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Date: Aug 14 2009

Themes: Tech

Grammar: Adverbs

Intro

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Thanks to websites like Facebook and Twitter, keeping a secret isn’t as easy as it used to be. The minute you get dumped or start dating someone new, for example, status updates on Facebook let the whole world know. And Twitter can keep perfect strangers informed of your every move. These days, information travels incredibly fast.

The comedian Dave Chappelle recently came to Marni’s town. He wanted to put on a secret, free show in the middle of the night, so he shared the news with just a few lucky people. Listen to Marni tell Dale why Chappelle’s big secret didn’t remain a secret for long.

Dialog

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

Marni

Marni

Dale

Dale

Marni:  So, last night I went and saw Dave Chappelle.

Dale:  I didn’t know he was in town.

Marni:  Well, what happened is, somebody found out he was in town and literally within social networking sites and just texting from one person to the next, close to 5,000 people descended on…into downtown to see him.

Dale:  What did he do?

Marni:  Well, about an hour after he was supposedly supposed to go on, he came out onto the stage that was set up in the middle of town, and he had a very tiny, tiny speaker with him. And he talked, and barely anyone could hear him.

Dale:  There was no advertising?

Marni:  No advertising.

Dale:  No TV, no radio?

Marni:  Nothing.

Dale:  So how did this actually transpire?

Marni:  You could say word of mouth, but it was all just via texting and just…people sending each other information on Twitter and on Facebook. Things like that. People just got the word out.

Dale:  I am just amazed that let’s say a year ago, maybe not more than two years ago, that sort of information or way of communicating never existed.

Marni:  It never would have happened.

Dale:  And now, everything you do it’s just play with your thumbs, and…

Marni:  It’s instantaneous.

 

Grammar Point

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Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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Discussion

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Marni went out in the middle of the night to see Dave Chappelle give a free, secret performance. Unfortunately, she wasn’t the only one who showed up. Thousands of people heard about Chappelle’s plan via Twitter, texting, and Facebook. There were so many people that when the comedian showed up, most of the audience couldn’t hear him.

Dale is surprised that so many people heard about the performance even though there were no ads for it on TV or the radio. He agrees that news travels a lot faster now than it used to. It’s much easier to communicate instantaneously than it was before texting and social networking sites became popular.

Do you think that texting and social networking sites have improved our lives? Do you agree that it’s harder to keep a secret than it used to be?

 

Comments

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blueskun

blueskun

China

one  month ago ,I  knew twitter  in the network.but  it  could not been used  now.FACEBOOK  is  cannot   too .so  many of  ours  login  the  websit . find  the   news    is  always   out

02:44 AM Aug 14 2009 |

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