Learn English with this babies English lesson

Intro

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

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• intimidating
• breakable
• the appeal
• offspring

• a handful
• hang out
• have a baby
• grow up

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

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It’s strange to think about how every person you know was once a baby. Some animals have offspring that are born walking. But human babies are so helpless. They seem very different from adult humans.

Babies are very cute, but also loud and always a handful. Some people these days live lives that don’t have a lot of babies in them. If you live in a city and mostly hang out with adults who don’t have children, you might not see babies very often. If you don’t have a lot practice, it can be hard to know what to do and how to act when you meet a baby.

In this English lesson, find out how Jason and Vanessa feel about babies.

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.

Jason

Vanessa

Jason:  My friend just had a baby and she offered to let me hold it, which was awesome because he is really adorable, but I realized I don’t know how to hold a baby. Like, she had to explain it to me.

Vanessa:  How could you not know how to hold a baby? What about your little cousins and stuff? Didn’t you hold them when you were a kid?

Jason:  You know, there weren’t a lot of babies around when I was growing up. I guess I was one of the younger members of my family so I wasn’t old enough to hold any babies when they were babies.

Vanessa:  Oh, wow. Well, I guess we’re different. My family is pretty big and I grew up with baby cousins all the time. And you know, I’m a girl, so I was always interested in giving them baths and feeding them and holding them. I guess maybe if you didn’t grow up doing that, it might be a little intimidating to hold a baby.

Jason:  They’re a little bit scary! I don’t know what they’re thinking, what they’re going to do. Obviously you can’t talk to a baby and reason with it.

Vanessa:  Well, I don’t think they are thinking much. But they are small and they do seem pretty breakable.

Jason:  Yeah! That’s what I was worried about, was that even if I held him wrong it would hurt him somehow. He seemed so fragile, but that is part of the appeal.

Vanessa:  That’s the good thing about babies though, they definitely let you know when they’re not happy.

Jason:  I see, yeah, that’s good to know.

 

Grammar Point

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Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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