English, baby!

Baby Mama

Date: Jul 23 2008

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.

For every person who gets pregnant and doesn’t want to be, there’s someone out there who wants to have a child and can’t. Sometimes these people decide to help one another, and often times they find that they are from different walks of life.

Baby Mama is a comedy about a businesswoman who enlists a high school dropout to have a child for her. The best part? They live together for almost nine months until the baby is due.

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.

Marni

Mason

Marni: So, just went and saw Baby Mama.

Mason: Yeah?

Marni: Baby Mama!! I wanted you to go. You didn’t want to go. You should have.

Mason: And I’ll tell you why, because I love Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. On a normal day that would be enough to drag me to the theater. But I got the impression that it was gonna be more goofy than snarky and intelligent like 30 Rock so I decided to stay home.

Marni: Because you just want to keep them on the pedestal that they are.

Mason: Correct.

Marni: OK, so I can understand that. It was a little schlockier than 30 Rock, but still worth seeing.

Mason: Yeah?

Marni: Well, yeah! It’s Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, who have great chemistry and work so well off each other, and I think it was interesting because it’s actually a pretty sensitive issue for a lot of women, being in your late 30s and wanting to have a baby and not being physically able to. And then she’s able to put this comic spin on it by having Amy Poehler play this white trash surrogate mother.

Mason: And she, like, puts her up, right? The girl lives with her.

Marni: Exactly. And she’s nursing and…

Mason: You’d think she could find some white trash girl who’d already gotten knocked up and kind of swoop the baby up after the fact.

Marni: But then you wouldn’t have the hilarious antics that ensue.

Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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Discussion

Even though he likes the work that the stars did in other movies and on Saturday Night Live, Mason didn’t want to see Baby Mama because he thought it looked dumb. Marni says it isn’t dumb, though. It’s about an interesting issue: women in their late 30s who want to be mothers but aren’t able to be.

Has anyone you know used a surrogate mother or been one? What do you think it would be like to live with someone from a different economic background?

Comments

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Youth

Saudi Arabia

it sounds awsome. I must watch the movie. I liked the story.

good lesson

thanx teachers *_^

JackXuEnglish

China

I think it is good for my english.and it is relly useful…..i like it…

enghlish is hope

Saudi Arabia

i don't know maybe is agreat movie

see you later

nhn

Turkey

huh i think i cant learn english. its so hard.. i have no correct :'(

sara727

China

blue_ali

Turkey

heyyy good part

but l cant uınderstand beauce myeng. not good

and they are speak wery fast

blue_ali

Turkey

heyyyyyyyyyy

l cant understand beauce myeng not good and they are speak wery fast

zoebaby

China

i like the word pedestal, when marni said"you want to keep them pedestal that they are" Manson was afraid of that the movie will make him down,so he prefered staying at home. i never saw this movies,so i can't get any commends on it.but i like the words we gotta get in this lesson.

LTSJohn

China

it is really hard, and meet lots of new vocabs

tkr225

Taiwan

I don't think living with a surrogate monther is a good idea. When the baby was borned, the surrogate will not be willing to abandon her child. Because the surrogate knows who adopts her child, there will be a lot of fight between the surrogate and adopter.

magic1015

China

um ,the speaking speed is quite qiuck that i can follow

somnus girl

China

only one correct key …

i like english story

bakh

Russian Federation

adabracadan

Turkey

i really appreciate these lessons. Even i have joined an english prepschool, the knowledge that i am gettting from here is incredible. Thanks for this great help…...