1 HOUR ENGLISH LESSON - LEARN ENGLISH WITH THE NEWS AND IMPROVE YOUR FLUENCY

35,992 views ・ 2023-08-11

JForrest English


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Welcome back to JForrest English.
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I'm Jennifer, and in this one hour English lesson,  
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we are going to review two different news  articles to help you learn advanced grammar,  
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add natural expressions to your  speech, and improve your pronunciation.
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Let's get started.
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First, I'll read the headline How  Barbie Made a Surprising Comeback.
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This article is about Barbie,  and that's why I'm wearing pink.
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Because as you know, Barbie's  favorite color is pink.
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Maybe you didn't know that because you  have no idea who or what Barbie is.
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In this picture on the right,  you see a doll, a child's doll.
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This doll is Barbie.
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That's her name.
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Barbie's boyfriend is Ken.
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This is the Ken doll.
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When I was a kid, Barbie was the most  popular doll that kids play with.
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What about in your country?
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Was Barbie the Barbie doll a popular toy for kids?
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And perhaps you heard that recently.
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A month ago, a Barbie movie was released.
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So now that you know who Barbie is,  let's review the headline again.
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How Barbie Made a Surprising Comeback.
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Let's take a look at this  expression to make a comeback.
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Surprising is the adjective  that describes the expression.
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But here the expression is to make a comeback  and the verb make is simply in the past.
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Simple made.
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The expression to make a comeback  is used when something or someone  
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becomes successful again after a  period of not being successful.
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So remember I said when I was a kid, Barbie  was the most popular toy in North America.
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So when I was a kid Barbie was successful.
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But in the last 1015 years,  Barbie wasn't successful.
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But now Barbie apparently is successful again.
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Barbie is popular again, so in this  term, successful can be measured in  
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terms of popularity and the number  of sales of Barbie dolls for you.
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You might make a comeback if you were doing  really well in a course you were an A+ student,  
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but then halfway through the year  you started failing that course.
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But then you make a comeback and your  grade goes right back up to the top.
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So success can be measured  in many different things.
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In this context, it's the  sales of the doll Barbie.
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How Barbie made a surprising comeback surprising  
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just modifies the expression  to say it was unexpected.
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Now don't worry about taking all of these  notes, because I've summarized everything in  
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a free lesson PDF, So you can look for the link  in the description to download the lesson PDF.
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Let's continue.
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So now let's read the article.
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The name Barbara Millicent  Roberts may not ring a bell.
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If something rings a bell, it means  that the information is familiar to you.
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So I might say, does the name ring a bell?
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Does this store ring a bell?
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I could say, does Barbie doll ring a bell?
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And I'm asking you, does the concept  of a Barbie doll sound familiar to you?
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And if you've never heard of Barbie, you would  say, Oh no, teacher, that doesn't ring a bell.
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That doesn't ring a bell or you'd  be like, yeah, that rings a bell.
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I played with Barbie when I was a little kid,  
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so to ring a bell is used  when information is familiar.
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The name Barbara Millicent  Roberts may not ring a bell.
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And honestly, if you said that name to me,  
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I would say that doesn't ring  a bell, but say her nickname.
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A nickname is an alternative  name that you can use.
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So apparently, I actually did not know this.
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This doll's name is actually Barbara,  but everyone calls her Barbie.
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I had no idea that this doll's name is Barbara.
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To me, this is Barbie.
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Always.
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So this name definitely  would not ring a bell for me.
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But Barbie of course, rings  a bell for me, but for you?
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Perhaps not until this article and people of  all ages know her, at least in North America.
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Created by Mattel in 1959.
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So the Barbie was created by Mattel.
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In this case, they simply say created by Mattel,  
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because the context of Barbie is already known,  it's established created by Mattel in 1959.
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Barbie doesn't look a day over 19,  so if you don't look a day over 19,  
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it's simply saying that you  don't look older than 19.
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So this can be a nice compliment to say to  someone because everyone wants to look young.
