Little Miss Sunshine

Intro

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

• cast
• playing
• under the radar
• blown away

• caught
• out on
• missed
• neck and neck

• pick

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

Put a pre-pubescent girl who wants to win a beauty contest, her angst-ridden teen-aged brother, her loving, mischievous grandfather and her gay uncle who has just tried to commit suicide together in an old VW bus with her well-meaning but stressed out parents and you’ve got the road trip for the movie Little Miss Sunshine, a poignant comedy about the American family.

Mason and Kevin loved the movie, which stars Alan Arkin, Steve Carell, Toni Collette and Greg Kinnear. Listen to them chat about it.

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.

Mason

Kevin

Mason:  You know what I caught, like, a week ago?

Kevin:  What?

Mason:  And, I mean, it’s almost out… it’s out on DVD now, I think, so I waited way too long but… Little Miss Sunshine.

Kevin:  Great.

Mason:  I don’t know how I missed this movie the entire summer.

Kevin:  I thought it was probably the best movie I saw this summer.

Mason:  To me, it’s like, kinda neck and neck with Borat for the funniest movie of the year.

Kevin:  Mm hm. They’re totally different.

Mason:  They’re just, they’re a different kind of funny so I don’t even wanna have to pick.

Kevin:  Yeah.

Mason:  Uh, the cast was great. It’s just small little, happy little movie.

Kevin:  Very funny.

Mason:  Uh, well, see… is… you got to go see it so much more, like, so much sooner than me, what, what… how did you know?

Kevin:  How did I know to see it?

Mason:  Yeah, like, were you just bored or, like, did you…?

Kevin:  I was just, I was actually just walking past the Fox Tower and saw it was playing. And someone had mentioned…

Mason:  That it was good?

Kevin:  ... that it was supposed to be good so I walked in and saw it.

Mason:  Wow.

Kevin:  And I thought it was so well done.

Mason:  I had no… I thought it was gonna be a lot more dramatic. I didn’t think it was just gonna be this kind of really outrageous comedy. Uh, Steve Carell I love.

Kevin:  He’s good.

Mason:  I mean, I love pretty much everything he does, but, nothing, nothing could have prepared me.

Kevin:  There you go.

Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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