How to Use the Zero Conditional

Date: Mar 07 2012

Themes: Hobbies, News

Grammar: Zero Conditional

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Intro

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In our digital world, many people might say that magazines are old-fashioned. But others still like to crack open their favorite magazine and catch up on all the latest news, gossip or fashion trends.

Some people buy magazines only rarely, like if they hear about an interesting article or notice a cool cover. If you subscribe to magazines, the newest issue comes to your house every week or month. It’s cheaper to subscribe to magazines than it is to buy them individually every time they come out. But don’t forget to throw away your old copies!

Find out why Mason thinks Marni is crazy for subscribing to magazines.

Dialog

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

Marni

Mason

Marni: I just got my brand new copy of Vanity Fair in the mail, and I have to say, I’m pretty excited to have some quality reading time.

Mason: Really? You still get magazines in 2012? Magazines?

Marni: Absolutely. There is nothing like sitting down with a magazine, cracking it open, looking at the fashion ads and reading some really good articles.

Mason: OK, note that you talked about the ads first though.

Marni: Well, I think Vanity Fair is that perfect mix of eye candy and really quality writing. And that is why I subscribe to it. I love magazines.

Mason: Doesn’t it get expensive? I mean, like, having to subscribe to all those things?

Marni: Well, if you subscribe, it actually is quite a bit cheaper than if you buy it off the newsstand.

Mason: Yeah? I honestly…it’s funny, I mean, I like the aesthetic of magazines, but I kind of just can’t be bothered, for two reasons. One, because I’m cheap. And two, because I’ve been conditioned now that I need all my information so quickly, I can’t wait for monthly things. As soon as I get an iPad it’s over. Nobody would ever need anything printed if you have a tablet.

Marni: I refuse to go that route.

Mason: Do you save them all?

Marni: I do, sometimes I’ll save some for a while if there was an article I really liked. But in fact, just recently I went through a big purge, and I kind of looked at them and thought, OK, this is a few years old, I can recycle this now.

Grammar Point

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Discussion

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Marni is excited to read the new magazine she just got in the mail. But Mason is surprised to learn that she still subscribes to magazines. He thinks magazines have too many ads. But Marni says that in fashion magazines, the ads are fun to look at.

Mason thinks that reading magazines is old-fashioned. He likes to get news right away and doesn’t want to have to wait for a magazine to arrive in the mail. He also says it’s expensive to subscribe to magazines. But it sounds like Marni isn’t going to stop subscribing to magazines any time soon.

Do you like reading magazines? What type of magazines do you read? Do you subscribe to any magazines?