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So you could say to your mom or to your teacher  or to a coworker, you don't look a day over,  
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and then you can choose a age that is relatively  young to the age of the person you're talking to.
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So if your mom is 60, it would be a  compliment to your mom to say she looks 50,  
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which is 10 years younger than her actual age.
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So you could say to your mom  you don't look a day over  
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50, assuming in this case  assuming your mom is 60 or 70.
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Of course you could say to your  mom you don't look a day over 20,  
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but that is just so far from reality.
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It's not at all true, right?
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But it is possible that your mom could look 10  years younger and maybe even 20 years younger.
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So if you really want to compliment  your mom, you can say you don't look  
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a day over 40 and she'll say, Oh my  goodness, that is so sweet of you.
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Thank you.
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So that's a way you can compliment someone.
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OK, so Barbie doesn't look a day over 19.
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Why?
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Because she's a plastic doll.
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She obviously doesn't age  
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and now she is getting new life in Barbie,  the movie distributed by Warner Bros.
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The movie out next Friday starring  Margot Robbie, Margot Robbie of course,  
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here on the left hand side of this image  who looks very much like the doll Barbie.
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And that's obviously the point,  because she plays Barbie in the movie,  
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the movie out next Friday when something is out.
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And then you have a date in the future,  
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or a specific date even in the past, is  when a product is available to purchase.
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So you could say  
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the movie The movie was out last Friday, which  means it was available to purchase a movie ticket.
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So you could watch the movie or  the movie will be out next Friday.
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In this case, they just said  the movie out next Friday.
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In the same way that you could say  the movie available next Friday,  
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available next Friday starring Margot Robbie  allows Barbie to question her own reality.
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Not too sure what that will  look like in the movie,  
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something consumers have been doing for decades.
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So do you plan to see the movie Barbie?
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Well, of course, if you had no idea who Barbie  was, if the name didn't ring a bell, maybe not.
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But maybe after this article,  or if you grew up playing with  
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Barbie dolls your entire life,  you may want to see the movie.
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So let's take a look at this sentence structure.
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What verb tense do we have here have been doing?
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What verb tense is this?
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This of course is the present perfect  continuous, and the present perfect  
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continuous is used for an action that  starts in the past and continues until now.
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The time reference here is 4 decades when you see  
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four and a period of time or  since and a period of time.
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That's a keyword for the present  perfect or the present perfect.
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Continuous decades to me sounds like 20-30.
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Forty 50 years.
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It sounds like a long time  because one decade is 10 years.
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So decades with an S plural is at least 20 years.
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But it could also be 50 years or 200 years.
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So it sounds like a long time.
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So consumers started questioning their own  reality decades ago, 50 years ago, 100 years ago,  
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and they've continued doing this and they're  still doing it now back in 2014 and 2015.
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We use back in to talk about a time in the past.
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So you could say back in back in summer.
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I went on vacation back in July.
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I got a promotion.
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So you can use a year, you can use  a season or you can use a month.
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You could also say back when and have a clause.
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For example, back when I was  a kid I played with Barbies.
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Like every American kid from the 90s, we  played with Barbies back when I was a kid.
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Now, of course, I could  simply say when I was a kid.
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By adding back in front of it,  
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it emphasizes that it was a long time  ago, back when I was a kid back in 2014.
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So it makes it sound like it was a longer  time ago simply than saying in 2014,  
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which also would be grammatically correct.
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Back in 2014 and 2015 we hit a  low, we hit a low and it was a  
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moment to reflect in the context  of why did Barbie lose relevance?
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So they now say that this is a quote.
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I know it's a quote because I see the  quotation marks at the beginning and end.
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And this was said by Ricard Rickard, Ricard  Dixon, President and Chief Operating Officer, COO.
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Generally they use abbreviations for C titles.
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COO, Chief, this is the O Operating Officer, so  this becomes COO, President and COO of Mattel.
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Remember, Mattel is the company  that sells Barbie dolls.
