First Conditional

Intro

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

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• can't stand it
• fluffy
• local
• at your fingertips

• 24/7
• informed
• deliberately
• keep up

• post
• condensed

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

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There are so many different ways to get your news these days. There are more traditional sources like newspapers or the radio. Then there’s the nightly news report on TV, and dozens of cable news networks that tell you what’s happening in the world 24/7. And don’t forget the Internet. From websites to blogs to your friends’ Facebook walls, the web has given us even more ways to stay informed...or not. Find out how Amy and Jason get their news.

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.

Jason

Amy

Jason:  Do you follow the news?

Amy:  You know, I don’t follow it very deliberately, but I like to listen to the news on the radio when I’m driving, and so I keep up with it pretty well.

Jason:  That’s good. I think radio news is usually fairly condensed. It’s not like…like my parents watch the 11 o’clock news, you know?

Amy:  I can’t stand that.

Jason:  And there’s always these fluff pieces that are just so annoying.

Amy:  Yeah, I hate the fluff. And I’m not really that interested in local news, and the news that’s on the TV is more often just about what’s happening in your city, and to me that’s not as interesting or important as what’s happening in the country or the world.

Jason:  I mean, in some ways it’s more important, though, right? Because it’s right at your fingertips, you could go interact with it if you wanted to.

Amy:  But more often it’s that’s kind of news that just seems it’s either all about, you know, violent crimes or something, or it’s fluffy stories that seem really insignificant. I want to know what’s happening in politics and that kind of thing.

Jason:  More and more I’ve been getting my news from really just sort of social sources like, you know, if my friends post an article on Facebook, I’ll see it. Otherwise I’m probably not going to go look at that newspaper’s website.

Amy:  Well, especially now that some news websites are trying to get you to pay, like the New York Times, you can only view a certain number of stories for free now.

Jason:  That’s true. And so usually I just view the one or two that my friends posted that day!

Grammar Point

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