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Learn about Modal Verbs

Date: Jan 13 2012

Themes: Hobbies, Tech

Grammar: Modal Verbs

Intro

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

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

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With bookstores closing all over the US, some believe it’s the death of the book. But that doesn’t mean people aren’t reading. New electronic devices like the iPad and the Kindle are making it possible to ditch all your heavy hardbacks and read on a small, lightweight computer. But is this new kind of high-tech reading really the same? Marni believes that reading on an eReader just isn’t the same as reading a traditional book. But Amy thinks eReaders are the way of the future.

如果全美的书店都关闭,某些人认为这是图书的末日。但这并不意味着人们不再读书。新的电子设备(例如 iPad 和 Kindle)可以让你丢弃笨重的硬皮书,并在小巧、轻便的电脑上阅读。但这种新的高科技阅读方式真的与纸质阅读一样吗?玛尼认为,在电子阅读设备上阅读和阅读传统图书不尽相同。但艾米认为,电子阅读设备是未来的方向。

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.

Amy

Amy

Marni

Marni

Amy:  Check out my new Kindle, Marni. Pretty sweet, huh.

Marni:  Yeah, I mean, I guess, if you’re sort of into those things. But for me, I like a real book.

Amy:  Really? But these things are so convenient. I mean, eReaders are really great if you’re on a trip, you know, you don’t want to lug around a big heavy book. And you can download so many books for pretty low prices. You can have online book groups about whatever you’re reading on your Kindle…

Marni:  For me, it’s just not…I can’t give up that tradition of cracking open a new book. I love the way it smells. I love the way it feels. And I love being able to just kind of toss it off my bed. At night when I’m going to sleep, I don’t have to worry about breaking a book, whereas a Kindle, I would just constantly be worried that I was gonna drop it. It’s just not for me. I don’t know.

Amy:  Think about this. Think about all the times you’ve moved to a new house, and you’ve had to take boxes and boxes of books. For me that’s always the worst part about moving, is packing up and unpacking all my books. And now I’ll never have to do it again.

Marni:  That never bothers me. There’s something I love about looking at my bookshelf and seeing all the books that I’ve read or want to read. I just don’t think I’ll give them up.

 

Grammar Point

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Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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Discussion

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Amy recently bought a Kindle, a small electronic device for reading eBooks. She loves it and thinks that eReaders are the way of the future. They are convenient and easy to take with you wherever you go. They also allow you to download many different books at low prices.

But Marni doesn’t like eReaders. She prefers traditional books. To her, the experience of reading on an eReader is not as satisfying as the experience of reading a regular book. She says that if she had an eReader, she would worry about breaking it. She also likes seeing all her books lined up on her bookshelves.

Do you prefer traditional books or eReaders? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

 

Comments

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doublezaw

Myanmar

I like electronic divice for reading ebook when I’m going somewhere because I cann’t bring a lot book.But sometime I like traditional books especially at home.


I think both of them are depend on place.

12:08 PM Jan 13 2012 |

Dingdong

China

I perfer eReader.It’s really  too convient.But if l have traditional books,I will read traditional books.

11:14 AM Jan 13 2012 |

EternalLight

Ukraine

Well, I got my new Kindle yesterday and I’m pretty satisfied with it. Besides it’s a pretty convenient way to read books, it also has a Totally Free Internet Access, which even works in Ukraine. It’s unbelievable and I am quite excited about that.

11:06 AM Jan 13 2012 |

1 person likes this

blinbus

blinbus

Russian Federation

I really love traditional books, love it’s paper or beautiful cover, love how smell old books=) but for reading special literature e.g. computer science I prefer eReader, because these books are usually very big and expensive

10:24 AM Jan 13 2012 |

Nakul

Nakul

India

I prefer both traditional books and eReaders… actually every coin has two aspects. so, it’s hard to say that which one has more advantages and disadvantages than the other one….... We don’t have to worry about breaking books, whereas for eReader we have to and eReaders are very convenient if we are on trip whereas for Books are not the same…


and about the future.. i would say that it’s time for tech and we must go with time or we’ll get behind…. being with eReader is the same as being with teacher because we can get the knowledge as we get from the books..


eReaders are prefered more than books bcz one can easily carry it as if he was carrying treasure of knowlege…. but we must not forget books too because books are root of eReaders…then it has been possible to produce the eReaders….

10:10 AM Jan 13 2012 |

Blue_Lintu

Blue_Lintu

Russian Federation

I can agree with Ahmed31 that e-readers are more convenient in usage but I get more pleasure from reading traditional books. To touch it, to turn over pages, to smell it..and my eyes are not so tired from reading real books =)

10:08 AM Jan 13 2012 |

AUL

AUL

Azerbaijan

First of all to read book from net is very harmfull for peoples helath i mean eyes


while reading on computer i feel pain on my eyes :(


i as Marni i like books smell and i thing to read from book more interesting then net


it is interesting to buy book read it and then give to your friend i like it

08:05 AM Jan 13 2012 |

i love life

Palestinian Territory, Occupied

since the technology appears every thing has become change


some of people prefer practice reading on the internet  as the same time since the interent become available in our home we become abandoned the real books we didnt like buy the books from the library


for me I like to reading some information by the internet .

04:13 AM Jan 13 2012 |

emi0808

emi0808

Philippines

The information technology is developing so fast that great changes have occurred in our way of reading.In recent years, e-books have become more and more popular among us. Ranging from popular books to classics, almost every masterpieces has been made into e-books.
Some people think that e-books will replace traditional books someday. There are two main reasons for their viewpoint. First and foremost, e-books are convenient to carry and they only take a little virtual place. So people can read them almost anywhere if we want to. In contrast, traditional books always bring us some troubles to carry them for reading. The other main reason is that e-books can be preserved for a long time while traditional books could be damaged easily for various reasons such as the quality of papers, fire accident and the rest.
As for me, I hold the idea that e-books will not replace traditional books completely… Because traditional books have some specific characters which e-books don’t have. For example, we can make notes or write down our feelings while reading traditional books, but we can’t do them with e-books. On the whole, both e-books and traditional books have their advantages and disadvantages, so both of them will exist together to saitisfy diffferent people’s tastes. :)

AlexisSilva

Mexico

it depends in what situation you are, for me I like both.

02:45 AM Jan 13 2012 |

ola33

ola33

Japan

Yep, I’m with Marni about this book vs ebook question. I tried several times to read e-books and it wasn’t that feeling of satisfaction as when you  read a real nice with a beautiful cover book. You flip the pages over, add some marks on the pages. Yes, the same can be done with e-books, but still I stay as an old-fashioned one— like to feel, touch and smell it. And plus, it’s a good lullaby. I don’t know, when I read e-books, it hurts my eyes. When you read just a book, it’s a totall relaxation. Don’t give it up. :))

02:45 AM Jan 13 2012 |

bonniewang99

China

Ebooks and traditional both be accept for me. and they have their differet strong points .

01:26 AM Jan 13 2012 |

 julito

julito

Argentina

Borders went out of business ,i don´t know  how is doing barnes & Noble  but they are also selling Kindle . Could it be (i am asking) that internet is the culprit that people have less and less time  to devote to reading . Most of us  are living on the fast lane ,how many of us have time  to seat quietly and enjoy a good book. Hmmmm.  

12:41 PM Jan 12 2012 |

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