quinta-feira, 3 de fevereiro de 2011

American City Life


Source: www.speakup.com.br
Language level: Advanced
Standard: American accent


American City Life

Our readings this month were recorded at the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, which took place in New York in April. The first reading is set in San Francisco in the optimistic “flower power” era of the 1960s. It’s by the actor and comedian Steve Martin, who provides his own introduction:

1965: Steve Martin’s San Francisco
Steve Martin

I’m Steve Martin and let me just say that it’s a great honor for me be here among these great writers and it’s an incredible disgrace that they are here with me! I’m going to read from an unpublished book that will be published in December. It’s called Born Standing Up and it’s a memoir of my career as a stand-up comedian:

On a humid Monday night in the summer of 1965, after finding a $8 hotel room in the then economically-friendly city of San Francisco, I lugged my banjo and black hardshell prop case ten sweaty blocks uphill to the Coffee and Confusion, where I had signed up to play for free. The club was tiny and makeshift, decorated with chairs, tables, a couple of bare light bulbs and nothing else. I had romanticized San Francisco as an exotic destination, away from friends and family, and toward mystery and adventure. So I often drove my 20-year-old self up from Los Angeles to audition my fledglings comedy act at the club, or to play banjo on the street for tips. I would sleep in VW van, camp out in Golden Gate Park, pay for a cheap hotel, or snag a free room in a Haight Ashbury Victorian crash pad, by making an instant friend. At this point, my act was a catch all, cobbled together from the disparate universes of juggling, comedy, banjo playing, weird bits I’d written in college, and magic tricks. I was strictly Monday-night quality, the night when, traditionally, anyone could get up to perform. All we entertainers knew, Mondays were really audition nights for the club. I walked past Broadway and Columbus where Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s ramshackle City Lights Books was jam-packed with thin, small-press publications, offering way-out poetry, and reissues of long ago banned erotic novels. Around the corner on Broadway was Mike’s Pool Hall, where bikers and hippies first laid eyes on each other, unsure of whether they should beat each other up, or just smoke pot and forget about it. Steps away was the Hungry Eye, a night club that had launched a thousand careers, including those of the Smothers Brothers, The Kingston Trio and Lenny Bruce, but I had to trudge on by. Just up Columbus, I passed the Condor, the first of a sudden explosion of topless clubs, where Carold Doda, in a new-fangled bathing suit that exposed her recently inflated, basketball breasts, descended from the ceiling on a gran piano that was painted virginal white. This cultural mélange and the growing presence of drugs made the crowded streets of North Beach shimmer with toxic vitality.

The Coffee and Confusion was on nearby Grant Avenue, a street dotted with used clothing stores and incense shops. I nervously entered the club and Ivan Holtz, the show runner, put me on the line-up. I lingered at the back, waiting for my turn and surveyed the audience of about fifteen people. They were arrayed in patchwork jeans with tie-dyed tops, and the room was thick with an illegal aroma. In the audience was a street poet dressed in rags and bearded like a yeti, who had a plastic, which he unloaded on performers he didn’t like. I was still untouched by the rapidly changing fashion scene – my short hair and conservative clothes weren’t going to help me with this crowd. Ivan introduced me. my opening line – “Hello,   I’m Steve Martin and I’ll be out here in a minute –was met with one lone chuckle.  I struggled through the first few minutes, keeping a wary eye on Mr. Ping Pong Ball, and filled in the dead air with some banjo tunes that went just OK. I could see Ivan standing nearby, concerned. I began to strum the banjo, singing a song that, I told the audience, my grandmother had taught me:

“Be courteous, kind and forgiving,
  Be gentle and peaceful each day,
  Be warm and human and grateful,
  And have a good thing to say.
  Be thoughtful and trustful and child-like,
  Be witty and happy and wise,
  Be honest and love all your neighbors,
  Be obsequious, purple and clairvoyant,
  Be pompous, obese and eat cactus,
  Be dull and boring and omnipresent,
  Criticize thing you don’t know about,
  Be oblong and have you knees removed.”

And then I said, “Now everyone” and I repeated the entire thing, adding in, “Ladies only: ‘Never make love to Big Foot.’ Men  only: ‘Hello, my name is Big Foot.’” Not many people sang along.

