Oh, and the person who does the best research will get an extra day of vacation. Help yourself to a baby.

Anna: Pete, look, my baby is organic and whole grain. Your baby is ordinary.

(Pete pushes her flour baby off desk.)

Anna: (to Pete) Monster! (to Caty) This is a great idea, Ms. Weaver!

(Pete and Anna are now outside.)

Pete: This is a terrible idea.

Anna: Speak for yourself, Pete! We need to throw ourselves into the research! I’m starting right now!

(She leaves but forgets her Flour Baby.)

Pete: Hey Anna, you forgot your baby!

(She turns and looks at Pete.)

Anna: Come to mama!

(The bag of flour flies at her. She catches it.)

Anna: Good girl! Good girl!

Professor Bot: Singular reflexive pronouns end in “self.” Plural ones end in “selves.”

Anna says, “We need to throw ourselves into the research!” The subject “we” is plural. So, we must use the plural reflexive pronoun “ourselves.”

(The parenting research begins. Anna tries to open a baby stroller but can’t. A man walking by helps her. She pushes Flour Baby in the stroller but it falls out. On another day, she jogs with it. After several days, she is tired!)

Anna: This is hard! I hope Pete is not doing well. I really need that vacation day!

Professor Bot: We will all see how Pete is doing in the next episode. We’ll also learn when not to use reflexive pronouns.