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Puppets
Puppets

Learn English with this puppets English lesson

Date: Dec 20 2017

Themes: Hobbies

Grammar: Verbs with "-ing"

Intro

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

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All you need is a sock, really. A sock on your hand can be a puppet telling a story or singing a song. Puppets don’t have to be fancy or cost a lot of money for people to enjoy watching them. When you were a kid, you probably put on a puppet show for your family, and all you needed was a few socks and a box!

Today’s puppets can be very detailed and sophisticated. Learning how to make a puppet can be a long process, especially if you’re making its costume, too. There aren’t a lot of people who have this talent. It really is an unusual and wonderful art form.

Find out how Marni and Amanda feel about them in this English lesson about puppets.

Dialog

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

Marni

Marni

Amanda

Amanda

Marni:  So, Amanda, I am actually volunteering at a local puppet theater. Would you like to come to my show?

Amanda:  I would, but I think puppets are a little bit creepy.

Marni:  What? How can you think puppets are creepy?

Amanda:  What grown person wants to make a little fake person dance?

Marni:  I do. I think puppets are a wonderful art form. You get to create them and do costumes. If you’re really good at it, you can also be there with them doing a ventriloquist kind of thing.

Amanda:  Oh, like Charlie McCarthy. Right? The most famous ventriloquist puppet in the world.

Marni:  I actually don’t know about that. But anyway, there are lots of different ways to use puppets. It’s quite an art form.

Amanda:  Does it bother you a little bit that you’re always in this world of make-believe, and you’re never in the world of reality?

Marni:  Um, no. That’s why I love puppets!

 

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Discussion

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Marni wants to convince Amanda that puppets are cool. She’s been spending her time at a local puppet theater and she invites Amanda to come to a show. Marni thinks that puppets are a true art form, and it’s obvious that she respects the people who make them.

Amanda could not be any less interested! She thinks puppets are creepy, and she thinks that adults should not be playing with puppets. Amanda prefers to live in reality, not a world of make-believe, and puppets definitely aren’t part of her reality.

Did you play with puppets when you were a kid? Have you seen a puppet show as an adult? What did you think?

 

Comments

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ola3

ola3Super Member!

Ukraine

Puppets… can’t say has ever been interested too much unless you tell a story to a kid and want some characters help you to make the story more interesting. The morden word of electronics, I think, put the puppets into history creating its own virtual “puppets” in the game where we can control, train, put into a battle… Well, some people criticize it but it’s a theraputic escape from the reality, sometimes a mind-numbing tour and I will tell it’s not that bad:)

01:49 PM Dec 31 2017 |

mahbubeh92

mahbubeh92

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

when i was in elementary school i used to  use a hand puppet for a puppet show in our class,though i was so much shy and  was stressed to do that .i did it and gave it  my best shot and made funny and interesting show for  my teacher and classmates

09:43 PM Jul 10 2014 |

Staisy

Staisy

Russian Federation

On reading this lesson  I remembered about Petгushka, a famous  personage of  puppet street show in Russia.  He was dressed in a  brightly colored shirt  and had a strange cap on his head.  Although  Petгushka was not a good personage ( he  was very   devious and agressive)  , he stayed  a favorite of public for almost  three centurys and people laughed a lot  at his devilments.  Even now  Petгushka  is still popular as one of the symbols of Russian folk art, although his image is different  from that  it was at the beginning, he is very nice and inoffensive now.

08:54 PM Jul 10 2014 |

leilahavaneh

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

i used to play with puppets when i was a kid .good memories.

01:13 PM Nov 07 2013 |

1 person likes this

Linn89

Singapore

I did not play puppets when I was a kid. I have never seen a puppet show as an adult. It’s true that some puppet shows are creepy if you don’t see it as an art form. 

06:35 AM Nov 04 2013 |

 julito

julito

Argentina

Puppets’  show attract large audiences on TV  , it is true that  they are largely produced to childrens  who  really have a blast  viewing  this kind of entertainment. I totally disagree with Amanda`s statement that they are creepy ,actually ,it is an art form  and it could be very funny  and to adults , we might have a break from  the real world and the daily grind. In my country we had a ventriloquist  that was amazing ,we could only  see his puppet talking  , the ventriloquist lips  didn´t move. How  could he had accomplished  this art  ? only few in the world  reach such a perfection. Marni, don`t pay attention to Amanda , follow your dream .  

omar saidi

omar saidi

Tanzania, United Republic Of

Hmmm…...........(When I was Child) my Mam used to breasting me a lot especialy while I was crying instad of give me a Pappets for playing with couse she knew that I might get afraid those Puppets ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

09:53 AM Oct 30 2013 |

Jasonlongo

Jasonlongo

Congo, Democratic Republic Of The

I used to play with puppets but now I’m not interested in playing with cos I’m already a grown and I can spent my time with businesses and not puppets. English baby

03:02 AM Oct 30 2013 |

modaher

modaher

Iraq

Beautiful. Why Anaml has playing with young children.

02:46 AM Oct 30 2013 |

1 person likes this

DanielBorges

Portugal

Yes, I played with puppets during my childhood. Even recently, I gave as a gift a theater of puppets to one of my nieces. The characters were from the piece The Sleeping Beauty. Then, I helped her to build the scenario and represent the history.
I have also seen a puppet show with a ventriloquist, it was a comedy, so I laughed a lot! I like the interaction between a man and fake animated personages, where only one artist make-believe that they are two or more personages interacting in the stage. I don’t think that it is creepy at all. It allows us to enter in the imaginary, which is good once in a while!

10:13 PM Oct 29 2013 |

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