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Warner Brothers was the movie studio that  produced the movie Barbie, starring Margot Robbie.
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But the doll has been around for years and years,  and the company Mattel created the Barbie doll.
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So the company that created the Barbie doll  said back in 2014 and 15, we hit a low.
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That means that their sales  were lower than previous.
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So when you hit a low, it sounds  like the sales were lower than they  
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have ever been or that they've  been for a long period of time.
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We hit a low and it was a moment to reflect in  the context of why did Barbie lose relevance.
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So their sales hit a low, which means consumers  are not buying the Barbie doll anymore.
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And so they had to say, well, why not?
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Why isn't the Barbie relevant?
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Why did the Barbie lose relevance?
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Where are we here lose relevance.
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So when you lose relevance, it  means you are no longer relevant.
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So that means no longer relevant.
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And when something is no longer  relevant, it means that people,  
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the media, are not talking about  that something or someone anymore.
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So there's no more publicity for it.
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There's no more popularity.
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And if people aren't talking  about it, it's not popular.
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Well, then they're not purchasing it either.
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So why did she lose relevance?
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She Barbie didn't reflect the  look of the world around us.
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And so we then set a course  to truly transform the brand  
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with a playbook around reigniting our purpose.
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First, let's look at set.
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Of course, when you set a course,  
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you set a particular plan into motion and  so you then just simply follow that plan.
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So their course, their plan  is to transform the brand.
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Why?
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Because they want to make sure that Barbie,  the Barbie doll which was extremely popular in  
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the 90s but then wasn't popular, They wanted  to make sure that Barbie remained relevant,  
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remains something that consumers talk about and  are interested in remaining remain relevant.
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So they set a course to truly  transform the brand with a playbook.
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A playbook is again just their plan.
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You can imagine they write the  plan down in their playbook.
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So this is simply the plan with a plan around  a playbook around reigniting our purpose.
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So reignite means to ignite.
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The word ignite means to to start.
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When you ignite something, that  something becomes activated.
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It starts.
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So when you reignite it, it means you  start it again, you activate it again.
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So they had a purpose in the past,  but now their purpose is no longer  
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relevant because Barbie is not popular anymore.
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So they need to restart, reignite that purpose  and they're going to set a course to do that.
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Mattel, the company that produces Barbie,  Mattel, was slow to diversify Barbie and friends.
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As a result, sales at Mattel  started to slump in 2014.
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When your state sales slump, it means they  start to go down, they start to go down.
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So to decline is another way of saying that, but  I don't hear this being used in all contexts.
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We use it in very specific  context, Sales for example,  
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because your your grades at school  for example, or your kids grades.
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If you're no longer in school, your kids  grades could start to decline as well.
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You could say they started to slump, but to be  honest I don't hear it in an everyday context.
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I do hear it specifically with sales, which  is something that everybody talks about,  
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whether you're in a sales job or you're a consumer  and you purchase products from a company as well.
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So to decline, but I'll put in  brackets specifically for sales.
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But during the pandemic, Barbie saw a resurgence  
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as parents looked for ways  to keep kids busy at home.
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A resurgence in sales is the opposite of a  decline is when the sales start to increase again.
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I wouldn't say I saw a resurgence  in my grades, for example.
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I wouldn't say that.
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But sales you can.
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So this is the opposite of a slump.
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It's when they start to increase as parents  look for ways to keep kids busy at home.
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So during the pandemic, because all the kids that  were at home, parents said, well, what can I do?
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Oh, I can give my kids some Barbie dolls and they  can play with Barbie and that will keep them busy.
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Let's continue in the first quarter of this year.
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So a calendar year, January to  December is divided into quarters.
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So there are three months in each quarter.
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So the first quarter would be  January, February, March that would be  
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the first quarter which is also known as Q1.
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So you could say in Q1 or in the first  quarter, which represents January, February  
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and March in Q1 of this year.
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In the first quarter of this year, Mattel  sales fell 22% from last year's first quarter.
