A Serious Man

Intro

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

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• take
• based on
• Midwest
• unlucky streak

• slogan
• dark comedy
• flood
• black comedy

• breaking point
• trailer

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

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There’s an expression in English, “When it rains, it pours.” This means that when something happens that hasn’t occurred in a long time, it happens in large amounts. For instance, say someone didn’t get a date for a whole year, and then he suddenly had dates with five different beautiful women in one week. “When it rains,” he might say, “it pours.”

“When it rains, it pours” could also be the slogan for the new movie A Serious Man. Unfortunately for the main character, Larry, it doesn’t pour beautiful women in his life. It pours bad luck.

Everything seems to be going fine for Larry, until all at once his wife tells him she’s leaving, his brother gets arrested, and his job becomes threatened. Find out why Devan and Beren are excited to go see this dark comedy about a man who experiences a flood of misfortune.

Dialog

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

Beren

Devan

Beren:  So, are you into the Coen brothers at all?

Devan:  They’re those type of directors that I don’t even have to know what the movie’s about, I’ll just go see it knowing that they made it, ‘cause I know it’s gonna be good.

Beren:  They do a lot of black comedy. I mean, that’s basically all they do. Did you see Burn After Reading? That’s the Coen brothers, right?

Devan:  It is. I didn’t see that one. But I’m planning on going and seeing that new one, A Serious Man.

Beren:  Oh, I saw the trailer, but I’m not really sure exactly what it’s about. But it’s another one of their…a take on a classic story, right?

Devan:  Yeah. It’s based on the story of Job. And it’s basically about this guy in the Midwest in the 1960s and all of these bad things keep happening to him. Like he’s just got this unlucky streak. And it’s kind of about what’s your breaking point. It’s definitely one of those dark comedies you’d expect from them, but it’s more personal this time, it seems like.

Beren:  Huh.

Devan:  But it’s definitely another one of their movies that’s based on a different story.

Beren:  Like O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Devan:  Exactly.

Beren:  That take on The Odyssey?

Devan:  Exactly.

Grammar Point

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Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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