Mar 26, 2011

The Box: 1st & 2nd Conditionals

I love the idea of the movie and its intriguing development. The situation is unsual, perfect for 1st and 2nd conditional practice.




A. Read the passage below and complete the blanks with the verbs in parentheses, using with the first conditional. You have just received the visit of a total stranger who gives you a mysterious box with a button and makes the following offer to you:



If you _________ (push) the button, two things ________ (happen). First, someone, somewhere in the world, whom you don't know, __________ (die). Second, you ____________ (receive) a payment of one million dollars. Tax free. The payment ___________ (be) delivered by me in cash to you.


There are three restrictions:

1. You are not permitted to know any information about who's making the offer.

2. You are not permitted to discuss the details of this offer to anyone except your husband (wife).

3. You have 24 hours to make your decision.

4. Otherwise, the box will be reprogrammed and the offer will be made to someone else.


B. Now watch the first part of the segment (until the visitor leaves her house) and check your answers.




C. Now discuss the following questions with a partner. Remember that you are talking about an unreal situation, so you must use the second conditional. Then write down your answers. Start them with If...


1. What would you do if you were in her shoes?
If ...


2. How would you feel if you pushed the button?
If ...


3. How would you feel if you didn't push the button?
If ...


4. Would you push the button if you needed that money to save your son/daughter's life? Explain it.
If ...




D. Watch the second part of the segment and answer the following questions:



1. What were some of the things they considered before deciding whether they would push the button?


2. What did they decide to do?


3. According to her, why did she do it?

Answer key:


A. push / will happen / will die / will receive / will be



B. Answers will vary


19 comments:

Andréa Borges said...

Fabulous , fabulous, as usual. I'll use this one in my classes next week.Thanks a lot for your brilliant ideas with films. I hope you never get bored doing so.

Serennus said...

1st and 2nd conditionals are usually very productive actvities. I'll try it, Thanks!

Claudio Azevedo said...

Thanks, Andrea. Don't worry, I won't get bored. There are more than 100 activities ready to be published. Every week a new post. See you.

Claudio Azevedo said...

I really hope it works, Dyego. Let me know it, please. See you around.

Andréa Borges said...

Great, I'll be waiting anxiously for them. See you!

Suzi said...

Have a way to download the videos? I could not find.

Claudio Azevedo said...

Suzi,
Check out this post. It is very easy with realplayer.

http://moviesegmentstoassessgrammargoals.blogspot.com/2008/11/downloading-movie-segments.html

Carolina Suárez said...

Thanks a lot, Claudio. Great ideas!! Is there any way we can contribute video-watching guides to the site? I know how time-consuming it is to develop guides and I am truly surprised to find such useful resources for free. Let us know if we can help out! Thanks again!

Claudio Azevedo said...

Thanks, Carolina.
Yes it is time-consuming, but it is a pleasure. I like to publish other readers' activities too, especially if they are in sync with the blog's philosophy, crediting readers' creation, providing a picture of the reader and a link to his/her site. So, contributions are welcome. Sharing is very rewarding, and I won't stop doing it. See you.

Wounded Heart said...

Dear Claudio,
I absolutely love your website..but EVERY SINGLE TIME that I try to download the videos they NEVER, EVER EVER work..no matter what I do, I can never download anything. I always need to rent the movie..I have already follow all your hints, but the thing NEVER WORKS..and it is not firewall ou ay kind of protection stuff, because I try to download at home..please help me..how can I download the videos?

Claudio Azevedo said...

Do you use an Apple device, Mac, Ipad?

Unknown said...

An observation that can help: it's necessary to use the Explorer navigator, if you are using Google Chrome, the download with Realplayer will not work.

Claudio Azevedo said...

You can also use FireFox Mozilla and download the segments with DOWNLOAD HELPER. You can download it for free and then downloading videos with this Firefox is really easy.

Roeschen said...

hi,
Thanks for all the video segments and lesson ideas. Could you provide the YouTube URL for the first clip from The Box? (which is in the conditionals lesson) I clicked on the icon saying "play this in YouTube" but it didn't work. I tried to find the same segment on YouTube by typing in The Box, Norma and Arlington and variants (Cameron Diaz etc) but to no avail. If you could paste the URL I will be able to download it for my lesson tomorrow (where I have no wifi connection). Thanks!

Claudio Azevedo said...

The videos are not at youtube, just here. They were uploaded directly to the blog. I have added, though, a direct link to the video downloads at the end of the post, Check it out. You can download them before your class. See you.

Nena de Hierro said...

Claudio, I'M A BIG FAN OF YOURS!!!! i find your work very professional and neat...thanks for sharing with all of us!! warm regards!

Claudio Azevedo said...

Thanks for the positive feedback!

Unknown said...

Excellent idea to practice grammar but is there a possibility to find beeter quallity videos?

Claudio Azevedo said...

Try it now, Ewa. That's the size limit blogger allows.