9/11/2001: Don DeLillo’s New York

Our second reading is set in New York and in a darker era – that of the attacks on the World Trade Center on 11th September 2001. Don DeLillo reads from his latest novel, Falling Man, which was published in May of this year:

Don DeLillo:
Standard: American accent:

The first cop told him to go to the checkpoint on block east of here and he did this and there were military police and troops in Humvees and a convoy of dump trucks and sanitation sweepers moving south though the parted saw horse barriers. He showed proof of address with pictures 10 and the second cop told him to go to the next checkpoint, east of here, and he did this and saw a chain-link barrier stretching down the middle of Broadway patrolled by troops in gas masks. He told the cop at the checkpoint that he had a cat to feed and if it died his child would be devastated and the man was sympathetic but told him to try the next checkpoint. There were fire-rescue cars and ambulances; there were state police cruisers, flatbed trucks, vehicles with cherry pickers, all moving through the barricades, and into the shroud of sand and ash. He showed the next cop his proof of address and picture 10 and told him there were cats he had to feed three of them, and if they died his children would be devastated and he showed the splint on his left arm. He had to move out of the way when a drove of enormous bulldozers and backhoes moved through the parted barricades, marking the sound of hell machines at endless revving pitch.

He started over again with the cop and showed his wrist splint and said he needed only fifteen minutes in the apartment to feed the cats and then he’d go back to the hotel and reassure the children. The cop said okay but if you’re stopped down there be sure to tell them you went through the broadway checkpoint, not this one. He worked his way through the frozen zone, south and west, passing through smaller checkpoints and detouring around others. There was a Guard troop in battle jackets and sidearm and now and then he saw a figure in a dust mask man or woman, half surreptitious, the only other civilians. The streets and cars were surfaced in ash and there were garbage bags stacked high at curb stones and against the sides of buildings. He walked slowly, watching for something he could not identify. Everything was gray, it was limp and failed storefronts behind corrugated steel shutters, a city somewhere else under permanent siege, and a stink in the air that infiltrated the skin.

Pro-jovem, Part 8, Inglês vip




Source: www.ingvip.com


Lucas: Hello
Pedro: Hi Lucas, how are you?
Lucas: I'm fine, thanks. What do you want to do today?
Pedro: Don't you remember? We are going to your house
Lucas: Today? Are the girls coming?
Pedro: Yes, they are
Lucas: Can you help me with the snacks(1)?
Pedro: Sure(2)What do you want me to do(3)?
Lucas: You can prepare the sandwitches, I can buy the drinks(4), you can call the girls, and I can...
Pedro: Easy(5) man, easy...why are you so worried(6)?
Lucas: Because my house is a mess(7).
Pedro: Hey, don't worry about it (8) OK? We'll fix it up (9)Everything is gonna be ok (10), right.
             Bye bye...see'ya
Lucas: Hello
Julia: Hello Lucas. We are going to your house, but we don't know where you live. So, where do you live (11)?
Lucas: It's not too far from your house, it's near the drugstore (12).
Julia: Why are you so tired?
Lucas: because, because...
Julia: OK. See you in 20 minutes
Lucas: OK. Bye, see you. How do I clean (13) all this in 20 minutes?
Lucas: Welcome to (14) my house
Pedro: Where do we put this (15)?
Lucas: You can put it in the kitchen (16)
Julia: Where do we sit?
Lucas: We can sit  here in the living room (17)
Julia: Who do you live with (18)?
Lucas: I live with my family. But they are working
Julia: How many brothers do you have?
Lucas: I have two brothers and one sister
Julia: You have a clean house
Lucas: Thanks
Mariana: Lucas, where is the bathroom (19) ?
Lucas: It's that door over there (20)
Mariana: Oh, thank you...Lucas!
Lucas: No, no no...not this door...I'm sorry
Pedro: That's how he cleans his house. This bedroom is not clean!
Lucas: Spare me (21), man!
 


                                      Vocabulary
 1. 
 Snacks = lanches
 2.  Sure = claro
 3. O que você quer que eu faça? = 
What do you want me to do?
 4. Drinks = 
bebidas
 5. Easy =
 calma
 6. Why are you so worried? = 
Por que você está tão preocupado? 
 7. Mess = 
bagunça
 8. 
 Don't worry about it = Não se preocupe com isso
 9. We'll fix it up =  Nós vamos "dar um jeito"
 10. Everything is gonna be OK =
 Tudo vai ficar bem
 11. Where do you live? = 
Onde você mora?
 12. Drugstore =
 farmácia
 13. Clean =
 limpar, arrumar
 14. Welcome to = 
Bem-vindo a
 15. Where do we put this?
  = Onde nós colocamos isso?
 16. Kitchen = cozinha
 17. Living room = 
sala
 18. Who do you live with? = 
Com quem você mora?
 19. Bathroom =
 banheiro
 20. Over there = 
Logo ali
 21. Spare me = 
 " me poupe"

quarta-feira, 2 de fevereiro de 2011

James Rouse, 1914-1996: Developer Who Found New Ways to Improve Cities


Source: www.voanews.com visit the site for more information, really interesting for English learners.

