Lucy

 Intro   

Films about superhumans are not new. Superhumans have different

powers, like being able to know what someone else is thinking, having amazing strength, or being able to live through anything. Very few movie superhumans are women, however. And this woman has all of the powers you can imagine, especially intelligence.

Who are we talking about? “Lucy” is a superhuman played by Scarlet Johansson in a futuristic movie in theaters this August. Lucy is made to carry drugs inside her body, but before they are delivered, the drugs leak into her stomach and give her incredible powers. Now Lucy has control over herself and her world, and she will never be made to do anything ever again.

Is this movie’s premise interesting to Brian or Marni? Read on in today’s English lesson about being able to tap into things you didn’t know you could do.

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Dialogue  

Brian: Did you see the trailer for the new Scarlett Johansson movie, “Lucy?”

Marni: I did. It looks very interesting.

Brian: Yeah. I was surprised that she was in another action movie besides “The Avengers.”

Marni: Yeah, she hasn’t done a lot of action movies, but I think that’s a good next step for her.

Brian: Yeah. It seems interesting, the whole idea that you could use more of your brain than most people.

Marni: They say that the average human only uses about 10% of their brain capacity. So, the premise of this film is, what if you’re able to tap into 100% capacity?

Brian: Yeah. It reminded me a lot of “The Matrix,” but with Morgan Freeman and Scarlett Johansson as opposed to Keanu Reeves.

Marni: It is an interesting concept. It’ll be interesting to see how they portray it. It looks kind of futuristic.

Brian: Do you think you’re going to go see it?

Marni: Let’s definitely go see it.

Brian: All right. Sounds good.

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Discussion  

Both Marni and Brian are curious about the new action movie with Scarlett Johansson. It’s called “Lucy,” and it’s a movie set in the future about being able to use more of your brain. Marni shares that the average person only uses 10% of his or her brain, but the character Lucy is able to use 100%!

The two discuss the career of Scarlett Johansson, and they agree that being in another action movie will be a good next step for her. The very popular actor Morgan Freeman is in the film, too. Both are interested to see “Lucy,” and Marni suggests that she and Brian go see it together. They make a date to see it, but only as friends.

Do you like Scarlett Johansson’s movies? Do you plan to see “Lucy?” What kind of movie do you think it will be?

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Grammar Point  

Articles, Quantifiers, and Determiners

Brian likes the idea that you could “use more of your brain than most people.” He uses two quantifiers.

Articles, quantifiers, and determiners are the little words we use before nouns. When you see the words a, an, and the, you know that a noun will follow them. These words are articles. Words such as each, every, either, neither, much, enough, which, what, some, and any also mark nouns.

Quantifiers come before nouns and tell us how many or how much of something. These words include many, a few, much, a little, plenty, a lot, some, and enough. For example, “There are enough cookies for everyone,” and, “I saw a couple of horses in the field.” In Brian’s sentence, more tells us how much of one’s brain a person uses, and most tells us how many people he is talking about.

The words some and any are determiners. They always come before nouns or noun phrases. We use any in negative sentences, for example, “We are not allowed to have any pets in our apartment.” And we use some in positive statements, such as, “It is OK to use reference books for some exams.”

Which is correct, “I saw a bird in the tree,” or, “I saw an bird in the tree”?