You’re just downtown in the city, minding your own business. All of a sudden, dozens of people run into the street. One of them starts the music, and the next thing you know, everyone starts dancing! What is going on? Is it a protest? Performance art?
It may actually be a flash mob. Flash mobs are a recent name for a spontaneous gathering where people do something strange in public. A flash mob might exist to protest something, or bring attention to an issue. Or it might just be about having fun and acting crazy.
Find out what Mason and Lily know about flash mobs in this fads English lesson.
Lily: Have you been hearing about these things, these flash mob things? I’ve seen them on the internet, they’re on YouTube, they’re these viral videos. Do you have any idea what that is?
Mason: Yeah, well actually, I did a flash mob a few years back.
Lily: What?
Mason: It was kind of a performance art piece. There’s this thing called SantaCon where you just dress up like a Santa, and you get told right before where to show up, and hundreds of people just show up as Santas.
Lily: Oh. I was wondering why there were so many Santas on the street last year. That’s interesting.
Mason: It happens every year, and it’s usually in a public space, and it’s kind of become a bit of a fad to do around the holidays, obviously.
Lily: What’s the deal? Why is it such a big thing? Do you know?
Mason: In that case, it’s mostly just because it’s stupid fun. But there is certainly a much more politically-motivated side of flash mobs, where it’s trying to call attention to an issue or something, and, maybe for security reasons, people can’t know where they’re going to show up until right before, because otherwise there would be cops there to stop them.
Lily: Oh, so it could be a protest, or performance art. That’s pretty cool.
Mason: It’s fun or maybe effective at getting something out there.
Lily doesn’t know much about flash mobs, but Mason is practically an expert. He participated in one a few years ago. It was a pretty silly flash mob, where everyone just had to dress up like Santa Claus and show up in a public place.
But Mason thinks that flash mobs can also be political, or a kind of performance art. If a bunch of people show up in one place, they can help draw attention to a cause. And if they do something that is artful or entertaining, maybe more people will pay attention.
Lily is convinced. She thinks flash mobs might actually be pretty cool.
Have you ever seen or participated in a flash mob? What do you think is the best way to bring attention to a cause you believe in?
Present Perfect Progressive
Lily asks Mason if he has been hearing about flash mobs. She uses the present perfect progressive tense.
You form the present perfect progressive (sometimes called the “present perfect continuous”) with have/has been + main verb + ing. You use this tense to talk about an ongoing action that began in the past, is still in progress, and may continue into the future.
In the example above, Lily wonders if Mason heard about flash mobs in the past, and may still be hearing about them. And he may continue hearing about them into the future, if they continue to be a fad.
Which is correct, “I have been going to the same doctor since I was born,” or, “I will be going to the same doctor since I was born”?