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So this is the first quarter in 2023, so Jan  to March 2023 compared to Jan to March 2022,  
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primarily due to declines in  Barbie dolls and merchandise.
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So Mattel as a company does not just sell Barbie,  they sell other toys, other products as well.
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But the company's overall sales fell 22%  and primarily when you see primarily it  
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means the main reason, primarily the main  reason was due to declines in Barbie dolls.
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So clearly Barbie as a brand is a very important  part of Mattel's overall success as a company.
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Merchandise is things like clothing, posters,  jewelry, accessories for something else.
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So when the movie is released, you can buy.
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The movie.
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But then there's also a lot of  merchandise around that movie.
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So you can put the poster on your  wall, You can buy the poster.
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You can buy maybe a pen that says Barbie on it,  
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or let me get my pink sparkly pen,  which is more appropriate for Barbie.
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You can buy a pen that says Barbie.
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That would be an example of merchandise.
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So their sales fell because of  Barbie dolls and merchandise.
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Now Barbie and friends have many  different skin tones and shapes.
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Mattel produces Barbies in wheelchairs and Ken  dolls with the skin condition Vitiligo Vitiligo.
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So the purpose of this is because remember,  
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the company felt like their sales were  falling because Barbie lost relevance.
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And she lost relevance because she doesn't  reflect the look of the world around us.
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Obviously, considering the entire world,  not just North America, this is not  
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what the average person looks like.
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There are many different looks,  shapes, sizes, skin tones,  
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so the company wanted to reflect  that to help increase their sales.
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So these are the Barbies that were  available to me when I was a kid.
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This is what I remember Barbie looking like,  but now this is what Barbie looks like.
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As you can see, there are many different  styles of Barbie now to reflect different  
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people, different conditions and  different looks, different shapes.
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So this is the company's attempt to diversify  
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Barbie so Barbie regains relevance and  makes a comeback become successful again.
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Let's continue.
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Mattel hopes the new movie which  was 4 1/2 years in the making,  
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so they were making it for 4 1/2 years.
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Sometimes I hear students  say four years and a half.
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It's 4 1/2 and then years, months, weeks, days.
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4 1/2 years in the making will give the brand  and Barbie the boost they're looking for.
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Boost is increase, and it could be  increase in sales, increase in popularity.
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The boost they're looking for  that may already be happening.
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That being that the movie is giving the  brand a boost, that may already be happening.
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AMC theatres reports they've sold more  than 20,000 presale tickets to Barbie,  
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so a presale is a sale before the movie is  officially released, before the movie is out.
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Remember that to be out is available, so before  the movies out they sell the tickets in advance.
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So a presale is when you buy something  in advance of it being available.
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And at Hombom Toys in New York  City, Movie Barbie is sold out.
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If something is sold out to be sold out, it  means they've sold 100% of available supply.
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So to be sold out.
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To be sold out.
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So to sell 100% of available supply.
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So let's say they made 1000 Barbies  available to sell to the public.
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And if something is sold out, it means they've  sold 1000 Barbies 100% of available supply.
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So that's good news for Barbie.
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And perhaps Barbie is making a comeback.
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So that's the end of the article.
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What I'll do now is I'll go to the beginning  and I'll read the article from start to finish.
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And this time you can focus on my pronunciation,  how Barbie made a surprising comeback.
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The name Barbara Millicent  Roberts may not ring a bell,  
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but say her nickname Barbie,  and people of all ages know her.
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Created by Mattel in 1959, Barbie  doesn't look a day over 19,  
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and now she is getting new life in Barbie,  the movie, distributed by Warner Bros.
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The movie, out next Friday starring Margot Robbie,  
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allows Barbie to question her own reality,  something consumers have been doing for decades.
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Back in 2014 and 2015, we hit a low and it  was a moment to reflect in the context of  
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why did Barbie lose relevance, Said Ricard Dixon,  president and chief operating officer of Mattel.
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She didn't reflect the look of the  world around us and so we then set  
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a course to truly transform the brand with  a playbook around reigniting our purpose.