James Rouse attends an International Council of Shopping Centers Conference in 1966
Photo: columbiaarchives.org
James Rouse attends an International Council of Shopping Centers Conference in 1966

 



STEVE EMBER: I'm Steve Ember.
FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell about James Rouse. He was a developer who found new ways to improve American cities.
(MUSIC)
STEVE EMBER: It was a gray day in nineteen seventy-three. James Wilson Rouse got off a train in Boston, Massachusetts. He had come to see a very old building that was almost empty.
Mr. Rouse owned a company that developed property. Another official of the company was on that trip. The official remembered that the building looked terrible. Part of it was burned out. It was filled with holes where rats lived.
Yet, the official said: "Jim was very happy. He said it was going to be great. The man could see things no one else could see.”
FAITH LAPIDUS: The damaged building James Rouse was inspecting became the beginning of Boston's famous Faneuil Hall. Repaired and rebuilt, it is an important part of a historic cultural center for stores, ethnic foods and street performers.
The Rouse Company redesigned Boston's Faneuil Hall marketplace in 1976
visit-boston-massachusetts.com

The Rouse Company redesigned Boston's Faneuil Hall marketplace in 1976
The center is designed to show life as it was in the seventeen hundreds. Millions of people from all over the world have visited Faneuil Hall.
Faneuil Hall is just one of many “festival marketplaces” that James Rouse created in the centers of older cities. Festival marketplaces are large centers for shopping, eating and other pleasant activities. He built other major centers in New York City; Baltimore, Maryland and Miami, Florida.
STEVE EMBER: Harborplace in Baltimore is a good example of James Rouse’s festival marketplaces. In the seventeen hundreds, the land on which the Harborplace development was built served as a trade center for Baltimore. Many ships sailed to and from this area of the eastern American port city.
Over the years, however, this busy, successful waterfront area changed. By the middle of the twentieth century, businesses were failing. Many buildings were empty and in need of major repair.
The Baltimore city government decided to establish a plan to re-build the area. The plan called for a waterfront development that would combine business and pleasure.
FAITH LAPIDUS: James Rouse’s company won the right to develop part of the area. The project was to be called Harborplace. The first part of Harborplace opened in nineteen eighty. Later in the nineteen eighties, the Rouse Company developed another area called The Gallery at Harborplace.
James Rouse and wife Patty attend Columbia's 20th birthday celebration
columbiaarchives.org

