Movie Activity: Stranger than Fiction (2006) Characters (ask the stds to do the matching exercise before watching the movie. Then you show some scenes that define each one of them: Harold (scene 1/2), Ana (scene 4/17), Karen (scene 3) and Jules (scene 13) Ana Pascal Harold Crick Karen Eiffel Prof. Jules Hilbert Favorite Things (Choose from box 1 below) Personality Traits (Choose from box 2 below) BOX 1: armchair – books – briefcase – calculator – cigarettes – coffee cup – cookies – flour – green apples – lifeguard milk – pencils - stove – tie - typewriter – umbrella – whistle - wristwatch BOX 2: boring – bright – creative – friendly – hardworking – honest – insecure – intelligent – lonely – moody – mysterious – open-minded – quiet – sad – sensible – sensitive – shy - talkative – trustworthy - understanding Brainstorming: Everybody knows that your life is a story. But what if a story was your life? a) If your life was a book, what would it be called? b) Who would you like to write your story? c) Do you think we can change our destiny by changing our habits? Preview: Put Harold’s daily activities in order: (scene 1) ( ) He brushes his teeth 76 times. ( ) He walks home alone. ( ) He ties his tie in a single Windsor knot. ( ) He wakes up. ( ) He has dinner alone. ( ) He gets dressed. ( ) He goes to bed at precisely 11:13pm. ( ) He runs to the bus stop holding a briefcase and a green apple. ( ) He takes a 45.7 minute lunch break and a 4.3 minute coffee break. ( ) He works as a senior auditor for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). What’s Ana’s business? (scene 4) a) She owns a stationery. b) She owns a bakery. c) She owns a restaurant. How does Harold make Ana fall in love with him? (scene 17) a) He buys her dinner. b) He sings her a song. c) He gives her flowers. Grammar Activity: Inversion Kay Eiffel: [narrating] Little did he know that this simple seemingly innocuous act would result in his imminent death. Harold Crick: What? What? Hey! HELLOOO! What? Why? Why MY death? HELLO? Excuse me? WHEN? Dr. Jules Hilbert: Little did he know. That means there's something he doesn't know, which means there's something you don't know, did you know that? Inversion after negative expressions We can use inversion in statements for the purpose of emphasis if we decide to start the statement with a negative expression. Compare the following: • Under no circumstances would I wear a mini-skirt. • I wouldn't wear a mini-skirt under any circumstances. In this example, the first statement is more emphatic than the second one. We can use this approach with a wide variety of adverbial negative expressions, although it makes them sound more formal. Compare the following: • At no time would he allow his team mates to argue with the referee. • Rarely / Seldom have I seen such an exciting game of football. • Hardly had I taken my seat before two goals were scored. • I had to show him my press pass and only then did he let me in. • Only when the players had changed into smart clothes after the match were they allowed to talk to the TV reporters. Exercises Choose the best alternative: 1. Not only ___, but he also owned a film studio. a) Hughes owned Las Vegas hotels, b) did Hughes own Las Vegas hotels, c) owned Hughes Las Vegas hotels, 2. ___ great was the destruction that the South took decades to recover. a) Very b) Too c) So 3. ___, when the Charges found themselves 7 – 0 down. a) Hardly had the game begun, b) Hardly the game had begun, c) Hardly had begun the game, 4. Under no circumstances _____ any fights. a) there can be b) which they can c) can there be 5. ____ must there be any repetition of such tactics. a) sometimes b) not only c) very seldom 6. ____ else can there be a woman like this, so everybody admires her. a) Anywhere b) Somewhere c) Nowhere 7. ___ does an individual find himself sought by both parties as their presidential candidate, as did General Eisenhower. a) Not only b) Sometimes c) Rarely d) If 8. Only when in danger ___ human beings. a) snakes will most attack b) will most snakes attack c) most snakes will attack 9. At no time ____ the office without getting permission from my boss. a) I left b) did I leave c) not only did they notice 10. Never ___ any doubt about the matter. a) has there been b) hasn’t there been c) there has been Listening Exercise: Complete with the correct words from the boxes: (scene 28) (Last Paragraph) Past take – feel – be – save Present save – mention – thank – find – assume remember – happen – know (2x)– seem – lose As Harold _____________ a bite of Bavarian sugar cookie, he finally ___________ as if everything ________ going to be ok. Sometimes, when we ____________ ourselves in fear and despair, in routine and constancy, in hopelessness and tragedy, we can ____________ God for Bavarian sugar cookies. And, fortunately, when there aren't any cookies, we can still ___________ reassurance in a familiar hand on our skin, or a kind and loving gesture, or subtle encouragement, or a loving embrace, or an offer of comfort, not to ____________ hospital gurneys and nose plugs, an uneaten Danish, soft-spoken secrets, and Fender Stratocasters, and maybe the occasional piece of fiction. And we must _______________ that all these things, the nuances, the anomalies, the subtleties, which we ______________ only accessorize our days, are effective for a much larger and nobler cause. They are here to ____________ our lives. I ______________ the idea ____________ strange, but I also ____________ that it just so ______________ to be true. And, so it was, a wristwatch ________________ Harold Crick. What does Karen refer as being good for moments of fear and despair, routine and constancy, hopelessness and tragedy? ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ What are all the things mentioned in the answer above effective for? _______________________________________________________ Do you agree with what Karen says? What are the little things that make you happy? ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ Song Activity: Whole wide world Wreckless Eric Fill in the blanks with the verbs in the correct tense: Put the sentences in the correct order: live – be (3x) – tell – say – go (2x) – weep - find ( ( ( ( ) Trying to pick up a girl ) When there are girls all over the world ) Why are my eyes filling up with these lonely tears ) Why am I hanging around in the rain out here I'___ __________ the whole wide world I'___ __________ the whole wide world Just to __________ her ( ( ( ( ) Hoping that I won't be long ) Underneath the tropical sun ) Is she lying on a tropical beach somewhere ) Pining away in a heat wave there Or maybe she'____ in the Bahamas Where the Caribbean sea _____ blue _________________ in a tropical moonlit night Because nobody's ___________ her about you ( ( ( ( ) Caressing her warm brown skin ) We'll be sharing the same next of kin ) I should be lying on that sun-soaked beach with her ) And then in a year or maybe not quite I'd go the whole wide world I'd go the whole wide world Just to find her I'd go the whole wide world I'd go the whole wide world Find out where they hide her I'd go the whole wide world I'd go the whole wide world Just to find her I'd go the whole wide world I'd go the whole wide world Just to find her I'd go the whole wide world I'd go the whole wide world Find out where they hide her (Repeat) When I __________ a young boy My mama ____________ to me There's only one girl in the world for you And she probably ____________ in Tahiti Vocabulary Look for these words in the song and classify them as V (verb), N (noun), A (adjective): 1 Caress ( ) to spend time in a certain place or in certain company 2 Kin ( ) to cry 3 Hang around ( ) a disturbance on the surface of a liquid body, as the sea or a lake 4 Pine away ( ) of the same family; related 5 Sun-soaked ( ) to touch or pat gently to show affection 6 Wave ( ) to suffer grief 7 Weep ( ) to become saturated with sun Why do you think Ana has fallen in love with Harold while he was singing this song? What is the song about? Would you sing it to your girlfriend? Would you like your boyfriend to sing it to you?
