字幕列表 影片播放 列印英文字幕 Welcome back to JForrest English. I'm Jennifer. And today we're going to read a news article together about the upcoming Hollywood movie Barbie. And you're going to learn a lot of events, vocabulary, natural expressions, and correct pronunciation. Let's get started. First, I'll read the headline How Barbie Made a Surprising Comeback. This article is about Barbie, and that's why I'm wearing pink. Because as you know, Barbie's favorite color is pink. Maybe you didn't know that because you have no idea who or what Barbie is. In this picture on the right, you see a doll, a child's doll. This doll is Barbie. That's her name. Barbie's boyfriend is Ken. This is the Ken doll. When I was a kid, Barbie was the most popular doll that kids play with. What about in your country? Was Barbie the Barbie doll a popular toy for kids? And perhaps you heard that recently. A month ago, a Barbie movie was released. So now that you know who Barbie is, let's review the headline again. How Barbie Made a Surprising Comeback. Let's take a look at this expression to make a. Comeback surprising is the adjective that describes the expression, but here the expression is to make a comeback and the verb make is simply in the past simple made. The expression to make a comeback is used when something or someone becomes successful again. After a period of not being successful. So remember I said when I was a kid, Barbie was the most popular toy in North America. So when I was a kid, Barbie was successful. But in the last 1015 years, Barbie wasn't successful. But now Barbie apparently is successful again. Barbie is popular again. So in this term, successful can be measured in terms of popularity and the number of sales of Barbie dolls for you. You might make a comeback if you were doing really well in a course you were an A+ student, but then halfway through the year you started failing that course. But then you make a comeback and your grade goes right back up to the top. So success can be measured in many different things. In this context, it's the sales of the doll Barbie. How Barbie made a surprising comeback. Surprising just modifies the expression to say it was unexpected. Now, don't worry about taking all of these notes, because I've summarized everything in a free lesson PDF, so you can look for the link in the description to download the lesson PDF. Let's continue. So now let's read the article. The name Barbara Millicent Roberts may not ring a bell. If something rings a bell, it means that the information is familiar to you. So I might say, does the name ring a bell? Does this store ring a bell? I could say. Does Barbie doll ring a bell? And I'm asking you, does the concept of a Barbie doll sound familiar to you? And if you've never heard of Barbie, you would say, Oh no, teacher, that doesn't ring a bell. That doesn't ring a bell or you'd be like, yeah, that rings a bell. I played with Barbie when I was a little kid, so to ring a bell is used when information is familiar. The name Barbara Millicent Roberts may not ring a bell. And honestly, if you said that name to me, I would say that doesn't ring a bell. But say her nickname. A nickname is an alternative name that you can use. So apparently I actually did not know this. This doll's name is actually Barbara, but everyone calls her Barbie. I had no idea that this doll's name. Is Barbara to me? This is Barbie always, so this name definitely would not ring a bell for me. But Barbie of course rings a bell for me, but for you, Perhaps not until this article and people of all ages know her, at least in North America. Created by Mattel in 1959. So the Barbie was created by Mattel. In this case they simply say created by Mattel because the context of Barbie is already known, it's established. Created by Mattel in 1959. Barbie doesn't look a day over 19. So if you don't look a day over 19, it's simply saying that you don't look older than 19. So this can be a nice compliment to say to someone because everyone wants to look young. So you could say to your mom, or to your teacher, or to. A coworker. You don't look a day over and then you can choose a age that is relatively young to the age of the person you're talking to. So if your mom is 60, it would be a compliment to your mom to say she looks 50, which is 10 years younger than her actual age. So you could say to your mom you don't look a day over. 50 Assuming in this case, assuming your mom is 60 or 70. Of course you could say to your mom you don't look a day over 20, but that is just so far from reality. It's not at all true, right? But it is possible that your mom could look. 10 years younger and maybe even 20 years younger. So if you really want to compliment your mom, you can say you don't look a day over 40 and she'll say, Oh my goodness, that is so sweet of you. Thank you. So that's a way you can compliment someone. OK, so Barbie doesn't look a day over 19. Why? Because she's a plastic doll. She obviously doesn't age. And now she is getting new life in Barbie, the movie distributed by Warner Bros. The movie out next Friday starring Margot Robbie, Margot Robbie of course, here on the left hand side of this image who looks very much like the doll Barbie. And that's obviously the point because she plays Barbie in the movie. The movie out next Friday when something is out and then you have a date in the future or a specific date even in the past is when a product is available to purchase. So you could say the movie, the movie. Was out last Friday, which means it was available to purchase a movie ticket. So you could watch the movie or the movie will be out next Friday. In this case, they just said the movie out next Friday. In the same way that you could say the movie, available next Friday, available next Friday starring Margot Robbie allows Barbie to question her own reality. Not too sure what that will look like in the movie, something consumers have been doing for decades. So do you plan to see the movie Barbie? Well, of course, if you had no idea who Barbie was, if the name didn't ring a bell, maybe not. But maybe after this article, or if you grew up playing with Barbie dolls your entire life, you may want to see the movie. So