The Romantics

Oct 20 2010
Intro


People who have been friends for a long time have a lot of shared memories, and sometimes, they have shared baggage too. In the new movie The Romantics, a group of college friends comes together for the wedding of two of the friends.

Although weddings are supposed to be a purely joyful occasion, this celebration causes old wounds and conflicts reemerge. Find out if Amy expects to have any drama at her upcoming wedding.

Vocab

groom n.

Definition

the man in a wedding; opposite of bride

Example

The bride and groom looked very happy at their wedding.

in common expr.

Definition

a shared interest

Example

I have a lot in common with my best friend. We both play music, love ice cream and hate the rain.

rival n.

Definition

competitor

Example

Coke and Pepsi are rival companies.

tie the knot expr.

Definition

get married

Example

Do you think Brad and Angelina are going to tie the knot soon?"

"I am going to tie the knot. Matt and I are going to get married.

drama n.

Definition

difficult or emotional situations

Example

Mandy has had a lot of drama in her life lately. So many bad things keep happening to her.

baggage n.

Definition

ideas, memories, sorrows from the past that you can't forget and that make your life harder

Example

Even though I'm in my 30s, I'm still working through a lot of childhood baggage from my troubled youth.

She still has a lot of baggage from her last relationship. It might not be a good idea to date her yet.

He came back from the war with a lot of baggage. He saw a lot of terrible stuff there.

reunion n.

Definition

gathering of people with a shared past

Example

My ten-year class reunion is this summer. It's going to be fun to see how people have changed over the past ten years.

fiance n.

Definition

engaged person; person one will marry

Example

My fiance is going to college in Texas, but he will return to Oregon this summer.

potential n.

Definition

possibility, capable of happening in the future

Example

The movie had the potential to be good, but then it turned out to be really bad.

crush n.

Definition

romantic feeling for someone

Example

I have a crush on Sandy. She's so cute!

I have a crush on Sandy. She's so cute!

Dialogue

Devan: So, I know you’re about to tie the knot soon. Are you excited?

Amy:  I am.

Devan:  I saw the preview for that movie The Romantics, about the girl that’s getting married and her friends coming home for the wedding.

Amy:  Right, with Katie Holmes.

Devan:  Yeah. And I guess in the preview it looks like two have long rivaled over the groom.

Amy:  Interesting.

Devan:  Is there anything like that, did any of your old friends have crushes on your fiance or anything?

Amy:  Not as far as I know. My best friend is dating my fiance’s best friend. So there is some potential for a little bit of drama, but most of my old friends, you know, have only met my fiance recently. So…

Devan:  So are you still friends with most of your friends from college?

Amy:  Yeah, I have a lot of old friends. None of them live close to me anymore, but we actually just got together for sort of a reunion. It was interesting because we’re pretty different but we’re still really close. What about you, are you friends with your college friends?

Devan:  Yeah, it’s kind of the same thing where we don’t have anything in common anymore, but we still have our past in common and that’s what keeps us together.

Amy:  Well it’s true that there’s nothing like a wedding to bring out sort of crazy weird emotions and conflicts that you didn’t know were there before, so I’m kind of interested in seeing this movie, but also a little afraid.
Discussion

In The Romantics, a group of college friends reunites for a wedding. But the occasion isn’t purely a happy one, because one of the friends, played by Katie Holmes, used to be in love with the groom.

Amy is getting married soon, and Devan asks her if she thinks there will be any conflicts like that at her wedding. Amy doesn’t think that any of her friends will bring emotional baggage to the wedding. But she thinks that weddings often bring out unexpected conflicts and emotions.

Both Devan and Amy are still close with their college friends. But they don’t have much in common with these old friends anymore. Even though they have changed and grown apart, they still share a strong bond because of everything they shared in the past.

Are you still close with your old friends? Have you ever been to a wedding where something dramatic happened?
Grammar Point

Adjectives

Amy says that her reunion with her old friends was interesting. Later, she says that she is interested in seeing The Romantics.

Both interested and interesting are adjectives. But although they look similar, they have different meanings and we use them in different ways.

Interesting means compelling or intriguing. Adjectives with “ing” like interesting cause an emotion. For example, when a movie is interesting, it affects you and makes you think.

Adjectives with “ed” like interested are used to describe the receiver of an emotion. For example, if you are interested in seeing a movie, you experience a feeling of curiosity and excitement about going to the movie.

Which is correct, “I don’t like this movie, it’s very bored” or “I don’t like this movie, it’s very boring”?

