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Divergent
Divergent

Learn English in this Divergent movies English lesson

Date: Mar 31 2014

Themes: Pop Culture

Grammar: There, Their & They're

Intro

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What if the world was divided by virtue? You could only be with people just like you. Would you be bored?

For Tris, the heroine of the new movie Divergent, this world is real. Everyone around her is split into factions. The problem is that’s she different. As she tries to learn who’s good and who’s bad, her character has to undergo many changes.

Like many young adult novels that have become movies, Divergent has its own intense moments. Movie-goers have to figure out who they’re rooting for and hope that character will win in the end.

Jeff and Gary have very different opinions about Divergent. Who’s excited to see the new film? Find out in this English lesson about books made into movies.

Dialog

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

Jeff

Jeff

Gary

Gary

Jeff:  Oh, man!

Gary:  What, what, what?

Jeff:  I am excited. Divergent. Have you seen this? Have you heard about this?

Gary:  To be honest, I don’t read a lot of young adult novels, like The Hunger Games or Divergent. I’m not a big fan really of the whole, “Hey, let’s make this into a movie” kind of thing. I’m just not there.

Jeff:  They’re all just so intense, you know? It’s just like battles of virtue, and the characters have to undergo so much…

Gary:  Yeah, of course.

Jeff:  ...and you’re rooting for them to transform in a way.

Gary:  Well, yeah, they transform generally from this meek character to this really strong and capable character, right?

Jeff:  Yeah. You’re rooting for them, you know?

Gary:  I’m having a hard time with it. But one thing that’s really nice is that there’s all these factions that this character is trying to go between to figure out who’s good, who’s bad. I like that part of these movies. I think that’s pretty cool.

Jeff:  It’s like real life, you know? In a way.

Gary:  It is.

 

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Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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Discussion

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Jeff can’t wait to talk to Gary about the new movie Divergent. It’s based on the popular book for teenagers, and Jeff thinks the movie will be great!

It turns out that Gary’s not really excited about Divergent, though. He doesn’t really like young adult novels, or books that are made into movies.

While Jeff likes the questions of good and evil and battles in this type of movie, Gary thinks they’re basically all the same. However, Gary does think that it’s interesting how the main character has to figure out who is good and who’s bad. And he and Jeff both agree that people have the same challenge in real life.

What’s your opinion about Divergent? Have you seen the movie or read the book? Do you agree that the main character’s challenge is like real life?

 

Comments

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rsyypooler

Antarctica

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06:58 AM Jun 02 2017 |

Paredfer81

Åland Islands

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10:52 AM Apr 14 2016 |

ahmet55

ahmet55

Germany

The first thing jumped into my mind about “Divergent” was a recalling due to a lecture and its application in differential equation as a mathematic course at college. 



Anyway, unfortunately, not only I’ve not seen this film before but also I’ve not read the novel yet. In spite of this, i manage to take a quick look to this book and watch movie whenever i would take a free time. BTW, I saw a film review on the internet and i think it would worth watching. I look forward to find it interesting.

08:44 AM Apr 03 2014 |

handwriter

handwriter

Norway

About movie producers and authors of human tragedy, I believe that they capitalize on the fact that many people enjoy being miserable. People can’t simply say that they enjoy not being happy, or that they prefer living with feelings of hate—no, so they use their vicariously achieved associations through entertainment to give justification to their unhappiness—again, I believe that the entertainment world uses this to achieve personal agendas—whatever they might be.

01:12 PM Apr 02 2014 |

handwriter

handwriter

Norway

I believe that one of the greatest human tragedies to beset people is their seemingly inability to let go—to forgive. Many books, articles, and dramatizations of human sufferings and tragedies only help perpetuate hatred, blaming, and inabilities of forgiveness. Again, these fields of entertaining history are not to be blamed for history—but they do help keep feelings alive.

12:40 PM Apr 02 2014 |

handwriter

handwriter

Norway

Yes, I agree—it is history—a lot of it being distorted or fabricated, of course—but yes, it is history. The point that I was trying to make was that when history is written or acted out that we shouldn’t blame the history writers or the movie industry for it.


You mentioned something about “…people wouldn’t have known their past…” I don’t quite see it that way: it wasn’t my past nor the past of anyone “personally” living today. This—the story of the Titanic—was a tragic event in human history where lives had been lost—but one that happened over 100 years ago—not to be taken as being insensitive. I wouldn’t suggest that any of us can associate or blame who we are or what we are as individuals or as groups on events that happened years ago—or even that happened yesterday. We need to be able to know what happened yesterday only as guides for living better lives today and not as reasons for who we are today.


No one is perfect—we all make mistakes; however, I will not judge anyone today for acts done in the past. We all can change; we all can improve. My past is not who I am today. Many will disagree—of course.