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Mattel was slow to diversify Barbie and friends.
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As a result, sales at Mattel's  started to slump in 2014.
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But during the pandemic, Barbie saw a resurgence  
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as parents looked for ways  to keep kids busy at home.
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In the first quarter of this year, Mattel's  sales fell 22% from last year's first quarter,  
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primarily due to declines in  Barbie dolls and merchandise.
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Now, Barbie and friends have many  different skin tones and shapes.
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Mattel produces Barbies in wheelchairs and  Ken dolls with the skin condition vitiligo.
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Mattel hopes the new movie, which  was 4 1/2 years in the making,  
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will give the brand and Barbie  the boost they're looking for.
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That may already be happening.
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AMC theatres reports they've sold more than  
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20,000 presale tickets to Barbie and at Hombomb  Toys in New York City, movie Barbie is sold out.
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Amazing job with that article.
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Now let's move on to our second article.
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Feel free to take a break, get a cup of tea,  review the expressions from the last article,  
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and when you're ready, let's move on.
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1st I'll read the headline  Barbie versus Oppenheimer.
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Barbenheimer means are the Bomb Pun intended?
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Of course we're talking about the  movie Barbie and the movie Oppenheimer,  
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which are two very popular movies right now.
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Notice this here is a combination of the  word Barbie and of the word Oppenheimer.
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They've turned the names of these  two individual movies into one.
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Barbenheimer.
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Barbenheimer memes are the bomb pun intended.
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What exactly does this mean?
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So let's just say the memes to  make it easier to understand,  
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knowing that the memes are referring to  the Barbenheimer memes to be the bomb.
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In this case, the memes are we have  a verb to be conjugated with memes.
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The memes are the bomb.
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To be the bomb is a very informal way of  saying that something is really great or cool.
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I use cool because that expression,  the bomb, is used mainly by youth,  
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but it is a very popular, very  common expression in North America.
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But just know it is more of  an informal expression and  
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if you use it you'll sound very cool, but  you'll also sound quite youthful as well.
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So I could say this new game is the bomb.
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This new game, this new video game, is the bomb.
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Which means this new video game  is really great or is really cool.
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So they're saying these memes are really great.
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They are the bomb.
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But notice how they added in brackets here.
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Pun intended, this is also a very  common expression in English.
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A pun is a joke, and it's a  joke about the English language,  
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so they can be quite difficult for  students to understand why it's funny.
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Because when you make a pun it  means you use one word or phrase  
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that has different meanings in English  or where pronunciation is similar.
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So in this case they chose the expression.
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The memes are the bomb because the  movie Oppenheimer is about bombs,  
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but it's about real bombs,  atomic bombs that explode.
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So it's a pun because they're using this  word, the bomb, in two different ways.
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It works because there's an expression  that means the memes are the bomb.
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They're really good, they're really cool.
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But also the bomb is the  subject of the film Oppenheimer.
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So that's a joke.
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It's a funny little joke that  students might not understand.
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And when they say pun intended, they're saying  they specifically chose this expression because  
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of the word play, because of the joke, because  the word is being used in two different ways.
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Now don't worry about taking  all these notes because I've  
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summarized everything in a free lesson PDF.
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So you can look in the description  for a link to download that free PDF.
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Let's continue,  
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even if you are only remotely interested in  the entertainment industry or pop culture.
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OK, here, let's take a look at this  adverb because it's very useful.
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Remotely as an adverb is the same as  slightly, which means a small of mount.
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So here, interested in the entertainment.
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So if you have a small amount of interest in  the entertainment industry or a small amount  
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of interest in pop culture, you can say  I'm remotely interested in pop culture.
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So the person knows you only have a small  amount, a slight amount of interest.
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And pay attention to this because we have  the expression to be interested with an Ed,  
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interested in something, to  be interested in something.
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This is a very common expression,  but I still see all my students,  
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even advanced students make mistakes.
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So watch this example.
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I'm interested in learning phrasal verbs.
