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Pitch In
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Pitch In English, baby! Video Lesson
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Learn English with this work English lesson

Date: Jun 18 2013

Themes: Soap Opera, Work

Grammar: Past Progressive Tense

Intro

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

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

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The verb “pitch” has many meanings. It can refer to the throwing of a baseball. When you put a tent together, you pitch a tent. Pitching is also something you do with a pitchfork, which is a tool used to gather hay. You might pitch hay into a big pile, called a haystack. That sounds difficult to do on your own, doesn’t it? Maybe you’d like a friend to pitch in?

Pitching in isn’t just about gathering hay, or building a tent, or tossing balls. You pitch in whenever you help someone do something else. You could pitch in some help for your friend on his moving day, or you could pitch in some money to help your friend pay her medical bills. You could pitch in at work during a busy time, or pitch in and help drive the kids to school. Pitching in is any form of helping out.

Amanda’s about to ask the workers at the office to pitch in. Find out why she needs help in this work English lesson.

动词“pitch”有多种意思。它可以表示投掷棒球。和“tent”(帐篷)连用,表示搭建帐篷。“pitching”还表示使用干草叉收集干草这一动作。你可以把干草堆成干草堆。可是要自己完成的话,感觉有点难,是不是?或许你会叫朋友一起帮忙?

“pitch in”的意思并不局限于收集干草、搭帐篷或投球。无论你帮助他人做什么事情,都可以用“pitch in”。你可以在朋友搬家时助一臂之力,或帮朋友垫付医药费。你可以在工作中帮助忙碌的同事,或开车把朋友的孩子送到学校。“pitch in”表示任何形式的帮助。

阿曼达打算请办公室的同事帮忙。在本节以工作为话题的英语课中,看看阿曼达为什么要请别人帮忙。

3. Watch - Watch the video without reading the dialog.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Amanda

Amanda

Jeff

Jeff

Lily

Lily

Mason

Mason

Amanda:  Okay everyone, I just got off the phone with Greta. I’ve got some great news. I was a little worried about that whole penguin-eyelash scandal thing. Turns out people seem to have forgotten about it already.

Jeff:  Really? Weren’t they accusing her of stealing penguin eyelashes, and giving her death threats and stuff?

Lily:  That’s what the internet is like. One minute, it’s a huge scandal, the next minute, completely forgotten.

Amanda:  Lily’s right. Thankfully tons of guys have still submitted their profiles in to win a date with Greta. And I’ve asked her to pick her first date by the end of this week. Things are gonna get really busy around here really soon, guys.

Mason:  How soon?

Jeff:  What guys?

Amanda:  What this means for us is that I’m going to have to ask all of you to pitch in.

Mason:  Wait.

Amanda:  It might mean a little overtime, it might mean some extra work around here.

Mason:  Isn’t that why you hired Lily? To do a little bit of extra stuff so you would have some free time to do your other stuff? Personal, family stuff?

Amanda:  Mason, I don’t think this is the time or place to talk about that. Lily’s not going to be around much longer to pitch in, anyway.

Jeff:  You’re leaving?

Amanda:  Yeah. She’s going to pursue her dream of becoming a chef.

Lily:  That’s the plan. But I’m more than willing to pitch in as much as you need me to until I go.

Jeff:  I’ve got to admit, I don’t like the idea of Greta going on a date with one of those guys from the contest.

Mason:  I totally agree. Cause if she starts going on all those dates, it’s gonna get so busy around here. Amanda will never want to have a baby with me!

Jeff:  Alright. I have an idea. If you’re willing to help out, I’d like you to pitch in.

Mason:  You’ve got it, buddy.

 

Grammar Point

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Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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Discussion

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There was a big scandal last season when Greta was accused of hurting penguins. Luckily, no one is worried about that anymore, and the big promotion can continue. Amanda hopes that Greta will find a date soon, and that means everyone at the office will have to help out and pitch in. They might even need to work overtime.

Jeff and Mason aren’t happy about this news, but not because they don’t want to do more work. Jeff doesn’t like the idea of Greta dating someone else. Could it be that he has feelings for her? And Mason is afraid that if things get too busy at the office, Amanda will never want to have a baby.

Luckily, Jeff has a plan. He’s going to need Mason to pitch in to make the plan happen.

What kind of plan do you think Jeff has? Do you think it will work? Was there a time that you were asked to pitch in to help with a project?

 

Comments

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fabsir

fabsir

Brazil

My guess is that Jeff is going to do something to ruin Greta going on dates. At my job you´re usually asked to pitch in when things get too busy. Recently we had to pitch in to cover for a staff member that had to be away for a while taking care of health issues.

04:00 PM Jul 09 2013 |

 julito

julito

Argentina

I think that when Amanda  broke out the news that she would need  that her coworkers  pitch in over time  at the office and that Greta is about to start dating the guys that had won the contest, Jeff  with the help of Mason  are about  to come up with a malicious plan  towards  hindering  Greta`s  meeting  them. If i were Jeff, I would call Greta`s suitors  and inform them that  Greta has already  started dating a man  and apologize that  it`s not possible  going on a date with her. 

09:21 PM Jun 18 2013 |

Nicte ha

Nicte ha

Mexico

Are Jeff and Mason plotting actions against job??, mmmmm 0_0

03:43 PM Jun 18 2013 |

shaerwan

shaerwan

Syrian Arab Republic

I think Jeff is going to ask greta that he will date her by himself

02:03 PM Jun 18 2013 |

Ya Nina

Kazakhstan

Frankfully speaking, I have nothing idea about Jeff’s plan. Definitely, he will try to do everything possible so that Greta wouldn’t meet with some guys from the context. On the other hand, he can’t ruin whole Amanda’s plan because it can be damage for the agency. Probably, as I suppose, Jeff will submit all necessary form on the web-site and make all possible and impossible so that Greta will meet with him but no one of those guys. I believe that his plan will work and it will become the beginning of their big future love. I hope that at last they will admit each other in their feelings and can be happy. Besides, in such variant nobody have to pitch in and help out. 


Speaking about me, I don’t like to ask someone to help me out or pitch in in my personal life. If speaking about business, certainly, there are the situations when you need to ask your team or colleagues to help you out and pitch in with a some important and big project. In that case, I suppose that it is absolutely normal, because as usually success of doing of such big projects depends on efforts of all team.

12:00 PM Jun 18 2013 |

ola33

ola33

Japan

I think Jeff will come up with the plan of a new and interesting project like he did before with that rock or the guitar song like Jason was up to. Anything will be fun, if it’s safe;)


 

03:11 AM Jun 18 2013 |

belle042682

Philippines

This is really cool! The story is becoming really exciting and much more interesting! I’m Belle from Philippines and I’m an ESL online teacher. I’ve been using your website for several times and it’s been very helpful to me and most especially for my students. You guys ( English Baby Staffs, Crews and casts..) really have amazing ideas how to really make learning English easy, fun and very interesting that is really suits my way in teaching. I’m #1 FAN!!! This is very useful because of your soap operas , student get used of learning from the situation and could be exposed of some real situation using the idioms and vocabulary used. PLEASE DO KEEP UP THE GOOD IDEAS! :)

01:30 AM Jun 18 2013 |

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