11:53 AM Apr 02 2014 |

ola33

ola33

Japan

It’s history, handwriter. Titanic, for example, and the Canadian director James Cameron made a good movie about it.  The movie in which people can see how Immigrants were coming to Canada selling everything with high hopes and how  tragically it turned out. It’s history and it shouldn’t be forgotton. If it’s not for that movie people wouldn’t have known their past. It was suffering, despair, frustration and that’s life. Look at today’s world, it’s not only smiles, unfortunately. Of course some of the horrible scenes, you try not to concentrate on, but the plot of love and a big tragedy with it is wonderfully reflected in the movie. 

01:39 AM Apr 02 2014 |

1 person likes this

handwriter

handwriter

Norway

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With patience, honesty, tolerance, and mutual respect, we can find peace as we work with walls of divergences without trying to break them down—we don’t need to try and change another’s system of values—we need to encourage divergences that promote goodness.

10:26 AM Apr 01 2014 |

1 person likes this

kakaluojin

China

I’ve not read Divergent. Actually, I’ve not heard about it neither as a movie nor as a book. However, I love young adult vovels as well as books that could be made into movies. After going through Jeff and Gary’s conversation, I’ve got the information of a new good book. I believe I am going to start read it before I watch the movie. I want to use my imagination more by reading a book other than by presented all the scene by a movie. I can’t wait to start the book! Yeah~

01:47 AM Apr 01 2014 |

handwriter

handwriter

Norway

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I often hear people blaming literature, art, “movies”, etc., for human woes.  Business “Vultures”—I mean, Cultures—such  as the movie industry, capitalize on human grief and suffering due to the seemingly universally “cultural” human need or desire to be entertained by such events—and that we are willing to pay good, hard-earned money to be so entertained—or disvalued.  Some would suggest—almost preach—that people entertain themselves with the sufferings of others only because rapacious and greedy industries like the movie industry produce such material. I truly believe that should people stop valuing the desire to see such movies or discontinued buying material, such as books and magazines, that exploit human suffering that all of it—the dramatizations of plane crashes and such—would soon “fly” away and become devalued.

08:44 PM Mar 31 2014 |

ttsuka

ttsuka

Japan

I think Gary’s comment, ”’Hey, let’s make this into a movie,” poignantly describes the culture of the movie industry. I can well imagine some in Hollywood exclaiming exactly this phrase when they see real-life tragedies, like an airplane crash (or missing one).


Then, they would craft the “reality” so that they can have the characters look and behave according to the virtues shared by their intended, most profitable audience groups. Then, they count the money. 

07:52 PM Mar 31 2014 |

handwriter

handwriter

Norway


I think that we are all divided somewhat by “virtues”—we all have different value systems—all based on a variety of reasons and causes: genetics, culture, education, etc.  We talk about fighting for truth; for justice—for our values.  The problem is, who or what makes one set of values right and another set wrong?  The idea—an approach towards peach—is to recognize our differences and live beyond them: don’t let walls of differences keep you from seeing what lies just on the other side—it could be an amazing world that you find on the other side of wall of divergence.

05:09 PM Mar 31 2014 |

3 people like this

Sray

Sray

Taiwan

Though I have never read the book and never seen the movie. But I thing it’s not so simple in the world. We cannot divide the whole thing into tow sections. Things are more complicated, I thought. The white is good and the black is bad. Then how can we judge the other color, just like the glay, and so on. So everyone is the hero. Because we have to undergo so much stress and various cituations. The most important thing is that we have to be alive.

02:21 PM Mar 31 2014 |

S&W

S&W

China

I have already watched this movie.That’s awesome.It has some elements  the same as hunger game.Making big decision at a young age then fight for the truth.Use definited virtue to divide constantly changing people can’t make the world a better place.

02:02 PM Mar 31 2014 |

1 person likes this

maryam1368227

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

i have not seen or read it yet . but i search about it . i read that divergant and hunger game have the same topic. it is about people have to live how they dont like and it is not justic. 

12:00 PM Mar 31 2014 |

3 people like this

valencia irene yunita

Indonesia

i love this movie :) 

11:42 AM Mar 31 2014 |

1 person likes this

Eric_

Eric_

China

It’s coming soon….........hope we like it.

08:38 AM Mar 31 2014 |

1 person likes this

Lucie111

Lucie111

Czech Republic

I also read this novel…it was quite good relaxing reading :) hope to see it at the cinema..its cooming soon :)

06:09 AM Mar 31 2014 |

2 people like this

Ramita

Ramita

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

Hey guys.I have read that novel.”Divergent”.It is amazing!!!! I suggest you to read it. Have fun! :)

05:07 AM Mar 31 2014 |

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