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OK, so here to be interested in and then  you can have a something which is a noun,  
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or if you have a verb, it has to be a gerund  verb ING and then whatever you're interested in.
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You can also just have the noun.
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Remember, so I could say I'm interested in phrasal  verbs, so simply using it as the noun form.
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Remember it's the verb to be,  so you have to conjugate it.
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We are interested in phrasal verbs, for example.
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OK, so even if you only have  a small amount of interest,  
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even if you are only slightly interested in  the entertainment industry or pop culture.
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Now, I wrote these two examples  here because I want you to see  
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that we commonly use this in the negative.
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I'm not remotely interested in seeing that movie  
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compared to I'm remotely  interested in seeing that movie.
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In this example, I'm remotely interested.
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I have a small amount of interest.
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In this case, I'm not interested, so there's  zero interested interest, and when I add the  
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word I'm not remotely interested, it makes  my lack of interest sound even stronger.
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So you can add remotely to a negative if you  really want to emphasize you are not interested.
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So it makes it sound stronger.
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Native speakers use this quite a lot just to  emphasize when we don't want to do something.
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So if you invite your husband  to see Barbie, he might say,  
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I'm not remotely interested in seeing Barbie.
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Let's continue.
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You cannot have missed the buzz around the  clash of two of Hollywood's biggest films.
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The buzz.
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The buzz means the amount of interest that  people are showing in the films and how do  
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people show their interest in subjects in  today's world, they posted on social media.
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They talk about it online.
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So if you see that a topic is trending or there  are a lot of posts online, that's the buzz.
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There's a lot of buzz around it.
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There's a lot of interest.
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So that's another way of saying interest,  
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the buzz around the clash, the clash  of two of Hollywood's biggest films.
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So let's look at Clash.
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When two things clash, they are  very different from one another.
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So technically, the movie Barbie  and the movie Oppenheimer,  
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they clash because the subject matter  of these two movies, the audience who  
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would be interested in watching these two  movies are very different from one another.
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It's not saying that one is better than the other.
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It's simply saying they're different.
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So that's when two things clash.
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We use this with people.
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I could say I met someone and she was really nice,  
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but our personalities clashed, which means  that our personalities are just very different.
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Maybe she is very outgoing and loud  and I am quite introverted and quiet,  
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and because of that our personalities clashed.
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It's not saying that one is better than the  other, is just saying they're very different.
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So that's a useful expression.
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I'll write that example for you so  you can see the sentence structure.
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Our personalities clashed.
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They were very different.
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Let's continue the two films which  are as different as chalk and cheese.
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That's quite funny because chalk and  cheese are obviously very different.
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I can't think of any similarities  between chalk and cheese that's clever.
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Which are as different as chalk and  cheese in subject matter and treatment.
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Have cinema lovers across the world divided.
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So you have the people here who love Barbie  and the people here who love Oppenheimer.
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Which one are you?
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Do you think you're more of the  Barbie fan or the Oppenheimer fan?
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Or you could be in the middle?
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Maybe you want to see both movies  
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as people passionately discuss and debate which  film to watch first, or even watch at all.
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There appears to only to be only one winner.
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The memers of the world.
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The memers of the world.
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OK, what is a memer?
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A memer is someone who makes memes.
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It's not very commonly used because  I don't think it's a profession.
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Perhaps it is.
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Perhaps there is a profession.
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You're a professional memer.
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I'm not sure.
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But that's what it means.
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A person who makes memes.
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Just like a singer is a person who sings,  a memer is a person who makes memes.
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So the memers of the world are the only winners  in this clash between Barbie and Oppenheimer,  
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which are two incredibly popular  but very different movies.
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The meemers of the world who are having  a blast creating content about the Clash.
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So remember the clash is the fact that  the two films are extremely different  
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and they're having a blast.
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I really like this expression, the  expression to have a blast here,  
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it's who are having a blast  creating content about the clash.
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The expression is to have a blast.
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When you have a blast it simply  means you have a great time.