let's take a look at this sentence structure. What verb tense do we have here have been doing? What verb tense is this? This, of course, is the present perfect continuous. And the present perfect continuous is used for an action that starts in the past and continues until now. The time reference here is 4 decades when you see four and a period of time or since and a period of time. That's a keyword for the present perfect or the present perfect continuous. Decades to me sounds like 20-30. Forty 50 years. It sounds like a long time because one decade is 10 years. So decades with an S plural is at least 20 years. But it could also be 50 years or 200 years. So it sounds like a long time. So consumers started. Questioning their own reality decades ago, 50 years ago, 100 years ago. And they've continued doing this and they're still doing it now back in 2014 and 2015. We use back in to talk about a time in the past. So you could say. Back in back in summer, I went on vacation back in July, I got a promotion. So you can use a year, you can use a season or you can use a month. You could also say back when and have a clause. For example back when I was a kid. I played with Barbies. Like every American kid from the 90s, we played with Barbies. Back when I was a kid. Now, of course I could simply say when I was a kid. By adding back in front of it, it emphasizes that it was a long time ago, back when I was a kid back in 2014. So it makes it sound like it was a longer time ago simply than saying in 2014, which also would be grammatically correct. Back in 2014 and 2015, we hit a low, we hit a low and it was a moment to reflect in the context of why did Barbie lose relevance. So they now say that this is a quote. I know it's a quote because I see the quotation marks at the beginning and end and this was said by Ricard. Rickard. Ricard Dixon, President and Chief Operating Officer, COO. Generally they use abbreviations for C titles. COO, Chief, this is the O Operating officer. So this becomes COO, President and COO of Mattel. Remember, Mattel is the company that sells. Barbie Dolls Warner Brothers was the movie studio that produced the movie Barbie, starring Margot Robbie. But the doll has been around for years and years, and the company Mattel created the Barbie doll. So the company that created the Barbie doll said back in 2014 and 15, we hit a low. That means that their sales were lower than previous. So when you hit a low, it sounds like the sales were lower than they have ever been or that they've been for a long period of time. We hit a low and it was a moment to reflect in the context of why did Barbie lose relevance. So their sales hit a low, which means. Consumers are not buying the Barbie doll anymore. And so they had to say, well, why not? Why isn't the Barbie relevant? Why did the Barbie lose relevance? Where are we here lose relevance. So when you lose relevance, it means you are no longer relevant. So that means no longer relevant. And when something is no longer relevant, it means that people, the media, are not talking about that something or someone anymore. So there's no more publicity for it. There's no more popularity. And if people aren't talking about it, it's not popular. Well, then they're not purchasing it either. So why did she lose relevance? She Barbie didn't reflect the look of the world around us. And so we then set a course to truly transform the brand with a playbook around reigniting our purpose. First, let's look at set. Of course, when you set a course, you set a particular plan into motion. And so you then just simply follow that plan. So their course, their plan is to transform the brand. Why? Because they want to make sure that Barbie, the Barbie doll, which was extremely popular in the 90s but then wasn't popular, they wanted to make sure that Barbie remained relevant, remain something that consumers talk about and are interested in remain. Remain relevant. So they set a course to truly transform the brand with a playbook. A playbook is again just their plan. You can imagine they write the plan down in their playbook. So this is simply the plan with a plan around a playbook around reigniting our purpose. So reignite. Means to ignite. The word ignite means to to start. When you ignite something, that something becomes activated, It starts. So when you reignite it, it means you start it again, you activate it again. So they had a purpose in the past, but now their purpose is no longer relevant because Barbie is not popular anymore. So they need to restart reignite that purpose, and they're going to set a course to do that. Mattel, the company that produces Barbie. Mattel was slow to diversify Barbie and friends. As a result, sales at Mattel started to slump in 2014. When your state sales slump, it means they start to go down, They start to go down. So to decline is another way of saying that. But I don't hear this being used in all contexts. We use it in very specific context, Sales for example, because your your grades at school for example, or your kids grades. If you're no longer in school, your kids grades could start to decline as well. You could say they started to slump, but to be honest I don't hear it in an everyday context. I do hear it specifically with sales, which is something that. Everybody talks about whether you're in a sales job or you're a consumer and you purchase products from a company as well. So to decline, but I'll put in brackets specifically for sales, but during the pandemic, Barbie saw a resurgence. As parents looked for ways to keep kids busy at home, a resurgence in sales is the opposite of a decline is when the sales start to increase again. I wouldn't say I saw a resurgence in my grades, for example. I wouldn't say that. But sales you can. So this is the opposite of a slump. It's when they start to increase. As parents look for ways to keep kids busy at home, So during the pandemic, because all the kids that were at home, parents said, well, what can I do? Oh, I can give my kids some Barbie dolls and they can play with Barbie and that will keep them busy. Let's continue in the first quarter of this year. So a calendar year, January to December is divided into