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A Snap
A Snap English, baby! Video Lesson

Learn English meaning of ‘magic tricks’

Date: Apr 24 2018

Themes: Friend, Hobbies, Soap Opera

Grammar: Conjunctions

Intro

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

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

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For some people, everything is easy. They want to learn magic tricks, and the next day their rabbit is levitating. They want to cook, and somehow, they made a delicious sauerkraut brownie. They want to start a business, and suddenly, they’ve made an impact on their whole community. For them, everything is a snap.

When something is a snap, it is very easy. When something snaps, this means it is broken in two. When someone snaps, they are very, very angry and ready to blow. When something makes a snap sound, it is very loud and unpleasant. But when you do something like you’ve been doing it forever, and it’s easy and breezy, then it’s a snap in the best possible way.

Kelsey thinks their show will be a snap. See if it will be as easy as she thinks in today’s English soap opera.

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.

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

Nestor

Nestor

Andy_H

Andy_H

Kelsey

Kelsey

Nestor:  I think I hate this. Can you just start from the beginning again?

Andy_H:  Sure! It’s super easy, and it will have a huge impact.

Kelsey:  It’s a snap. Andy wants to do a magic cooking show.

Nestor:  Yeah, there it is. That’s the part that confuses me. Magic cooking?

Andy_H:  It’s actually called Cooking Magic.

Kelsey:  He shows how to do magic tricks while cooking up some weird recipe that he’s created.

Andy_H:  I prefer innovative.

Nestor:  And how does this involve me?

Kelsey:  Andy will do the cooking and magic, I’ll do the music, and you can film it!

Nestor:  Oh… That’s not really what I do.

Kelsey:  So, it’ll be a great opportunity to break out of your routine and try something new. It’ll be very simple. Andy, what’s next on the menu?

Andy_H:  Let’s see… Ooo! How about my famous levitating sauerkraut omelet?

Nestor:  OK, that does sound interesting.

Kelsey:  That sounds terrible! Which part is levitating?

Andy_H:  We could do my Spoon-Bending Brownies. They are so dense that they…

Nestor:  Bend the spoon? Need to work on the name… it’s a bit obvious. But I do like brownies. OK, you have my attention. Kelsey, what do you think?

Kelsey:  Sounds great to me.

Andy_H:  OK, it’s a snap. I just need a few ingredients.

Kelsey:  And I’ll work on the intro song. What are we calling this?

Nestor:  Well, we want to show how easy it is to make Andy’s weird…

Andy_H:  … innovative…

Nestor:  … recipes. And how incredibly simple it is to do magic.

Andy_H:  I prefer deceptively simple.

Kelsey:  It’s a Snap!

Andy_H:  What is?

Kelsey:  The show!

Andy_H:  Oh! Yeah.

 

Grammar Point

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Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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Discussion

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Nestor feels frustrated and asks Andy to do everything over again. Kelsey says it will be a snap making Andy’s magic cooking show, but Nestor disagrees. He doesn’t understand how magic and cooking relate to each other. Kelsey and Andy explain that Andy will be cooking original recipes while doing magic tricks to Kelsey’s music.

Nestor doesn’t really want to do it, but Kelsey tells him it will be a great way to break out of the routine and try something new. Kelsey asks Andy what’s on the menu. It looks like Andy will cook up his levitating sauerkraut omelet! No, Kelsey says, that sounds terrible. Andy will try doing Spoon-Bending Brownies instead.

What feels like a snap to you? Do you have any special talents that feel easy to you?

“I like cookies with chocolate chips and walnuts” is correct.
This is because we can’t use the subordinating conjunction “since” to join two nouns: chocolate chips and walnuts. Instead, we have to join an adverb clause to an independent clause—you could say, “I’ve liked baking cookies since I was a kid.” In some cases, they’re used to join two independent clauses, such as “I like baking cookies while I drink wine”. But they can never be before a lone noun such as walnuts. Instead, we use the coordinating conjunction “and” which can be used with two nouns.

 

Comments

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EVAfrommexico

Mexico

It’s a snap to learn english this way :D


09:45 PM Feb 20 2019 |

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