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The Happening

The Happening

Date: Aug 06 2008

Themes: Alternative, 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.

When people watch a scary movie about the end of the world, they usually think they’d be like the characters in the movie who somehow survived and have to save the world. But, really, odds are you wouldn’t make it that far and even if you did, you might not have any idea what’s actually going on. It would just be chaos.

The Happening is a new movie from M. Night Shyamalan who also made The Sixth Sense and Signs. The commercials are especially scary because they don’t really give any information about what will happen in the film. Mason has seen it and even he doesn’t even know what happens!

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

Mason

Jason

Jason

Mason:  Dude.

Jason:  Yeah.

Mason:  I just saw The Happening. It’s happening.

Jason:  It lives up to the hype?

Mason:  Yeah.

Jason:  Because it’s got such cool marketing. The quick cuts, the people falling, the no explanation for anything.

Mason:  Yeah, total like horror, terror, you don’t know what you’re getting into.

Jason:  Yeah.

Mason:  I’m messed up right now.

Jason:  Can you tell me what happens? What is the happening? What’s happening?

Mason:  You can’t even ask me that, man. I’m not gonna be the guy that leaks that information after they did such an awesome job of keeping it close to the vest.

Jason:  It is really tight. So it’s one of those things where you can’t even share anything at all without giving the whole…

Mason:  No, I mean, like, seriously, what do you know about The Happening without having seen it? You’re like, Mark Wahlberg is in it. Zoe Deschanel’s in it.

Jason:  It’s scary.

Mason:  Something’s happening. That’s about what I know.

Jason:  Gotcha.

Mason:  It’s a whole movie of just like, “Whoa dude! Oh my God!”

Jason:  That’s cool because it sounds like a horror movie from a legitimate perspective because a lot of times the horror movie’s from the perspective of these people who all know what’s going on. But I always figure, in the event of a zombie apocalypse or something, I’m gonna be the guy who’s just, like, on a bus and suddenly bitten by a zombie and had no idea what was happening with the zombie apocalypse. You know what I mean?

Mason:  Yeah…

Jason:  In a real-life horror situation, you would have as little information as you have about The Happening, you know?

Mason:  I didn’t even think about it that way. But yeah, it’s gonna sneak up on us all, right? Thanks for that. I wasn’t going to sleep tonight anyway, but now maybe tomorrow night too.

 

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Discussion

After seeing The Happening, Mason is a little freaked out. Jason asks him to tell him about the movie and he says he can’t. It was very exciting and mysterious.

Jason comments that it’s likely that that’s what the end of the world would actually be like. If it were really the end of the world, most people would probably die early on and never know what was happening.

There are a lot of movies about the end of the world these days. Do you have a favorite? Do you ever think about the end of the world? Jason imagines zombies taking over the Earth. What’s your favorite or most feared type of apocalypse?

 

Comments

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korrooooo

korrooooo

United Arab Emirates

I like this movies

04:15 PM Aug 09 2008 |

Maori

Maori

Colombia

That movie freaked me out! The end was so bad but it was a good movie though!

02:54 PM Aug 09 2008 |

Kadirou24

Algeria

The end of the world is a very real thing, no one know when it'll happen , but i'm sure that it will never be as described by american movies. It go

08:59 AM Aug 09 2008 |

Kadirou24

Algeria

The end of the world is a very real thing, no one know when it'll happen , but i'm sure that it will never be as described by american movies. The man imagination can't describe how much is scaring and extremly  horrible is that  expecting day

08:59 AM Aug 09 2008 |

yuwu101

yuwu101

China

rjtrtjyth

04:22 AM Aug 09 2008 |

metal21

metal21

Nicaragua

I think the end of the world is happening, we have wars, deseases which we dindn't know before and many weird things thet are constantly happening, we're going to destroy each other, that's what I think.

01:49 AM Aug 09 2008 |

a18831883

a18831883

Comoros

not bad,maybe it is worth watching.

11:31 AM Aug 08 2008 |

renemex

renemex

Mexico

It´s the very first time i hear about this movie, but sounds interesting, not like that typical american scary movies (you know), the plus in this lesson for me its the new slang i learned "close to the vest…" is a good phrase for to use…

this remember me the blair project, is this something like that?

10:56 PM Aug 07 2008 |

maitrang88

maitrang88

Viet Nam

I don't know if I wanna see this movie or not. Shyamalan hardly made a good movie after the Sixth Sense.

The end of the Earth would come when wars, epidemics and natural disasters raged at the same time. Sorry for my lame imagination but I will have already died by then anyway :D

04:48 PM Aug 07 2008 |

wangpeng

wangpeng

China

Cool

01:16 AM Aug 07 2008 |

HermioneXHaibara

Saudi Arabia

interesting,i never heard about this movie befor but it sounds cool..^^..

anyways nice lesson,i really liked it!!

-HermioneXHaibara

04:39 PM Aug 06 2008 |

killing123

Åland Islands

It a good lesson

03:16 PM Aug 06 2008 |

ssimonee

Brazil

I don´t like scary movies.

02:58 PM Aug 06 2008 |

magic1015

magic1015

China

kk

if that day happend ,i hope i am a devil rather than the pity rage ~~

01:57 PM Aug 06 2008 |

Christoph07

Germany

The picture at this lesson is in analogy of 'real life' lesson 'GA$' from last fridayLaughing

01:33 PM Aug 06 2008 |

195854255

195854255

United States

A GOOD LESSON I LIKE SCARY MOVIES

06:26 AM Aug 06 2008 |

195854255

195854255

United States

Well, I like scary movies~ The end of the earth in my eyes is the explosion of Universe.  Then maybe somestrange creatures may float in the air.  They fight each other and eat each other~~

06:15 AM Aug 06 2008 |

naitaupul

naitaupul

Sri Lanka

its good movie

02:28 AM Aug 06 2008 |

teddy008

teddy008

China

What happening in the happening?

02:08 AM Aug 06 2008 |

teddy008

teddy008

China

What will happened in the opening ceremony of the 29th Olympic in Beijing? It's a very close to the vest for all the Chinese.it must be amazing,I swear.Wait ,wait peacefully, A big party for the people all over the world is coming soon.

02:07 AM Aug 06 2008 |

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