quarters. So there are three months in each quarter. So the first quarter would be January, February, March. That would be the first quarter which is also known as Q1. So you could say in Q1 or in the first quarter which represents January, February and March in Q1 of this year in the first quarter. Of this year, Mattel sales fell 22% from last year's first quarter. So this is the first quarter in 2023, so Jan to March 2023 compared to Jan to March 2022, primarily due to declines in Barbie dolls and merchandise. So Mattel as a company does not just sell Barbie, they sell other toys, other products as well. But the company's overall sales fell 22% and primarily when you see primarily it means the main reason, primarily the main reason. Was due to declines in Barbie dolls. So clearly Barbie as a brand is a very important part of Mattel's overall success as a company. Merchandise is things like clothing, posters, jewelry, accessories for something else. So when the movie is released you can buy. The movie. But then there's also a lot of merchandise around that movie. So you can put the poster on your wall, You can buy the poster. You can buy maybe a pen that says Barbie on it, or let me get my pink sparkly pen, which is more appropriate for Barbie. You can buy a pen that says Barbie. That would be an example of merchandise. So their sales fell because of Barbie dolls and merchandise. Now Barbie and friends have many different skin tones and shapes. Mattel produces Barbies in wheelchairs and Ken dolls with the skin condition Vitiligo Vitiligo. So the purpose of this is because remember, the company felt like their sales were falling because Barbie lost relevance, and she lost relevance because she doesn't reflect the look of the world around us. Obviously, considering the entire world, not just North America, this is not. What the average person looks like. There are many different looks, shapes, sizes, skin tones, so the company wanted to reflect that to help increase their sales. So these are the Barbies that were available to me when I was a kid. This is what I remember Barbie looking like, but now this is. What Barbie looks like As you can see, there are many different styles of Barbie now to reflect. Different people, different conditions and different looks, different shapes. So this is the company's attempt to diversify Barbie. So Barbie regains relevance and makes a comeback become successful again. Let's continue, Mattel hopes the new movie. Which was 4 1/2 years in the making. So they were making it for 4 1/2 years. Sometimes I hear students say four years and a half. It's 4 1/2 and then years, months, weeks, days, 4 1/2 years. In the making will give the brand and Barbie the boost they're looking for. Boost is increase and it could be increase in sales, increase in popularity. The boost they're looking for that may already be happening, that being that. The movie is giving the brand a boost that may already be happening. AMC theatres reports they've sold more than 20,000 presale tickets to Barbie. So a presale is a sale before the movie is officially released. Before the movie is out, Remember that. To be out is available, so before the movies out, they sell the tickets in advance. So a presale is when you buy something in advance of it being available. And at Hombom Toys in New York City, movie Barbie is sold out. If something is sold out to be sold out, it means they've sold 100% of available supply. So to be sold out. To be sold out. So to sell 100% of available supply. So let's say they made 1000 Barbies available to sell to the public. And if something is sold out, it means they've sold 1000 Barbies 100% of available supply. So that's good news for Barbie, and perhaps Barbie is making a comeback. So that's the end of the article. What I'll do now is I'll go to the beginning and I'll read the article from start to finish and this time you can focus on my pronunciation, how Barbie made a surprising comeback. The name Barbara Millicent Roberts may not ring a bell, but say her nickname Barbie, and people of all ages know her. Created by Mattel in 1959, Barbie doesn't look a day over 19, and now she is getting new life in Barbie, the movie, distributed by Warner Bros. The movie, out next Friday starring Margot Robbie, allows Barbie to question her own reality, something consumers have been doing for decades. Back in 2014 and 2015, we hit a low and it was a moment to reflect in the context of why did Barbie lose relevance, Said Ricard Dixon, president and chief operating officer of Mattel. She didn't reflect the look of the world around us and so we then set a course to truly transform the brand with a playbook around reigniting our purpose. Mattel was slow to diversify Barbie and Friends. As a result, sales at Mattel's started to slump in 2014, But during the pandemic, Barbie saw a resurgence as parents looked for ways to keep kids busy at home. In the first quarter of this year, Mattel's sales fell 22% from last year's first quarter, primarily due to declines in Barbie dolls and merchandise. Now, Barbie and friends have many different skin tones and shapes. Mattel produces Barbies in wheelchairs and Ken dolls with the skin condition vitiligo. Mattel hopes the new movie, which was 4 1/2 years in the making, will give the brand and Barbie the boost they're looking for. That may already be happening. AMC theatres reports they've sold more than 20,000 presale tickets to Barbie. And at Hom Bomb Toys in New York City, movie Barbie is sold out. So I'm curious, are you going to watch Barbie when it's out? When it's available? Put Yes I am. No, I'm not. Or maybe I haven't decided yet. In the comments below, my friend already invited me to go watch Barbie with her, so I most likely will. And you can get this free speaking guide where I share 6 tips on how to speak English fluently and confidently. You can download it for free on my website. Just click here or look for the link in the description. And why don't you get started with your next lesson right now.
A2 初級 美國腔 看芭比如何來個令人驚豔的回歸(? How BARBIE Made a Surprising Comeback [LEARN ENGLISH WITH THE NEWS] English Reading Practice) 129 6 Q San 發佈於 2023 年 07 月 20 日 更多分享 分享 收藏 回報 影片單字