The Pursuit of Happiness

Intro

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

• stock broker
• formal education
• chemistry
• rags to riches story

• clever
• charismatic
• tear jerker
• single dad

• pull himself up by his bootstraps
• ass off

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

Some would say that in the world of huge corporations, the American dream of becoming wealthy through pure hard work is dead. But the fact is, anyone clever and charismatic, no matter how poor they are now, can become rich with enough effort. It takes patience and energy, but even someone didn’t go to college or didn’t finish high school can learn a profession and become successful at 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.

Kevin

Amanda

Kevin:  So I just rented that film The Pursuit of Happiness with Will Smith and his kid. What did you think?

Amanda:  What a tear jerker.

Kevin:  It’s good.

Amanda:  So good. Single dad, working his ass off to become a stock broker even though he has no formal education. Raise his child. The coolest part about it, which not a lot of people know, is Will Smith’s son played his son.

Kevin:  That’s true and I thought he did a really good job. He’s young. He’s cute.

Amanda:  Yeah, I think it’s nice because if you have a child after, you don’t really have that natural chemistry of father and son. You try and portray it, but they didn’t even have to. That was a non-factor. They didn’t have to worry about that.

Kevin:  Absolutely. And I loved the whole rags to riches story, and pulling himself up by his bootstraps. I thought it was really well done.

Amanda:  And the fact that he did study that particular person, spent time with him and made a movie about his life. And, actually, that guy just sold his company and is doing well still to this day.

Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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