James Rouse and wife Patty attend Columbia's 20th birthday celebration
Today, millions of people each year visit Harborplace and The Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland. They shop and eat in many stores and restaurants. They watch music, dancing and plays performed near the water. And they enjoy the mix of people and activities that brings new life to the center of that old city.
(MUSIC)
STEVE EMBER: James Rouse was born in nineteen fourteen. His family lived in a farming area on the eastern shore of Maryland. His father and mother died within a few months of each other in nineteen thirty. They left their five children without much money.
The parents owed a bank a lot of money for their house. So the bank was forced to take away the family home. James was able to find a job to pay for his college education. He later graduated from the University of Maryland Law School in nineteen thirty-six. He began working for a bank in Baltimore.
FAITH LAPIDUS: In nineteen thirty-nine, James Rouse and a banker, Hunter Moss, borrowed twenty-five thousand dollars. They formed a company that lent money to people who wanted to buy homes. During World War Two, Mr. Rouse served as an officer in the Navy in the Pacific area.
After the war, he returned to Baltimore. His business grew. It represented banks and provided loans to people returning from the war who wanted to buy homes.
James Rouse became a rich man. During the early nineteen fifties, he also became known for social action as well as property development. He tried to improve a poor, undeveloped area in east Baltimore. The mayor of the city said he would not offer complete support for a plan to rebuild the poor area. So Mr. Rouse resigned from a citizens' committee that was supporting the plan.
STEVE EMBER: Also in the nineteen fifties, Mr. Rouse began a project that brought him national fame. He began building some of the first enclosed shopping centers in America. He built a lot of these shopping malls in Maryland and other states. Each mall had stores and businesses inside a large building. They were built outside cities, in the growing housing areas called suburbs.
James Rouse wanted to develop land for the good of society and the environment, not just for profit. In the nineteen sixties, he dreamed of building a complete new city between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland.
His company bought ten percent of the property in Howard County, Maryland. The company bought more than fifty-seven square kilometers of land from one hundred forty separate owners.
FAITH LAPIDUS: In nineteen sixty-three, James Rouse announced that his company would help build a new planned community. By creating separate villages within the community, it was to seem like a small town. Each village would have a shopping center, open spaces and homes. The new community of Columbia, Maryland began in nineteen sixty-seven.
Today, more than ninety-four thousand people live in the city.
(MUSIC)
STEVE EMBER: In nineteen seventy-two, three members of a Washington, D.C. church came to visit James Rouse. The three belonged to the Church of the Saviour, where James and Patricia Rouse had been married.
The women asked Mr. Rouse for advice about creating housing for poor people in the Adams Morgan area of Washington. But Mr. Rouse thought people who knew nothing about development, money or building could not possibly create low-income housing.
FAITH LAPIDUS: The women did not give up their goal. Instead, they invested money to buy two apartment house buildings in Adams Morgan. The buildings were in terrible condition. Mr. Rouse helped them get six hundred twenty-five thousand dollars to complete the deal. He also helped them get one hundred twenty-five thousand dollars to repair the buildings.
Their project was huge. People worked for no pay for fifty thousand hours to repair the buildings. Workers cleaned out garbage and rats. People also gave additional financial help for the restoration. More than nine hundred housing violations were corrected. The completed project provided ninety apartment homes for poor people. They were called Jubilee Housing.
STEVE EMBER: James and Patricia Rouse served as advisors for Jubilee Housing. Mr. Rouse retired as head of his development company. Then, in nineteen eighty-two, they took a further step toward helping poor and middle-income people. They established a new organization, the Enterprise Foundation. They used profits from Mr. Rouse’s company to start the foundation. Its goal is to give poor people in America a chance to live in clean, pleasant places.
Since then, the Enterprise Foundation has worked with thousands of community groups and other organizations. Each year it provides thousands of new or re-built homes for poor and middle-income families.
(MUSIC)
FAITH LAPIDUS:
Many experts say that James Rouse helped shape the look of the United States for years to come. In nineteen ninety-five, President Clinton gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is the highest award a civilian can receive. He was honored for his work restoring the central areas of cities. President Clinton said that James Rouse’s life was based on a strong belief in the American spirit.
James Rouse died in nineteen ninety-six. But the work of the Enterprise Foundation continues with help from family members. One of these is the Rouses’ grandson, Edward Norton, a movie actor. He developed a project to help poor people heat their homes. It is a joint project with the organization his grandparents established.
The influence of James Rouse continues today in other ways. Developers continue to re-build and improve poor areas of cities. And millions of people visit historic centers like Faneuil Hall and Harborplace every year.
(MUSIC)
STEVE EMBER: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Lawan Davis was our producer. I’m Steve Ember.
FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.

Pro-jovem, part 7, Ingles vip

Source: www.ingvip.com





Pedro: Is this your father?
Mariana: Yes, he is
Pedro: 
He is so young. Does he work?
Mariana: Yes, He does. He is a bus driver(1)
Julia: 
And your mother. Does she work too?
Mariana: 
Yes, she does. She is a teacher(2)
Julia: 
Does she teach(3) math(4) ?
Mariana: 
No, she doesn't. She teaches Brazilian history.
Pedro: 
Ah, now I see how you know all those things(5) about Brazilian History. Mariana, do you want to be a teacher too?
Mariana: 
I don't know. I want to be an actress(6), but it is too(7) difficult. I want to be a dentist too but..but I love to write. Maybe I want to be a writer(8), or a photographer, I love to take pictures(9)! Oh, I don't know what I want to be. And you, do you know?
Pedro: I don't know. Let me see(10): doctor, firefighter(11)lawyer(12), dentist, taxi driver, soccer player (13), telemarketing operator
Julia: I know what I want to be. I want to be a social worker to help people.
Mariana: Julia, that is a great idea. I don't know what I want to do. I don't know, I have somedoubts(14). I love music, but I can't play any instrument. Nurse(15)engineer(16)waitress(17),
saleswoman,(18) actress.
Pedro: You can work in a TV station. Maybe(19) we will see you in a soap opera(20).
Mariana: Oh, yes.
Julia: Tourism is the job(21) of the future. Maybe you can be a clerk(22)  in a tourism agency tolearn(23) how it works(24).
Pedro: Thanks. This is a great idea.
Mariana: But first, you have to learn more English. So, let's go to the park?
Julia: I can't. I have to go. I have many things to do.
Mariana: OK.
Pedro: And I have to go home.
Julia: Bye bye Pedro.
Pedro: Bye bye Julia. Girls, don't forget(25). Tomorrow Lucas wants to show(26) us his home.
Julia: Tomorrow. I can't. I have to work. Can we go on the weekend?
Pedro: Well, it's up to you(27).
Mariana: OK, so let's go on the weekend


