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Spill the Beans

Contractions and Abbreviations

Date: Sep 06 2011

Themes: Soap Opera

Grammar: Contractions and Abbreviations

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Intro

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

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It’s hard to keep a secret. You have to remember not to say anything that might cause people to ask you questions. But once you say the wrong thing and start to tell the secret, there’s no going back: you’ve spilled the beans.

When you spill the beans, you tell a secret. Even if you just tell one person, the secret is likely to get out. Imagine spilling a bunch of beans on the floor and then trying to clean them up. At least one is sure to get away. Secrets are the same way. Once you’ve told the secret, it will not be contained again. It will not be a secret for long.

Mason knows something interesting about one of his friends. Watch as Marni and Ella try to get him to spill the beans.

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.

Marni

Mason

Ella

Marni: OK, Mason. What’s going on?

Mason: What do you mean, boss?

Marni: You keep sighing. You sound like a teenage girl in love.

Mason: What? Love? I’m not in…Well, I mean, I love Ella, but, you know it’s way too soon for us to be getting married. We haven’t even been on our first date yet, I mean technically.

Marni: Marriage? What are you talking about? Who’s getting married?

Ella: Oh my gosh, is someone getting married? Is it me? Is Jeff going to propose? Oh my god.

Mason: Gross! Gross. OK, I mean, I definitely…no way. I wouldn’t be excited if Jeff was going to propose.

Marni: OK, so you weren’t talking about Jeff. But you were talking about someone, weren’t you? So, someone’s gonna propose. You have to spill the beans, Mason. Who is it?

Mason: No!

Marni: We want to know.

Mason: I don’t have to spill the beans. I won’t!

Ella: Oh come on, Mason. You can trust me. Just whisper it in my ear. Marni won’t hear. Just let me know.

Mason: No! I can’t! I cannot spill the beans.

Ella: Mason, I thought we had something. I thought you could trust me. Of all people, I thought you would at least tell me your secret.

Mason: I would tell you if it was anyone else but Jason is my best friend. I can’t spill his…

Marni: Jason is going to propose to Devan.

Mason: No! OK…

Ella: Oh my God! That’s so crazy.

Mason: No! I take it back. It’s me. Marry me?

Ella: Yeah. No. You already spilled the beans. Sorry, Mason. We know it’s Jason.

Grammar Point

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Discussion

Go Super to Listen

Mason is walking around the office in a very good mood. Marni asks him what’s on his mind. He tells her some nonsense about marriage.

Marni realizes that Mason isn’t getting married, but that someone else must be. She tries to get him to spill the beans, but he won’t do it. He says no to Ella too, but then he accidentally mentions that he’s talking about Jason.

Ella and Marni get excited. Mason tries to calm them down by saying he wants to propose to Ella. But they know the truth—Jason is going to ask Devan to marry him!

Are you good at keeping secrets? Have you ever spilled the beans?

Comments

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Theresa .Beenle

China

Yeah.i always keep secrets coz i think if one spills the beans,people would not believe him again

liiana

Peru

sincerely, i keep a secret so that my friend can trust me again..on the other hand. we lose the confidence who someone put on us.

Tracyleung

China

sometimes I will spill the bean , but most of them are good news. If the secret is bad news, I will keep it to myself. I don’t want anyone be hurt and hope many people can share the happiness.

anonymousguest

Hong Kong

Unfortunately, I always spill the beans, it is difficult for me to keep a sercet when others keep asking me what the sercet is about

darkseed

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

i keep it even is grave lol

Murun

Mongolia

To be honest I used to tell my close friends about other people`s secret. But now I`m mature enough now, so basically I can keep a secret very well. I want to my friend to keep my secret, so I don`t spill the beans too whatever happened to me.

ykcanoe

China

hard to keep secrets easy to spill the beans

Nylia

Philippines

Well nice lesson. Yes I’m usually good at keeping secrets. However recently, one of my closest friends told me her secret then after a long time we are had an argument and I accidentally spilled the beans. I really didn’t let her secret out on purpose as to be mean or vindictive toward her but I did let her secret out. I spoke it in a moment of anger and should have guarded it more suspicious to protect our sacred pact of silence despite of our quarrel.

Anyway, if someone chooses to tell their secrets to you it means they trust you to be confidential. Realistically, whether or not the secret admitter’s confidentiality will be breached or not by the entrusted friend depends on that personal integrity and various circumstances betweens those friends. For example, I might guard a friend’s secret for as long as that friend remained nice to me but I could more easily decide to spill the beans to my other friends when she was not.

Miss.Seba

Yemen

yes i am good at keeping secrets that’s why all my friends tell me their secrets…i don’t reveal or spill the beans whatever happened

happysmilesunny

China

Usually I’d likely to spill the beans on my QQ zone,and it would be fun to do that~ but I don’t know whether or not it gonna hurt my feelings one day_{~`but all in all, its pretty good}_{~ I love that}~ just out of passion in Life~

Christine chang

Germany

Ｉ think life is all about secret.

salahstar89

Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

We should avoid spilling the beans

samirah

Saudi Arabia

ummmmm, actually it depends on the type of the secret itself, my friends want me to keep happy matter ,they may wannna make sure of its occurrence .but i cant keep it as long as my expressions expose me

MONY----

Egypt

I liked the movie lol

well Iam a good secret keeper

I think I can spill the beans as long as its my secrets but if its somone else I’ll never get it out becouse this is kind of abusing of his trust in me however people who are addicted to spell the beans claims that they should tell their husbands or close friends who will never get it out even thought they forget that their close friends have their own close friends as well :)))))

Angel0210

China

it is really hard to keep a secret ,hehe

gotravelenglish

United States

Don’t spill the beans!!! this is one of my favorite idioms/sayings. I use all the time back at home!

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Sun-Marina

Russian Federation

I’m so good at keeping secrets. My friends absolutely sure I never spill the beans! But I could share my own secrets just with the closest friend and very, very carefully.