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Задание составлено автором этого блога, Натали Милан.

BEFORE LISTENING

Task 1 – Translate (explain) these words (if you don’t know them, look them up).
Tip! – if it’s a noun, search it in Google Images, you’ll memorize a word faster through visual aid.

• A responsibility
• A warehouse
• On her own terms
• Put on the track
• A backpack
• A mug of coffee
• A nightstand
• A microwave
• A cheerleader
• To convince
• For my sake

Task 2 – make up a short story (8-10 sentences) with these words. 

WHILE LISTENING

Task 3 – listen to the track and try to CATCH (=hear) these words in the text. Listen here.

NEW VOCABULARY

Task 4 – look at new vocabulary. Listen to the track again and fill in the gaps. Listen here.

Grabbing / Peers / dorky / jittery / thrive / sacrifices / prerequisites / squatted / entitlement / enrolled / dedicated (2) / whipped / inevitably

My mom was 21 when she got pregnant with me. She had to grow up faster than her ___, and take on a huge responsibility. Probably 10 years too early.

As a teenager, my mom ran away from home. She ___ in a warehouse in Oakland and became a performance artist. In a way I kept her from growing up on her own terms. In another way, I put her on track, forcing her to build a stable environment for us.

When I was born, she ___ herself to giving me opportunities that she never had. And once she set me up with everything I needed to ___, she refocused on to her own goals.

I was nine when she ___ in community college to start her ___. A few years later, she got into nursing school.

On my mom’s first day, she came into my bedroom with her backpack and her travel mug full of coffee, looking like an ecstatic little kid. I remember ___ my phone off the nightstand to take a picture, capturing her ___ reading glasses, her bangs pinned back, and her big excited smile.

There were days, when she would leave me at the apartment for hours. Every time she left, she’d remind me not to put metal in the microwave! I remember being ___ with excitement at having the house to myself. I also remember the nights where the trees ___ the windows, and I wished she was home with me.

Being students at the same time gave us a common goal. My mom and I became each other’s ___ cheerleaders. Before big tests she would get paranoid, convinced she’d get a C. When she ___ came home with A’s, I’d shout, “I told you so!”

Just like the way my mom grew up faster for my sake, I did the same for her too. I lost my ___ early. My friends sometimes seem to forget all of the ___ their mothers have made for them.

My mom has made countless sacrifices for me. I’m just glad that giving up on her on dreams wasn’t one of them.

1. peer – ровесник / сверстник
2. squatted – незаконно вселяться в дом
3. dedicated – посвятить себя чему-то
4. thrive – процветать / преуспевать (здесь – состояться в жизни, иметь все необходимое)
5. enrolled – поступить в институт / записаться на курсы
6. prerequisities – предпосылки
7. grabbing – схватить
8. dorky – бестолковый / глуповатый
9. bangs – чёлка
10. jittery – пугливый / нервный / тревожный
11. whipped – хлестать (окна)
12. inevitably – неизбежно
13. entitlement – право на получение пособия, субсидии, право на социальную помощь (пособия и т. п.) (я для себя перевожу как “я потеряла право на получение помощи от мамы рано” = “я перестала просить помощи у мамы, полностью от нее зависеть, раньше других”)
14. sacrificies – самопожертвования

After Listening – Written tasks for practising new vocab and grammar

Task 1 – Describe Charlie’s mom (use at least 10 different adjectives)

Task 2 – Recall the time you were a kid.
What would you do with your parents when they were at home / at work?
What would you do to cheer up your parents?

Task 3 – What do you really want to dedicate yourself to?
(dedicate to + Ving)