                                      Vocabulary
 1. Bus driver
  = motorista de ônibus
 2. Teacher =  Professor(a)
 3. teach = 
 ensinar
 4. math = 
matemática
 5. things = coisas
 6. actress = 
atriz
 7. too = 
demais
 8. writer
  = escritor(a)
 9. take pictures = tirar fotos
 10. Let me see = 
deixe-me ver
 11. firefighter = 
bombeiro
 12. lawyer =
 advogado
 13. soccer player  = 
jogador de futebol
 14. doubts = 
dúvidas
 15. 
 nurse = enfermeira
 16. engineer = engenheiro
 17. waitress = 
garçonete
 18. saleswoman = 
vendedora
 19. maybe =
 talvez
 20. soap opera =  
novela
 21. job = 
trabalhoemprego
 22. clerk = 
balconista
 23. learn = aprender
 24. How it works = como funciona
 25. forget = esquecer
 26. show = mostrar
 27. it's up to you = "depende de você"

terça-feira, 1 de fevereiro de 2011

How long does it take to be fluent?


How long does it take to be fluent? Difficult answer, it depends on how much you spend dedicating to improve your English. Fluency means speaking without stopping, not without mistakes, it’s impossible don’t make any mistakes, in particular for beginners.

Let me share something about my own experience in English. Of course, I’ve been practise English, at least over 20 years, and I usually practise English for about 2 hours a day, actually I have difficult sometimes, in particular I'm not good at slangs and idioms. The key of success is very simple. Studying hard and keep focusing improve first, your speaking skill, of course depending on the country the grammar structures are not easy for English learners, however you have to develop the writing skill.

It takes time, will power, dedication and of course keep motivated to continue with your purpose and you’re going to get your achievement. Speak fluent is synonym of “Open doors” for you.

In conclusion, do not forget to invite friends and organise groups and getting started right now. But if you are attending a private course, do not forget to study at home and use Skype, in my viewpoint it is the best software, beyond make friends you can practise and improve your English. 

Please, express your idea about it, and do not forget to twit me, and telling for friends about English tips. You can keep in touch with through Skype ID: aventureirosdacaatinga but, do not forget, I'm not an ESL teacher, if you want an online ones, I have a friend of mine, just leave your Skype's contact and I'll tell you. If you want to help English tips, thank you a lot, I'll give some tips. Thank you for everything and have a wonderful night, or from Asia's friends and Oceania, have a wonderful day.

THE SIMPSONS MOVIE



Source: www.speakup.com.br
Language Level: advanced
Standard:American accent






THE SIMPSONS MOVIE

The Great American Family

The Simpson Movie is the much –awaited film version of the hilarious TV show film version of the same name. That the movie came out this year is fitting, given that the Simpson, a dysfunctional family of cartoon characters, made their debut on American television 20 years ago. They were originally a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, but were given their own 30-minute program on prime time in 1989.

SIMPLY THE BEST

Since then over 400 episodes of The Simpsons have been made. It is America’s longest-running animated program and it is currently the country’ longest-running sit com. In December 1999 Time magazine called it “the 20th century’s best television series.”

The Simpsons were created by Matt Groening. He talked about the challenge of placing Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie on the big screen:

Matt Groening
(Standard American accent):

The Simpsons is a group effort. It’s a collaborative vision, a shared vision of a lot of people, hundreds of animators, 20 writers, a lot of producers, actors – actually, not that many actors; just a few actors doing a lot of voices –but, for the rest of us, for the rest of the production team, it’s a huge number of people and right now we have about 20 writers working on the show, and over the course of the last two decades, we took sort of “The Simpsons All Stars,” the best writers – well, not necessarily the best; the good…the ones who are writing now are really good, too but people who basically ran the show, and working with Jim Brooks, who developed the show with Gracie Films and guided The Simpsons to its success and fruition, we sat in a room, just up the stairs here, and threw out a whole bunch of different ideas and one hit and that’s what we ran with.

