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Shadowing practice: Beverly Tries to Warn Adam About Divorce - The Goldbergs

Listen to the line, then say it out loud
Line 1

Full transcript

  1. My mom was upset over the news of Vicki's divorce and my dad wasn't helping.0:00
  2. So this doesn't bother you?0:03
  3. She's divorced!0:05
  4. Big deal!0:06
  5. So you don't care about Adam splitting with Brea and only seeing his children half the time?0:06
  6. So help me!0:11
  7. If she takes those little munchkins out of state, I will kidnap them.0:12
  8. So you think Brea will divorce Adam just because her mom is divorced?0:15
  9. Yes.0:19
  10. Children repeat the mistakes of their parents.0:20
  11. We have to stop Adam.0:22
  12. Stop me from doing what?0:24
Show all 92 lines Show fewer lines
  1. Oh, baby.0:26
  2. Sit down.0:27
  3. We have some upsetting news about Brea.0:28
  4. Brea's mother, Vicki, is divorced.0:32
  5. What do you say?0:37
  6. Divorced.0:38
  7. Still can't hear you.0:39
  8. Divorced.0:40
  9. The Force?0:41
  10. Divorced.0:42
  11. From Star Wars?0:42
  12. Divorced.0:43
  13. What are you saying?0:44
  14. Divorced!0:45
  15. The woman is divorced!0:46
  16. Oh, yeah, I know.0:48
  17. That heartbeat told you about her broken marriage?0:49
  18. I kind of figured it out when her dad lived in a different house.0:52
  19. Without his family?0:54
  20. Is he ever not smiling?0:56
  21. Adam, let me tell you a story.0:58
  22. No, I don't want to hear how your aunt, Annie, man's mom got divorced and now she's living in a giant soup tank.1:00
  23. It was my manicurist's roof guy who lost so much in his split that they turned his water off and he had to bathe in a lake.1:05
  24. Snapping turtles took his toes, lips, and a nice chunk of one buttock.1:12
  25. And now he's got to sit crotch down.1:17
  26. None of that happened to any person.1:20
  27. I only bring this up because you and Brea have been discussing your futures and I don't think that she has the best role models.1:21
  28. And what do I have?1:29
  29. No boundaries, no bottoms.1:31
  30. The kid's pretty clever.1:33
  31. When's he gonna get a girlfriend?1:34
  32. Adam, you need to listen to me.1:35
  33. Divorce is no laughing matter.1:37
  34. I don't want you to be one of those sad sacks who has to go on dates in his 30s.1:39
  35. In his 30s!1:44
  36. Stop!1:45
  37. Divorce isn't some horrible thing.1:46
  38. Just because Brea's mom is doesn't mean it's inevitable for us.1:48
  39. Okay, so you're not gonna listen to me.1:51
  40. Maybe you'll listen to one of your esteemed heroes.1:53
  41. You think these bozos are my heroes?1:57
  42. It's the best I could do.2:00
  43. Thank you for agreeing to speak with us.2:01
  44. We didn't agree.2:04
  45. This is a hostage situation.2:05
  46. Well, while we're waiting for help, let's find out more about you people.2:07
  47. I prefer to keep my private life private.2:10
  48. No, not me.2:13
  49. I talked about my gout on a sports call -in show this morning.2:13
  50. What do you want to know?2:16
  51. Dale, are you currently married?2:17
  52. No.2:18
  53. Split is the pea soup.2:19
  54. I eat alone in my bachelor's only building.2:20
  55. Your divorce must have been difficult.2:22
  56. Actually, who's the best?2:24
  57. What?2:26
  58. Yep, I was finally free from the lies about why our carpenter was always wearing my bathrobe or coming with me and Gretchen on vacation.2:26
  59. Ignore him.2:33
  60. Ball, you're a tragic divorcee, right?2:34
  61. Happily married for 30 glorious years.2:37
  62. But you always seem so bald and miserable.2:40
  63. This going how you thought it was gonna go?2:42
  64. Fine.2:44
  65. Surely you have tragic tales of dating.2:45
  66. Oh, contraire, the pool of unattached older gals is deep.2:47
  67. Desperate widowed bitties want attention and I'm just the young buck to give it to them.2:51
  68. Enough.2:55
  69. No one cares if Brea's mom is divorced.2:56
  70. Brea B's hot mom is on the market?2:57
  71. Tell her I have most of my original teeth.2:59
  72. Well, excuse me for wanting to protect you.3:01
  73. Protect him from what?3:04
  74. He's never gonna do better than Brea B ever.3:05
  75. I mean, ever.3:07
  76. It's true.3:08
  77. We spend hours in the teacher's lounge trying to figure out how he landed her in the first place.3:09
  78. My guess is she got hit on the head and it damaged a part of her brain that processes odd shapes.3:14
  79. This is starting to feel personal.3:18
  80. It is.3:21

A fast paced American sitcom argument for english speaking practice

This clip is a family argument scene from The Goldbergs, an American sitcom, and it moves at 230 words per minute, faster than 85 percent of the catalogue, for a B2 level segment. Beverly corners her son Adam to warn him about divorce right after the family learns that Brea's mother, Vicki, has split from her husband, and the argument never really slows down.

Two speakers talk over each other for most of the clip, which is exactly what makes it useful for english speaking practice at this level. If you already watch shows to learn english with series, this scene is built for practicing real conversational speed rather than a scripted, slowed down dialogue, and for hearing how a native speaker actually stresses a short line under pressure.

Shadow this line: the gonna reduction and repeated word in this scene

The clip leans on plain, repeated dialogue instead of rare vocabulary, which is what makes it worth shadowing out loud line by line.

  • "So this doesn't bother you?" Beverly's opening question, five words with the stress landing hard on "bother", worth shadowing just to catch that accusing rise before you move on.
  • "Divorced!" repeated across nine straight lines from 16 to 27 as Adam and Beverly volley the same single word back and forth, each pass landing the stress a little differently.
  • "When's he gonna get a girlfriend?" one of four gonna reductions in the recording, thrown away fast, the kind of contraction that looks strange written down and disappears the moment you shadow it out loud.
  • "This is a hostage situation." Adam's flat delivery, four words with no rise at the end, and that flatness carries the whole joke.

How to work this scene for american accent training

Work the clip in short passes instead of trying to keep pace with the whole 92 lines at once.

  • Start on the "Divorced!" run, lines 16 to 27. Loop just those nine lines until you can land the stress differently each time, the way Beverly and Adam do.
  • Move to line 43, "When's he gonna get a girlfriend?" Say it slowly first, spelling out the full form in your head, then speed it back up to gonna until the reduction feels automatic.
  • Take line 39, the longest sentence in the opening: "I only bring this up because you and Brea have been discussing your futures and I don't think that she has the best role models." Break it at "because" and "and" before saying it whole.
  • Finish on line 57, "This is a hostage situation." Keep your pitch flat all the way through, that flatness is what makes the line land, and repeating it is faster practice than replaying the clip.
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