Mimi

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

• comeback
• tabloids
• pull it off
• stellar

• redemption
• pop star diva
• get out
• washed up

• octave
• breakdown

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

People love redemption. In a way, the lower a star sinks, the better, because it will be all the more glorious when he or she is redeemed.

Mariah Carey had a rough couple of years there. Her movie was a failure. There was trouble with her label. Her father died. And for the first time ever, her albums weren’t selling.

But a couple of years ago, she reemerged as Mimi, with her most successful tour yet. Her new single, “Touch My Body,” finds her in full sexy diva form again. But Jason hasn’t heard she’s back yet.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Jason

Beren

Jason:  You know who’s coming to town?

Beren:  Who?

Jason:  Mariah Carey.

Beren:  No way. Get out.

Jason:  Yeah, I thought she was totally washed up. Didn’t she have some sort of nervous breakdown and fall out of the public eye for a while?

Beren:  She did have a nervous breakdown. Maybe four or five years ago she came on TRL pushing that ice cream cart wearing a t-shirt and talking about butterflies and unicorns and passing out popsicles.

Jason:  What? Are you serious?

Beren:  Yeah. That was right around the time Glitter came out.

Jason:  That’s totally bizarre.

Beren:  She’s nuts, but when you’ve sold as many albums as she has, you can afford to be crazy. She’s making a comeback.

Jason:  Is she really?

Beren:  Yeah, yeah.

Jason:  Because uh, didn’t she…I saw in the tabloids a bunch of stuff, she wasn’t looking so good. Is she back?

Beren:  Oh, she looks good now. And I think she prefers to be called Mimi now.

Jason:  Mimi?

Beren:  Mimi instead of Mariah.

Jason:  I did not know that.

Beren:  Yeah. She’s definitely making a comeback.

Jason:  What prompted the name change?

Beren:  I’m not sure. She had an album come out about two years ago, maybe a year ago, called The Emancipation of Mimi, and I think that was her climb back up toward stardom. She just needed a little break.

Jason:  What do you think? Is she pulling it off?

Beren:  Yeah. yeah.

Jason:  Is it a good album and stuff?

Beren:  It’s good. Everything she does is pretty stellar.

Jason:  I remember being an early teenager and she was one of the mainstream pop things I actually kind of liked when I was a kid.

Beren:  She has real talent. I mean, her voice is amazing. How many octaves can she cut across?

Jason:  All of them or something.

Beren:  I know! It’s incredible.

Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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