Yolardis

 

 There was the usual crowd of pushy working girls already hanging just outside the cafe in the blazing afternoon sun, trying to woo the single male tourists. I felt lucky I had not known any of them though many of them had spotted me before. I downed the rest of the mojito and the ice water in a beat and briskly walked out, turning the corner to avoid any encounters. Soon the mojito and the sun hit me and I began having random thoughts while wandering the already familiar streets and alleys of the decrepit Old Havana. I blamed the absence of machismo in my upbringing for my reluctance to indulge in the oldest profession. On a more mindless note, I wondered if one could actually fry eggs, sunny side up, on the sidewalk.

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English Short Stories

Araby

James Joyce

North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers' School set the boys free. An uninhabited house of two storeys stood at the blind end, detached from its neighbours in a square ground. The other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces.

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A Short Story

Nasrudin and the egg

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a short story

A Dark Brown Dog

Stepahn Crane

A child was standing on a street-corner. He leaned with one shoulder against a high board-fence and swayed the other to and fro, the while kicking carelessly at the gravel.

Sunshine beat upon the cobbles, and a lazy summer wind raised yellow dust which trailed in clouds down the avenue. Clattering trucks moved with indistinctness through it. The child stood dreamily gazing.

After a time, a little dark-brown dog came trotting with an intent air down the sidewalk. A short rope was dragging from his neck. Occasionally he trod upon the end of it and stumbled.

http://www.englishclub.com/reading/story-dark-brown-dog.htm

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SHORT STORY- Driving lessons

"Confidence, competence and control. That's what they're really looking for." These were the words that were drummed into me with each driving lesson I took with my instructor, Jock... The three "C's" he called them. My throat was dry and there was a nasty sweat in the palms of my hands. There was a slight flutter in my knees too. And the reason for all this – I was taking my final lesson the evening before the driving test... The car seemed very impersonal that evening as I tried hard to remember all that Jock had told me during the course. It was as if it had decided to be as unhelpful as possible.

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Women in the Lap of "A" "B" "C"

A says - Woman is attractive Flower

B says - Woman is Beautiful Gift

C says - Woman is great source of Comfort

D says - Woman has a sweet Dialect

http://fire-brand.blogfa.com/ 

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STORY

"Geraniums of Love"

As the fifth of seven children, I went to the same public school as my three older sisters and brother.  Every year, my mother went to the same pageant and had parent/child interviews with the same teachers.  The only thing different was the child.  And every child participated in an old school tradition – the annual plant sale held in early May, just in time for Mother's Day.
     
Third grade was the first time that I was allowed to take part in the plant sale.  I wanted to surprise my mother, but I didn't have any money.  I went to my oldest sister and shared the secret, and she gave me some money.  When I arrived at the plant sale, I carefully made my selection.  I agonized over that decision, inspecting each plant to ensure that I had indeed found the best geranium.  Once I had smuggled it home, with the help of my sister, I hid it on the upstairs neighbor's porch.  I was very afraid my mother would find it before Mother's Day, but my sister assured me that she wouldn't, and indeed she did not.
     
When Mother's Day arrived, I was bursting with pride when I gave her that geranium.  I remember how bright her eyes were, and how delighted she was with my gift.
     
The year I was fifteen, my younger sister reached third grade.  In early May she came to me full of wonder and secrecy and told me that there was going to be a plant sale at school, and she wanted to surprise our mother.  Like my older sister did for me, I gave her some money and off she went.  She arrived home full of nervous excitement, the geranium hidden in a paper bag under her sweater.  "I looked at every plant," she explained, "and I know I got the best one!"
     
With a sweet sense of deju vu, I helped my little sister hide that geranium on the upstairs neighbor's porch, assuring her that our mother would not find it before Mother's Day.  I was there when she gave my mother the geranium, and I watched them both bursting with pride and delight.  It was like being in a dream I had already dreamed.  My mother noticed me watching, and gave me a soft, secret smile.  With a tug at my heart, I smiled back.  I had been wondering how my mother could pretend to be surprised at this gift from her sixth child, but as I watched her eyes light up with delight as she was presented with that most precious gift, I knew she was not pretending.

short story

Eliza Riley

Return to Paradise. 

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LOVE IN A COTTAGE

by: Francis A. Durivage (1814-1881)

The following short story is reprinted from The Three Brides, Love in a Cottage, and Other Tales. Francis A. Durivage. Boston: Sanborn, 1856.

