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Put A Spin On Something

Learn English meaning of 'Put A Spin On Something'

Date: Jan 03 2017

Themes: Friend, Holidays, Romance, Soap Opera, Travel

Grammar: Third Conditional

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Intro

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Go Super to Listen

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

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Imagine that your best friend broke his leg. What would you say? If you want to make him feel better, you might tell him that now he can stay home and watch his favorite TV show all day. Maybe, breaking his leg wasn’t so bad after all. But what if your best friend’s TV breaks? Maybe, there’s also something good about this. Now, he can read lots of books and learn many new and interesting things. When something bad happens, you can always put a positive spin on it.

So, what does it mean to put a spin on something? This phrase can have different meanings. If you put a positive spin on something, you think of something good that will happen in a bad situation. On the other hand, sometimes people spin a story to make you agree with them or feel a certain way. For example, politicians often spin the story. They change the truth a little bit because they want you to be happy with them.

Jordin did something spontaneous, and now Sheila is upset. What will happen next? Watch today’s English soap opera to find out!

3. Watch - Watch the video without reading the dialog.

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.

Sheila

Kelsey

Sheila: I knew it! It was all going so well, too well.

Kelsey: Sheila, did you talk to Andy? Maybe, it’s not what you think.

Sheila: She was draping herself all over him, and they were in these dumb, cute little outfits, smiling, and being all cute, and then she kissed him.

Kelsey: Just on the cheek, though. I mean, they’re friends. That seems like a friendly thing to do. OK. So, did you talk to Jordin?

Sheila: Briefly.

Kelsey: Did she explain what happened?

Sheila: She tried to spin the story so that it sounded like some sort of spontaneous friendly thing.

Kelsey: There you go! See? I mean, she was honest with you, and Andy didn’t really do anything wrong.

Sheila: You’re right. It’s all my fault!

Kelsey: That’s not what I meant.

Sheila: If I had decided to just stay and help Andy instead of trying to go on some tropical vacation, then maybe… No, if I had forced Andy into going with me, then none of this would have happened.

Kelsey: Well, it sounds like everything is going to be fine. I bet Andy feels really bad. You should talk to him before you leave.

Sheila: You’re right.

Kelsey: Well, if you put a positive spin on it, at least you’re heading to a warm beach in a few hours!

Sheila: Oh, NO!!!! No, no, no, no!

Kelsey: What is it? Andy?

Sheila: No, it’s not Andy. It’s the storm! All the flights… they’re canceled!

Kelsey: Oh, no!!! No, no, no, no, no, no, no!

Grammar Point

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Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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Discussion

Go Super to Listen

Sheila feels terrible, and Kelsey is trying to make her feel better. What happened? Sheila saw Jordin kiss Andy. Oh, no! It’s hard to put a positive spin on something like this. Sheila likes Andy, and she thought Andy liked her too! It hurt Sheila’s feelings to see another girl draping herself all over Sheila’s guy.

Kelsey thinks Sheila should talk to Andy and Jordin. After all, it was just one spontaneous little kiss on the cheek. Sheila doesn’t want to listen. She believes the kiss is her own fault. She wishes she had forced Andy into going on the trip with her. That way, he would be far away from Jordin. But Sheila’s bad day isn’t over yet. Now, her flight is canceled because of the storm!

Have you ever tried to put a positive spin on a bad situation? Did it work?

Comments

coleenmctrevs

United States

Interesting lesson! Untill I read explanation here I used a word “spin” only in one sense of “twisting a meaning”, like in an example mentioned here: “politicians often spin the story”. Now I’ll write my paper on English with knowledge of phrase “put a positive spin on smth”.

markbanh

Viet Nam

Yes, I had put a positive spin on a bad situation. It happened when I rode motor bike on the left of the street, and traffic incident happened, it’s my fault, I tried to spin the story, but it didn’t work. I had to accept my fault with him. :))

klaukano

Colombia

Yes I had put a positive spin on my life, when my things are not going well I trying to found the good part of the situation and the most of the times I think the things happen because have to happen and all of the people have to learn from all situations and we are responsible for all the things that happen in our life. But it is not easy to put a positive spin in a bad situation, but it is better than complaining about.

The Last Joke

Yemen

Khan: I think that Baset will log in Englishbaby and comment in this lesson .

Ali : is he happy to comment ?

Khan : Yes , he thinks that his old friends will comment also in this lesson .

Ali : Put a positive spin on it . I know that his old friends . They don’t login English baby anymore . They are all in another website , and he will be alone all the day ..

Truth: All his friends had left English baby .
Positive Spin: He will be alone all the day .

Put a spin on something : put a new spin (new,to tell story in different way of doing something