English, baby!

简体

The Wizard of Oz

Learn English with this movies English lesson

Date: Mar 15 2013

Themes: Pop Culture

Grammar: Simple Present Tense

Go Super!

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

Go Super to Listen

leave well enough alone

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

Go Super to Listen

The Wizard of Oz is one of the most popular movies of all time. Generations of families have enjoyed watching as Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion make their way along the yellow brick road to Oz. Even if you’ve never seen the movie, you might know one of its most popular songs, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

But have you ever wondered how Oz’s wizard came to be? An upcoming movie, Oz the Great and Powerful, starring James Franco, explores this question. It’s sort of a prequel to the The Wizard of Oz. Find out what Greta and Mason think about the old Oz and the new Oz in this movies English lesson.

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.

Greta

Mason

Greta: Have you seen the previews for the new Oz movie?

Mason: Here’s what I worry about…So, sometimes I think you need to leave well enough alone. The original Wizard of Oz movie is great. Fantastic. I’m a little bit nervous when I hear that Tim Burton is going to give his modern take on the classic tale.

Greta: Huh. I can see that. Especially because the Wizard of Oz, the original one, is so family-friendly, and you kind of never know with remakes. Like the Willy Wonka movie was considerably, I think, more disturbing, the remake.

Mason: Yeah. I have such fond memories of just…I know pretty much all the songs. We’d watch them together as a family and everyone would skip and pretend we were going down the yellow brick road.

Greta: True. But this is not a remake of the Wizard of Oz.

Mason: Oh?

Greta: It is following Oz, I don’t remember the character’s real name, the traveling salesman who becomes the Wizard of Oz. It’s his story. It’s like a prequel. And James Franco is the traveling salesman. And I have to say, I love James Franco, and I love that world. So, I am looking forward to seeing it.

Mason: By the way, spoiler alert. The Wizard of Oz isn’t a real wizard? What?

Grammar Point

Go Super to learn "Simple Present Tense" from this lesson

Quizzes

Go Super to take Quiz

Lesson MP3

Go Super to download full lesson MP3

Go Super to Ask Ebaby! teachers your questions!

The iTEP^® test

Sponsored by

Schedule an iTEP^® test and take the official English Practice Test.
Take Now >

Discussion

Go Super to Listen

Mason and Greta have heard about the upcoming movie about Oz, and they have different feelings about it. Mason is worried. He loved the original Wizard of Oz so much because he watched it with his family growing up. He would sing the songs from the movie and skip around.

Greta understands that the movie meant something special to Mason when he was young. She also knows that sometimes new versions of movies are less family-friendly than the originals. Still, she’s excited about Oz the Great and Powerful. She’s a fan of James Franco, and she loves the world of Oz so much that she’d be happy to see any movies about it.

What were your favorite movies as a kid? Have you ever seen a remake of a movie you loved? Did you like it, or were you disappointed?

Comments

< Previous
21 through 27 of 27
1 2

julito

Argentina

long ,long time ago I have seen this epic movie and i am thinking to rent it to watch again the original version.

ola33

Japan

I watched the preview of this movie and absolutely liked it. Definitely, I will not only have fun watching it, but it will also brings me back to my childhood. We used to play Wizard of Oz, dressing up, pretedning different characters.. :) It was so much fun.

Mari-yam

Mali

hmmm from the coming up i saw , i didn’t really like the special effects, they should have just make it an anime instead !! but well i didn’t watch it yet so it may be quite interresting i duuno yet ^^!

Being_conscious

Ukraine

Recently I watched in movie.It was great..so interesting..beautiful scenes..special effects.They gave the old story new life. It`s not a remake or something like that. It`s a new story that make possible to understand the real story of the wizard and that nasty witch.Everything in movie makes you believe that it`s old good Wizard OZ movie,but better because of the all special effects and amusing dialogs(so close to our mowaday life).Of corse it just can`t replace the previous movie(because of all that childhood memories),but it can be a new “oftentimes-seen-movie-for the-whole-family”.Watch it and you won`t regret or you can bite me=)

Good time for everyone!Watch only decent movies)

fal.gun

India

i have’nt seen like this

Joyce Rose

China

I am looking forward to seeing The Wizard of Oz .

KelvinPhillbert

China

i have not see the wizard of OZ before, but i have to say, nowadays lots of the directors alaways like to copy the the classic movies, they follow the tales of original movies, and just change some actor, what i hate the most is they change the tales and make it worse, awful. why not just leave the well enough alone, and make some new and interesting movies?