"Tell me, Charley, who is that fascinating creature in blue that waltzes so divinely?" asked young Frank Belmont of his friend Charles Hastings, as they stood "playing wallflower" for the moment, at a military ball.

"Julia Heathcote," answered Charles, with a half sigh, "an old flame of mine. I proposed, but she refused me."

"On what ground?"

"Simply because I had a comfortable income. Her head is full of romantic notions, and she dreams of nothing but love in a cottage. She contends that poverty is essential to happiness—and money its bane."

"Have you given up all hopes of her?"

"Entirely; in fact, I'm engaged."

"Then you have no objections to my addressing this dear, romantic angel?"

"None whatever. But I see my fiancée—excuse me—I must walk through the next quadrille with her."

Frank Belmont was a stranger in Boston—a New Yorker—immensely rich and fashionable, but his reputation had not preceded him, and Charley Hastings was the only man who knew him in New England. He procured an introduction to the beauty from one of the managers, and soon danced and talked himself into her good graces. In fact, it was a clear case of love at first sight on both sides.

The enamoured pair were sitting apart, enjoying a most delightful tête-à-tête. Suddenly Belmont heaved a deep sigh.

"Why do you sigh, Mr. Belmont?" asked the fair Julia, somewhat pleased with this proof of sensibility. "Is not this a gay scene?"

"Alas! yes," replied Belmont, gloomily; "but fate does not permit me to mingle habitually in scenes like this. They only make my ordinary life doubly gloomy—and even here I deem to see the shadow of a fiend waving me away. What right have I to be here?"

"What fiend do you allude to?" asked Miss Heathcote, with increasing interest.

"A fiend hardly presentable in good society," replied Belmont, bitterly. "One could tolerate a Mephistophiles—a dignified fiend, with his pockets full of money—but my tormentor, if personified, would appear with seedy boots and a shocking bad hat."

"How absurd!"

"It is too true," sighed Belmont, "and the name of this fiend is Poverty!"

"Are you poor?"

"Yes, madam. I am poor, and when I would fain render myself agreeable in the eyes of beauty—in the eyes of one I could love, this fiend whispers me, 'Beware! you have nothing to offer her but love in a cottage.'"

"Mr. Belmont," said Julia, with sparkling eyes, and a voice of unusual animation, "although there are sordid souls in this world, who only judge of the merits of an individual by his pecuniary possessions, I am not one of that number. I respect poverty; there is something highly poetical about it, and I imagine that happiness is oftener found in the humble cottage than beneath the palace roof."

Belmont appeared enchanted with this encouraging avowal. The next day, after cautioning his friend Charley to say nothing of his actual circumstances, he called on the widow Heathcote and her fair daughter in the character of the "poor gentleman." The widow had very different notions from her romantic offspring, and when Belmont candidly confessed his poverty on soliciting permission to address Julia, he was very politely requested to change the subject, and never mention it again.

The result of all this manœuvring was an elopement; the belle of the ball jumping out of a chamber window on a shed, and coming down a flight of steps to reach her lover, for the sake of being romantic, when she might just as well have walked out of the front door.

The happy couple passed a day in New York city, and then Frank took his beloved to his "cottage."

An Irish hack conveyed them to a miserable shanty in the environs of New York, where they alighted, and Frank, escorting the bride into the apartment which served for parlor, kitchen, and drawing room, and was neither papered nor carpeted, introduced her to his mother, much in the way Claude Melnotte presents Pauline. The old woman, who was peeling potatoes, hastily wiped her hands and face with a greasy apron, and saluted her "darter," as she called her, on both cheeks.

"Can it be possible," thought Julia, "that this vulgar creature is my Belmont's mother?"

"Frank!" screamed the old woman, "you'd better go right up stairs and take off them clothes—for the boy's been sent arter 'em more'n fifty times. Frank borried them clothes, ma'am," she added to Julia, by way of explanation, "to look smart when he went down east."

The bridegroom retired on this hint, and soon reappeared in a pair of faded nankeen pantaloons, reaching to about the calf of the leg, a very shabby black coat, out at the elbows, a ragged black vest, and, instead of his varnished leather boots, a pair of immense cowhide brogans.

"Now," said he, sitting quietly down by the cooking stove, "I begin to feel at home. Ah! this is delightful, isn't it, dearest?" and he warbled,—

"Though never so humble, there's no place like home."

Julia's heart swelled so that she could not utter a word.

"Dearest," said Frank, "I think you told me you had no objection to smoking?"