YOU’LL LOVE IT!

Groening was confident that the formula would work on the big screen:

Matt Groening:

At the very beginning of the process, we thought, “OK, we’re on the big screen, so we’ve got to take advantage of that,” so we’re using the widest possible screen format and the animation is more sophisticated and ambitious and there’s a lot more going on, and the story is big. It’s an epic story, and we tried some different kinds of jokes and we’ve changed a lot of stuff around. U would say the movie is still a family movie, but you know, if you’re bugged by the Simpsons on TV, you probably will be bugged by it in…the movie theaters, but if you’re not, you won’t be, you’ll love it. I think you’ll love it. The rating is PG 13, “for irreverent humor throughout,” which is…What? That’s the greatest review ever!

LOSERS!

Not surprisingly, Groening was asked to explain the enduring success of The Simpsons:

Matt Groening

You know, I don’t know exactly why the show is so successful all over the world. It’s not successful everywhere, but in a lot of places, it’s really, really successful, and I think in England, for instance, it seems to be more successful even than in the US, Australia it’s also very, very successful, Spain, France.

I mean it’s…it’s amazing. I’m thinking that maybe it’s because there’s a universal joy in seeing people that you can feel superior to! I think people love the idea that no matter how bad their lives are, at least they’re not as bad as the Simpsons!

Voice Artists (no audio available)

Remarkably few actors were required for making The Simpsons Movie. Dan Costellaneta, for example, does the voice of Homer Simpson, but also that of Itchy, Barney, Grampa, Krusty the Clown and Mayor Quimby. Harry Shearer (who was in the coast of Rob Reiner’s splendid 1984 film This is Spinal Tap) does the voices of Scratchy, the Reverend Lovejoy, “President Arnold Schwarzenegger” and the Simpsons’ irritating neighbor, Ned Flanders. The voice of Homer’s 10-year-old son Bart is provided by Nancy Cartwirght, a 49-year-old woman.

Pro-Jovem, part 6, Talking about family, part II, Ingles Vip




Source: For more information contact with the owner of Ingles Vip site www.ingvip.com


Julia: Hello guys(1)
Mariana: 
Hello
Julia: 
What are you doing?
Pedro: 
Mariana is showing(2) me pictures(3) of her family
Julia: 
Really(4)Let me see.(5)
Mariana: This is my grandma(6) and this is my grandpa(7). They work at a bakery in São Paulo
Julia: Oh, great(8).
Mariana: Aren't they cute(9)? I love them
Julia: I have pictures of my family too. Do you want to see them?
Mariana: Yes, we do.
Pedro: Man(10), do you have a big family?
Julia: Yes, I do. My grandma has 9 daughters, 7 sons and 25grandsons(11)
Mariana:  So you have 24 cousins(12)!
Pedro: I don't have a family that big(13).
Mariana: Me neither(14). Great! Do you know all of them(15)?
Julia: Yes, I do. And we are all friends. See? Those are all my cousins
Pedro: Hey, that is my ex-girlfriend(16).
Julia: Who? Carla? She is my cousin, and a really good friend
Pedro: Well, she can be a good friend, but she is not a good girlfriend, that is for sure(17). Oh, wow. That is a really pretty(18) woman.Who is she(19)? Can I have her phone number?
Julia:  That's my mother in 1975.
Pedro:  Well, do you have any single(20) cousins, or nieces or sisters(21)of my age(22)?
Julia: Yes, I do. Here. This is Bruna, that is Leila, and this one here is Sheila.
Pedro: Wow. They're all very pretty!


                                      Vocabulary
 1. Guys
  = Pessoal
 2. Showing = Mostrando
 3. pictures  =  
fotos
 4. Really? = 
 É mesmo?
 5. Let me see =
 Deixe-me ver
 6. Grandma = 
Avó (vovó)
 7. Grandpa = Avô (vovô)
 8. Great
  = Legal
 9. Cute = gracinha, bonitinho(a)
 10. Man = 
"cara"
 11. Grandsons = 
Netos
 12. Cousins =
 Primos(as)
 13. That big = 
tão grande
 14. Me neither = 
Nem eu
 15. 
 All of them = Todos eles
 16. ex-girlfriend = ex-namorada
 17. that is for sure = 
Isso com certeza
 18. Pretty = 
linda
  19. Who is she?
 = Quem é ela?
  20. single
  = Solteiro(a)
  21. sisters =
 Irmãs
  22. age = 
idade