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Source Code
Source Code

Second Conditional

Date: Jun 22 2011

Grammar: Second Conditional

Intro

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

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Imagine if you could go back in time and change something about the past. What would you do differently? Would you study harder in school? Take a different job? Try living in a foreign country?

Now imagine how much a single change like that could affect your entire life. You could end up pursuing a different career, meeting different people, even developing different opinions and views of the world.

Filmmakers seem to love exploring questions like these in their movies. The latest example is Source Code, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. It’s a thriller in which the main character keeps going back in time in order to try to stop a bomb from exploding on a train. Each time he returns to the past, he changes little things. And those small changes have huge effects not just on him, but also on others. Find out what Marni and Jason think about this film.

Dialog

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

Marni

Marni

Jason

Jason

Marni:  So it seems like there’s been a lot of films lately that are like these crazy alternate realities, but you have to like figure out the right one to save the day. Seems like a big premise. I was thinking of the Source Code.

Jason:  You must also be thinking of Inception.

Marni:  Right.

Jason:  The Bourne Identity, stuff like that.

Marni:  All these sort of films.

Jason:  The Source Code is kind of like that. Do you know how it works?

Marni:  Tell me about the Source Code.

Jason:  Jake Gyllenhaal is a soldier who gets sent back in time, basically, for eight minutes, in order to stop a bomb from going off on a train. And naturally he doesn’t do it, so he has to keep going back in time to the same point over and over, and each time he learns a few more things, and a few more things look different.

Marni:  Interesting. So it’s not completely the same each time he goes back, so he has to navigate that as well as…

Jason:  Yeah, there’s variations based on what he did. But it makes for a neat movie because it has these sort of intervals. It just sort of resets every few minutes.

Marni:  It sort of seems like it works with that premise, like basically if you didn’t do this one action, how it would affect everything. So if you’re going back in time and changing something, even subtly, it’s gonna affect everything. So that’s an interesting premise.

Jason:  Yeah, it’s fun to think about. Like if you could go back and change one thing that would have like this huge effect, what would you change, if you could change one thing?

Marni:  If I could go back and change one thing?

Jason:  Or learn one thing.

Marni:  I wish that I really would’ve stuck with my Spanish so I’d be more fluent.

Jason:  Oh wow. And you think that might’ve taken you different places.

Marni:  Perhaps, yeah. Definitely.

 

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Discussion

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Jason tells Marni about the new movie Source Code. In the film, Jake Gyllenhaal plays a soldier who keeps going back in time to try to change the past and prevent a bomb from going off. Each time he goes back in time, he learns a new piece of information or changes something that brings him closer to his goal.

Marni says that the premise behind Source Code reminds her of other movies, like Inception. She thinks it is interesting to imagine how changing one thing in the past could affect one’s whole life.

Jason asks Marni what she would change if she could go back in time and change one thing about the past. She says she wishes she had stuck with studying Spanish. She thinks that becoming fluent in Spanish might have exposed her to different things and taken her different places.

If you could change one thing about your past, what would it be? How do you think that would affect your life?

 

Comments

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shadows goldsmith

Syrian Arab Republic

with this mind we do nothig I think it will be same hehehehe ;-)

11:44 PM Jun 25 2011 |

maggy123

Thailand

If I could change onething in the past. I would study English harder. :)

05:06 AM Jun 25 2011 |

maggy123

Thailand

If I could change onething in the past. I would study English harder. :)

05:06 AM Jun 25 2011 |

lolekesh

lolekesh

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

I saw it last week and suggest you to watch this movie:)

09:16 PM Jun 24 2011 |

Amo0ol

Amo0ol

Saudi Arabia

i liked this move alot  especially Jake Gyllenhaal he is totally awesomeCool

02:17 AM Jun 23 2011 |

Amo0ol

Amo0ol

Saudi Arabia

i would do better in my entro exam lol but that is ok i think i am satisfied  about every thing in my past

02:12 AM Jun 23 2011 |

lucyh84

lucyh84

Venezuela

Well, if i could back the time when i was 15 years old, I shouldn´t have eaten a lot of fat or junk foods that currently is hard to loose weight. je je

01:32 AM Jun 23 2011 |

emma.ntran

emma.ntran

Viet Nam

It’s better to be myself now. I dont need to get alternate reality. No one is perfect. Your deficiency coud make you more special than others

12:34 AM Jun 23 2011 |

emma.ntran

emma.ntran

Viet Nam

It’s better to be myself now. I dont need to get alternate reality. No one is perfect. Your deficiency coud make you more special than others

12:33 AM Jun 23 2011 |

shadows goldsmith

Syrian Arab Republic

Ohh no in my opinion It’s impossible to go return back by the time but we could to draw the future to our sons so that is the only way to return to past I’m not sure but I think !!! ;-) 

10:07 PM Jun 22 2011 |

Omar alsaqqaf

Yemen

About me If I could go back I’ll be happy to rectify some faults that I have done in my life…...but its impossible …

06:47 PM Jun 22 2011 |

meli_88

meli_88

Argentina

If I could go back I would have had more fun and be more relaxed in high school.. I didn’t have a very good time there..

06:34 PM Jun 22 2011 |

asiang5

Canada

Great movie discussion! i like to talk about movies with my friends too. :P

04:29 PM Jun 22 2011 |

The Viper

The Viper

Dominican Republic

That’s the problem!!! Go back is just possible on movies!! If not i would change so many things…

04:25 PM Jun 22 2011 |

Hossam_bounab

Algeria

If I could go back…If I could go back…Why not change those things right now !!! as if you’re dead now !!!

04:12 PM Jun 22 2011 |

hamud90

hamud90

Syrian Arab Republic

if i could bake , i would choose my real fiend

03:11 PM Jun 22 2011 |

Vina Novalina

Indonesia

I have been watched this movie and at the first, it made me confused but over all is not bad movie with Jacob or Jake Gyllenhaal there ;)
If i could change the things in past, i wanna change my bad “habbit” earlier, such as can speak out what in my mind with all my brave, being more confident, yeah and now i try do it, nothing late i think, just don’t wanna stuck in the same old story, still i am, just better:)

03:07 PM Jun 22 2011 |

sata ray

sata ray

Yemen

I really like it !!!


  i wish if i went back to earlier years in my life …...


it deserves to be watched ^ ^

02:36 PM Jun 22 2011 |

sofree

sofree

China

It sounds more like The Butterfly Effet than Inception, I should watch it, love this time traveling subject.


I don’t know what to change, probably just a little desicion I’ve made last weekend. But if I had did that, my life might have been worse, lol~

08:42 AM Jun 22 2011 |

Self Talker

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

If I could Travel past,I would definitely change some thing series in my life,Like,Try to study Medical instead of Mathematics,And Try learn a new language,I prefered Russian :P

05:54 AM Jun 22 2011 |

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