A Vocabualry and Listening lesson: Cowboy Love by Marta and Beatrice

 

Read the text about the movie Brokeback Mountain. Use the word given in capitals at the end of the text to form a word that fits in the space that has the same number. There is an example at the beginning.

Brokeback Mountain

Here is a love story from director Ang Lee in which the taboo word “love” is never (0) spoken. In fact, the whole movie is a rich, spacious, (1) ……….. way of showing, not telling, feelings that dare not speak their name and doing so with superb intelligence and (2) ……….. candour.

Brokeback mountain is an (3) ………. of a piece of writing from 1997 by Annie Proulx that already bears the (4) ……… reputation of being the best short story ever to be published in the New Yorker magazine: the tale of two (5) ……….. ranch-hands in the early 1960s, Ennis and Jack, who get a summer’s work (6) ………. on Brokeback mountain in Wyoming.

Thrown together, lonely and frustrated, Ennis and Jack find that their relationship has grown (7) ………. and fiercer than friendship which is safe from society’s (8) ………. .

(0)SPEAK

(1)PASSION

(2)MAGNIFICENCE

(3)ADAPT

(4)BURDEN

(5)ITINERARY

(6)SHEPERD

(7)DEEP

(8)APPROVE

@ https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/jan/06/3

SOLUTIONS

(1)PASSION (passionate) (2) MAGNIFICENCE (magnificent) (3) ADAPT (adaptation) (4)BURDEN (burdensome) (5)ITINERARY (itinerant) (6)SHEPERD (shepherding) (7)DEEP (deeper) (8)APPROVE (disapproval)

Now listen to the interview with director Ang Lee and answer the following questions:

1. Which two words does the director use to describe the movie?
2. Which unconventional approach does Ang Lee use towards love stories in this movie?
3. When was the first kissing scene shot?
4. Which was the main and unusual problem the actors had while kissing?
5. According to the interviewer, which feature is not usually seen in Wyoming?
6. How many golden globes has the movie been nominated for?
7. What does the interviewer suggest might make this movie successful?
8. What was Ang Lee’s intention while making the movie?

Source and audio:

Ang Lee’s interview

Solutions:

1. (love story)
2. (masculine)
3. (during the second week/week 2)
4. (their hats got in the way)
5. (blue sky)
6. (7)
7. (sparking national debate)
8. (make a movie that works)

 

 A Vocabulary Lesson by Nicola