Learn English With Books: The Hunger Games

What's up everyone? Today we have  a very exciting lesson for you,  

where we'll be learning English with the first  book from the Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. 

But before we get into it, and in case you're new  here, I want to let you know that we help you to  

learn fast English, without getting lost, without  missing the jokes and without subtitles. Just like  

this fan, who says that our channel is the bomb. So be sure to hit that Subscribe Button and  

the Bell down below, so that you  don't miss any of our new lessons.

So just to let you know in case you haven't yet  read the book or seen the movies, there are no  

spoilers in this lesson. So don't worry, you can  keep watching and if you do want to read along  

with me I'm going to be reading from page 4. So you can read along with me with the passage  

if you have the book as well. But before we  start reading we're going to learn a little  

bit more about the fictional world in which the  Hunger Games is set. As well as some vocabulary  

from the passage that I'm going to be reading  as a little bit of prep work. Are you ready?

So first let's take a look at where  and in what time the novel unfolds.  

The Hunger Games is a novel that unfolds in Panem,  an apocalyptic world sometime in the future.  

Geographically Panem is located in North  America but characters in the story mention  

large areas of land across the world that have  become uninhabitable due to rising sea levels. 

So who is the main character? This story centers  around a 16 year old girl called Katniss Everdeen,  

and her struggle to survive in dystopia.  Panem is an oppressed world that runs in  

a way that resembles Ancient Rome. There are  12 numbered districts, so you'll often hear  

references to District 2, District 3, and so on. Our main character Katniss is from District 12.  

there's also a capital city called The Capitol,  which is located in the Rocky Mountains.

So once a year the 12 districts  are forced to offer a boy and  

a girl between the age of 12 and 18  to participate in the Hunger Games.

Dystopia is not a word that's in the passage that  I'm about to read but it describes the fictional  

world of the Hunger Games. Dystopia means  the opposite of utopia, a very bad or unfair  

society in which there is a lot of suffering.  Especially an imaginary society in the future  

after something terrible has happened. Reaping literally means to cut and  

collect your crops. We often say this when you get  something good out of a result that you have done.  

For example to reap the rewards of hard work.  However here it means the collection or the  

gathering of these young boys and girls from  each district to participate in the games.

Chain link fence topped with barbed  wire loops. Chain link fences as  

you can see in the picture are what delimit  the boundaries or borders of each district.  

They're topped, meaning they have on top barbed  wire loops, as you can also see in the picture.

So before we read the passage  we're going to look at five  

verbs and five definitions  that you can try to match.

If you want to have the ability to read  more books, as well as understand your  

favorite TV series and movies, then I highly  recommend our Fluent with Friends course.  

You'll have a lot of fun learning  with the first two seasons of Friends.  

Receiving our PDF Power Lessons, Vocabulary  memorization software and you'll also have  

access to our Fluency Circle Global Community. But  the best part is you can try it right now for FREE  

with our 3-Part Masterclass. All you have to do is click  

up here or down in the description box  below to learn more and sign up now.

What do you think she means by a  stretch that's been loose for years?  

Here she's talking about the fence. She's  talking about a hole or a gap in the wired fence. 

She says I flatten out my belly and slide  under a two foot stretch that's been loose  

for years. Now what she means by this is that  she flattens out her belly as much as possible,  

so she's not hunched over but she flattens  it out and she slides under to get through.

Now peacekeepers are controlled by The  Capitol and they are basically the military  

and law enforcement in Panem. The peacekeepers  ensure that the law of The Capitol are obeyed  

and publicly punish anyone who breaks them. If you're a fan of the Hunger Games or even  

Jennifer Lawrence and absolutely loved the  movie, then I highly recommend you check out  

this lesson we made by clicking up here or down  in the description box below to watch it next.

Katniss says that poaching carries the severest of  penalties. This means the worst possible penalty. 

Penalty is an official punishment by law and  in this world it could very well mean punished  

by death. She also says publicly executed for  inciting a rebellion. Now if you incite someone  

it means that you motivate them to do something.  It kind of has a negative connotation because you  

incite people to do something negative, whereas  you motivate people to do something positive.  

As I mentioned at the beginning a rebellion is  what District 13 decided to do and failed at. 

The people from this District got together to  fight the system, they basically rebelled. That's  

what a rebellion is, when lots of people  come together and rebel against a system. 

If you turn a blind eye to something  bad or illegal that is happening  

you're basically not taking much notice of it on  purpose, so that you don't have to deal with it. 

Now let's check your comprehension  of the text with a few questions.

Okay,  

I hope you enjoyed reading this passage from  The Hunger Games with me, and if you would  

like another lesson on it maybe as the story  develops let me know down in the comments below. 

Or if you'd like a lesson with another book please  do let me know again down in the comments because  

I'd love to make one that is highly requested  and popular. But now it's time to go beyond the  

classroom and live your English Aww yeah!!