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Now notice here our verb is have,  so you have to conjugate your verb  
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according to the subject and the time reference.
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So in this case, who are having  so this is the present continuous.
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So it's an ING and you could  say we had a blast on vacation.
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This means you had a great time on vacation.
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Now notice the sentence structure here.
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Who are having a blast?
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And what do you notice about  your next verb creating?
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It's the gerund, right?
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That's because the expression  to have all adjective time,  
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to have a great time, wonderful  time, is a gerund expression.
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I had a great time catching up with my friends  
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now because the expression to have a blast means  a great time, it's also a gerund expression.
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So you could say I had a blast learning  phrasal verbs over the weekend because  
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learning should be fun and I hope  you had fun learning phrasal verbs.
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I had a blast, I had a great time.
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Both of those are jaron expressions,  so you need your verb in ING.
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I had a blast learning phrasal  verbs over the weekend,  
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while Oppenheimer is a biographical thriller  based on Robert Oppenheimer, The Mind Behind.
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The world's first atomic bomb.
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And remember that was our pun at the  beginning because the movie is about  
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the atomic bomb and the expression the bomb,  you're the bomb means you're really great.
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So if you think so, you could say  Jennifer, this lesson is the bomb.
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And that is a really useful, natural, fun way of  saying this lesson is really great or really cool.
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So if you agree, why don't  you put that in the comments?
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I would love to see that.
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Jennifer, this lesson is the bomb.
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You can also refer to someone as the bomb.
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Jennifer's the Bomb, which is another way of  complimenting me by saying I'm really great.
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Oh, thank you, Jennifer.
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This lesson is the bomb.
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Hopefully you feel that way.
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So put that in the comments if you agree,  OK, that was our pun from the beginning.
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Barbie is a fantasy comedy based on  the iconic fashion dolls by Mattel.
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So again, remember these two films, the content  of these films, the topic of these films, clash.
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They're very different.
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So if you had to watch one, you have to watch one.
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OK, Which would you choose?
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And you can only choose one.
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You have to choose either Barbie or Oppenheimer.
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Which would you choose?
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Put it in the comments.
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Which one do you think I would choose?
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Barbie or Oppenheimer?
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I think this is pretty easy, right?
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Of course I'm going to choose Barbie,  mainly because I like laughing.
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I played with Barbies when I was a  little kid and I love the color pink.
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So all of those things leads me naturally  towards Barbie, which is a comedy.
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All right, share your choice and the reason  why you would choose it in the comments.
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I'd love to know the selection of memes that  have spawned from this clash of the Titans.
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Clash of the Titans, Titans refers to the best of.
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So the movies Barbie and Oppenheimer right  now are considered the best movies available.
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They're the biggest Hollywood movies right  now, so that's why they're the Titans.
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And remember the clash of the Titans.
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The clash is the fact that they're very different.
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Spawn from is the fact that these memes only exist  
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because the fact that these  movies are extremely popular.
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They're Titans, and they are extremely different.
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So Spawn from is saying that's where it came from.
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So Spawn from came from, resulted from, came from.
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I'll just say came from because  that's the simplest translation.
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The selection of means that have come from  
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to be grammatically correct because we have  our verb have so we need the participle.
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Have come from our conjugations are come, came  in the past simple but come in the participle.
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The selection of means that  have come from spawn from  
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this clash of the Titans even has its own moniker.
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A moniker is a name that you can give something,  so you can simply say name even has its own name.
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The name was shared in the title as well.
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We already reviewed that the Barbenheimer, and  this comes from the name Barbie and Oppenheimer  
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combined together the Barbenheimer memes  created by the memes who are having a blast  
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and the memes are the bomb to top it all.
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This is a nice transition word to top it all.
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Well, think there's bottom and top.
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So when something tops it all, it means it's the  
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most important piece of information or  the most important fact to top it all.
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To top it all, fans have also fused the two films  
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into posters for one film titled,  not surprisingly, Barbenheimer.