"None in the least," said the bride; "I rather like the flavor of a cigar."

"O, a cigar!" replied Belmont; "that would never do for a poor man."

And O, horror! he produced an old clay pipe, and filling it from a little newspaper parcel of tobacco, began to smoke with a keen relish.

"Dinner! dinner!" he exclaimed at length; "ah! thank you, mother; I'm as hungry as a bear. Codfish and potatoes, Julia—not very tempting fare—but what of that? our aliment is love!"

"Yes, and by way of treat," added the old woman, "I've been and gone and bought a whole pint of Albany ale, and three cream cakes, from the candy shop next block."

Poor Julia pleaded indisposition, and could not eat a mouthful. Before Belmont, however, the codfish and potatoes, and the ale, and cream cakes disappeared with a very unromantic and unlover-like velocity. At the close of the meal, a thundering double knock was heard at the door.

"Come in!" cried Belmont.

A low-browed man, in a green waistcoat, entered.

"Now, Misther Belmont," he exclaimed, in a strong Hibernian accent, "are ye ready to go to work? By the powers! if I don't see ye sailed to-morrow on the shopboard, I'll discharge ye without a character—and ye shall starve on the top of that."

"To-morrow morning, Mr. Maloney," replied Belmont, meekly, "I'll be at my post."

"And it'll be mighty healthy for you to do that same," replied the man as he retired.

"Belmont, speak—tell me," gasped Julia, "who is that man—that loafer?"

"He is my employer," answered Belmont, smiling.

"And his profession?"

"He is a tailor."

"And you?"

"Am a journeyman tailor, at your service—a laborious and thankless calling it ever was to me—but now, dearest, as I drive the hissing goose across the smoking seam, I shall think of my own angel and my dear cottage, and be happy."

That night Julia retired weeping to her room in the attic.

"That 'ere counterpin, darter," said the old woman, "I worked with these here old hands. Ain't it putty? I hope you'll sleep well here. There's a broken pane of glass, but I've put one of Frank's old hats in it, and I don't think you'll feel the draught. There used to be a good many rats here, but I don't think they'll trouble you now, for Frank's been a pizinin' of 'em."

Left alone, Julia threw herself into a chair, and burst into a flood of tears. Even Belmont had ceased to be attractive in her eyes—the stern privations that surrounded her banished all thoughts of love. The realities of life had cured her in one day of all her Quixotic notions.

"Well, Julia, how do you like poverty and love in a cottage?" asked Belmont, entering in his bridal dress.

"Not so well, sir, as you seem to like that borrowed suit," answered the bride, reddening with vexation.

"Very well; you shall suffer it no longer. My carriage awaits your orders at the door."

"Your carriage, indeed!"

"Yes, dearest, it waits but for you, to bear us to Belmont Hall, my lovely villa on the Hudson."

"And your mother?"

"I have no mother, alas! The old woman down stairs is an old servant of the family."

"Then you've been deceiving me, Frank—how wicked!"

"It was all done with a good motive. You were not born to endure a life of privation, but to shine the ornament of an elegant and refined circle. I hope you will not love me the less when you learn that I am worth nearly half a million—that's the melancholy fact, and I can't help it."

"O Frank!" cried the beautiful girl, and hid her face in his bosom.

She presided with grace at the elegant festivities of Belmont Hall, and seemed to support her husband's wealth and luxurious style of living with the greatest fortitude and resignation, never complaining of her comforts, nor murmuring a wish for living in a cottage

a short story

inspiring love story - The Rose Within

A certain man planted a rose and watered it faithfully and before it blossomed, he examined it.

He saw the bud that would soon blossom, but noticed thorns upon the stem and he thought, "How can any beautiful flower come from a plant burdened with so many sharp thorns? Saddened by this thought, he neglected to water the rose, and just before it was ready to bloom... it died.

So it is with many people. Within every soul there is a rose. The God-like qualities planted in us at birth, grow amid the thorns of our faults. Many of us look at ourselves and see only the thorns, the defects.

We despair, thinking that nothing good can possibly come from us. We neglect to water the good within us, and eventually it dies. We never realize our potential.

Some people do not see the rose within themselves; someone else must show it to them. One of the greatest gifts a person can possess is to be able to reach past the thorns of another, and find the rose within them.

This is one of the characteristic of love... to look at a person, know their true faults and accepting that person into your life... all the while recognizing the nobility in their soul. Help others to realize they can overcome their faults. If we show them the "rose" within themselves, they will conquer their thorns. Only then will they blossom many times over.