Intro
1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.
2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.
Have you ever seen something at a store and thought, “I can make that myself”? For people who are on a budget or feeling broke, making DIY gifts for friends and family is a cheap and fun solution. Even if you’re not the most crafty person in the world, there’s something out there that you can create by hand.
Fruit preserves and baked goods are always popular if you’re good at cooking and baking. If you’re more of a crafty type, you can knit a hat or a sweater. Another option is looking for something unique at a thrift store that you can repaint or decorate for a particular person. What matters most is that whoever gets your present knows that you made it especially for him or her.
Find out how Mason helps Lily in this English lesson about a birthday emergency.
Dialog
1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.
2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.
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Lily: I am so broke. I have five birthdays coming up and I’ve got to come up with all of these gifts. I don’t know what to do!
Mason: Why don’t you just DIY something? You could make them something yourself.
Lily: I’ve never really been very good at do-it-yourself kind of things. I tried to learn how to knit and that didn’t go very well. I ended up entangling myself in an entire ball of yarn. It was bad!
Mason: Maybe knitting stuff isn’t the kind of crafty that you are, but you can find lots of creative ways to make stuff on a budget. I like to buy stuff at thrift stores, then spruce it up a little bit. You buy a lamp and then take an old map and then you make the map into the lampshade. It looks super cool!
Lily: That’s a good idea.
Mason: Or you slap a new coat of paint on something. That’s not super hard and it looks pretty good all of a sudden.
Lily: I’m a handy baker. I could do baked goods, or I could make some preserves. Everybody always says how much they like my pies, so maybe I can do something like that. I don’t know, though. Is that alright? To give somebody a pie as a birthday gift?
Mason: Well, I’m already signing up. You owe me a pie for my birthday. I’m excited.
Lily: I guess that’s an IOU.
Grammar Point
Go Super to learn "Gerunds vs. Infinitives" from this lesson
Quizzes
Lesson MP3
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Discussion
Lily’s having a birthday emergency. She knows five people whose birthdays are coming up, but she doesn’t have any money to buy presents for them. Mason thinks that Lily should just make something herself. His do-it-yourself presents usually come from a thrift store. He finds something cool, then paints it or decorates it to make it unique before giving it away as a gift.
Lily likes his idea, but then she remembers that everyone enjoys her cooking. She’s especially good at baking. Lily wonders if it’s OK to give a pie as a birthday present, but Mason assures her that it is. In fact, he wants one for himself.
What’s the best DIY gift you’ve ever received or made? What would you rather buy handmade than from a store?
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