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Well, we already talked about this Barbenheimer.
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They fused the two films  into posters for one film.
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So they fused 2 things into one.
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When you fuse two or more things into it  just means combined, they've combined.
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So I'll write that for you who have also  combined, combined, highlight this combined fused.
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Notice my pronunciation.
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Fuse, fuse, fused.
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And in the past, simple.
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We just have a very soft tea fused, fused,  
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fused the two films into posters for one  film titled, not surprisingly, Barbenheimer.
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As expected, Margot Robbie as Barbie,  so she's the actress that plays Barbie  
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and Sicilian Murphy as Robert Oppenheimer, the  man who plays the lead character in the movie.
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Oppenheimer feature predominantly  on most posters and memes.
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So this is saying that these two actors  who are the leads in the respective movies,  
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Barbie and Oppenheimer,  they feature predominantly.
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So they're the most prominent, the ones you  see the most, the main, predominantly the main  
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on most posters and memes.
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So that was, I'll go to the very beginning  because this was one of the memes.
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And so they've taken the image of Barbie,  who is very perky and happy and fun loving,  
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but then it's on this very dark and  mysterious background of bombs and explosions.
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So Barbie looks so happy, but then  the background is the very serious  
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topic of Oppenheimer, which is atomic bombs.
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So they fuse them together,  they combine them together.
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And this is Barbenheimer.
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This poster is Barbenheimer and  I included two of the memes.
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So that was the end of our article.
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So you're probably wondering,  well, where are these memes?
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Here are two of them.
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So again, there are elements of the movie  Barbie and elements of the movie Oppenheimer.
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In this one meme, they fuse them together.
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Barbie lives in a pink mansion in Malibu.
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The Malibu Dream house.
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That's where Barbie lives.
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So it's pink.
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It's been bombed.
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It's there's an explosion here, right.
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So that's the subject of Oppenheimer.
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They put them together.
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And here's another one.
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So again, the very serious  subject matter of Oppenheimer,  
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they took that and they turned it into pink.
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And if you look closely, Barbie is still  smiling because Barbie is always happy, right?
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But then the topic is very serious.
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So those are two of the memes.
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Of course, you can simply Google Barbenheimer  memes and you can look at other memes as well.
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So that's the end of the article.
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What I'll do now is I'll go to the top and  I'll read the article from start to finish.
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And this time you can focus on my pronunciation.
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Barbie versus Oppenheimer.
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Barbenheimer memes are the bomb, pun intended.
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Even if you are only remotely interested in the  entertainment industry or pop culture, you cannot  
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have missed the buzz around the clash of two of  Hollywood's biggest films, Barbie and Oppenheimer.
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The two films, which are as different as chalk  and cheese in subject matter and treatment,  
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have cinema lovers across the world divided  
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as people passionately discuss and debate which  film to watch first, or even watch at all.
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There appears to be only one winner,  
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the memers of the world, who are having  a blast creating content about the clash.
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While Oppenheimer is a biographical thriller based  on Robert Oppenheimer, the mind behind the world's  
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first atomic bomb, Barbie is a fantasy comedy  based on the iconic fashion dolls by Mattel.
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The selection of memes that have spawned from  
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this clash of the Titans even has its  own moniker, the Barbenheimer Memes.
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To top it all, fans have also fused the two films  
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into posters for one film titled,  not surprisingly, Barbenheimer.
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As expected, Margot Robbie as Barbie and  Sicilian Murphy as Robert Oppenheimer  
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feature predominantly on most posters and memes.
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Amazing job you did it.
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Think of all the expressions,  all the grammar concepts,  
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all the pronunciation that you learned today.
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Did you like this lesson?
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Would you like me to make more one  hour English lessons just like this?
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If so, put one hour in the comments.
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One hour in the comments so I know you  liked this lesson and you can get this  
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51:21
free speaking guide where I share 6 tips on  how to speak English fluently and confidently.
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You can click here to download it or  look for the link in the description.
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And why don't you get started  with your next lesson right now?
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