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The Ruins

The Ruins

Date: May 28 2008

Themes: Hobbies, Pop Culture

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.

Most horror movies take place in the dark. But sometimes the daylight is scarier because you can see all the horrible stuff that’s happening more clearly.

The new movie The Ruins uses the classic formula of people from the modern world stumbling into something ancient that they don’t understand. As four young people sit trapped on some Mayan ruins they have to watch in broad daylight as someone…or something…begins to destroy them.

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.

Beren

Beren

Jason

Jason

Beren:  Have you seen this movie Ruins, my new favorite movie ever?

Jason:  It’s your favorite movie? It’s a horror movie, right?

Beren:  Yeah, yeah. It’s…I’m trying to think of what it’s in the vein of. Basically, do you know the plot? Do you want me to summarize the plot?

Jason:  Yeah, I don’t know anything about it. I assume it’s about some sort of scary ancient Mayan ruins.

Beren:  You’re correct, but it goes a little deeper than that. So these kids go on vacation in Mexico and a bunch of them want to go…It’s like their last weekend there, or whatever, of course…

Jason:  Spring break!

Beren:  Exactly. So they’re about to go home and they have one more day in Mexico so they decide to go see some ruins and these ruins that they’re planning on going to…It’s a like a tourist group. “Oh, we’ll take you to the ruins.” It’s the typical tourist trap that people get stuck in. And then, as they’re about to go, of course a foreigner comes over to them. I think he’s British, of course, “I have a map to some other ruins that people aren’t allowed to go to. Do you want to go?” And they’re like, “Yeah, totally.”

Jason:  I would do that. Totally.

Beren:  I would too. So they go to these ruins and it’s actually the… Like, it ends up it’s an archaeology dig and so they’re going to go out and visit some friends of a friend, like this British guy’s sister or brother or something. It’s kind of convoluted. Anyway, so they go out to these ruins and they go walk up to the ruins and all of a sudden they’re surrounded by Mayans and the Mayans are yelling at them in Mayan, they don’t speak Spanish, right?

Jason:  Whoa…

Beren:  So nobody can understand each other. And they get stuck on the ruins.

Jason:  Stuck?

Beren:  Uh-huh. Like, once they touch the ruins, the Mayans won’t let them back off.

Jason:  Whoa.

Beren:  Yeah. So you have to spend the rest of the movie trying to figure out why they can’t come off the ruins.

Jason:  Oh, why the Mayans won’t let them come off the ruins?

Beren:  Uh-huh.

Jason:  Huh. It’s actually…It’s good though?

Beren:  It’s really good. It reminded me of Aliens almost.

Jason:  Wow.

Beren:  Yeah.

 

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Discussion

Beren says that The Ruins is her favorite movie. Jason hasn’t seen it, but he guesses that it’s about some scary Mayan ruins.

He’s right. But there’s more to it than that. There’s something terribly wrong with the ruins. The Mayans won’t let anyone off of them who gets on top. There’s something up there that they don’t want come down. But what?

When Beren describes the plot of the movie, there are a lot of things common to horror movies, like a good time that’s almost over but then goes wrong and a stranger that leads you awry. Can you think of any other common plot elements of horror movies? What makes a movie scary?

 

Comments

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smarthrone

smarthrone

Nigeria

Very! Very!! Very!!! intresting lesson.

06:24 PM Oct 30 2010 |

naoui

France

i love it !!!!

08:09 AM Jan 18 2009 |

manali

Lebanon

honestly i feeel so scared while watching horror movie to an extent that i might also had dream about, but i like to watch very much,

and this looks so interesting may be wanna go to check it one day,

06:11 AM Jan 17 2009 |

SeWiL

SeWiL

Turkey

hey

09:29 PM Jan 14 2009 |

passionforluv

Malaysia

i should have watched this movie. never mind i might just get the DVD instead. I've read a book about the Mayan Ruins from TV serial the X-Files. CoolSmile 

03:20 AM Jan 11 2009 |

Miss_gorgeous

United Arab Emirates

i don't like any horror movies i think it damegs our brain ..

I prefer romance and advantegs movies more

CYA

12:27 PM Jan 07 2009 |

PAULA

Haiti

   I don't like horror movies.  It's scarry.

01:59 PM Jan 06 2009 |

lonelyking5

Spain

hi my friend iam new one

 

06:20 PM Jan 03 2009 |

serdar yilmaz

Turkey

an exıcıtıng story.ı agree wıth lastrada about fınal destınatıon

 

01:42 PM Dec 31 2008 |

matus123

matus123

Poland

the perfect example is "Blair Witch Project". It had very low budget (about 50,000 dollars if I can recall), but the efect of fear is quite impressive…

 

12:52 PM Dec 22 2008 |

matus123

matus123

Poland

Well, I don't like horrors, but I've seen some and I consider really frightening only these, in which the "evil" is unknown till the end of movie. These, which contain many blood and guts etc. are, for me, just silly, like a comedy:)

12:48 PM Dec 22 2008 |

sharma_2005amit

India

hi
how r u?

06:54 AM Sep 04 2008 |

sharma_2005amit

India

hi
how r u?

06:54 AM Sep 04 2008 |

dreamerhh

Oman

i like horror movies so much ,i did nt see this movie yet but i will see it soon

04:35 AM Aug 29 2008 |

tkr225

Taiwan

One common plots of horror move is that people explore ancient mountain or cave for scientific purpose, but there's monsters or some terrified animails living there. I don't like bloody horror move. Fortunately, most directors will try to avoid too bloody scenes,and that's heathier for audience.

02:02 AM Aug 09 2008 |

Grace Li

China

too difficult!!!!!Cry

01:30 PM Aug 03 2008 |

fatflower

fatflower

China

At the first part of this movie,i felt it's horrible.

But after that,i hate that girl who wears glasses.so stupid and stubborn.In some meaning,that's her kill all the others.She thought she could escape from the ruins,but finally she was dead too.

This film give us a lesson that something look nice or quiet may kill you fast out of your imagination,we should take others' suggestion,something could not be closed ,or touched.

 

03:59 AM Jul 31 2008 |

robertoroberto

Peru

i will try to see this film, it looks interesting.

10:44 PM Jun 29 2008 |

robertoroberto

Peru

i think it´s an interesting film.

 

10:42 PM Jun 29 2008 |

David86

David86

Hungary

In my opinion, Horror films aren't good think. I think the commedy is more intresting than horror. A lot of children became bullyed beacuse of horror film. The statistisc did show that from four children one became bullyed. It is very very scare.

But the lessons is very good. (but isn't at night Smile)

08:09 PM Jun 28 2008 |

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