英语博客(A cup of English):042 What's new Scooby-Do?

　　Beginners.

My children love Scooby-Do. I love Scooby-Do. In fact, I have not met a person who does not like it. The happy gang of friends consists of: Shaggy, Scooby, Wilma, Daphney, and Freddy. They travel around in the 'Mystery Machine' and get into scary escapades. During their adventures, they meet monsters, ghosts, and other creepy creatures who they must try and escape from. It's not too scary, most of the time. The villains 1 always turn out to be people who are dressed up. At the end of each episode, one of the gang unmasks the bad guy. There is always a happy ending. I was a child in the '70's, so I also used to watch the series. And the style of that era is still seen in the dress and music of the famous five. Of course, there is a lot of humor. Shaggy and Scooby-Do are cowards who will only get involved in an investigation 2 if they get 'Scooby snacks'. They eat enormous amounts of food whenever they can, even strangely combined foods, like chocolate covered corn on the cob! Scooby-Do is definitely a staple 3 cartoon for my children. If they fight or are grumpy, I put one of the videos on, and suddenly, everyone is happy.

Grammar notes.

Verbs: To meet (meet, met, met), to try (try, tried, tried), to unmask (reg.), to eat (eat, ate, eaten), to fight (fight, fought, fought).

Related vocabulary: gang, mystery, escapade/adventure, episode, era, famous, to get involved, coward, investigation, staple.

Advanced.

So, what's new Scooby-Do? Have you come across any villains today, maybe a headless snow monster, or a slimey zombie called Creeper? No? Oh, so business is slow, huh? I heard that you solved a mystery last week. It made the headlines. The mayor of a small town decided 4 to stimulate 5 the economy by dressing 6 up as a ghost and terrorizing the townsfolk. It worked. Tourism took a big leap. But a bunch of meddling 7 kids uncovered the scoundrel; he was thrown in jail, and all the recent tourist business unraveled. I admire the skills of your group. You all seem to have the most amazing running abilities. When being chased by monsters, you very rarely get caught. And somehow, you find yourselves running through the longest hallways that I have ever seen. Fifteen doors, outside of each a small table with a plant pot, is the record, I think, that Shaggy and Scooby have run past, before they find an escape. Wow. You must eat a lot of carbohydrates 9 to keep up that pace. Well, yes you do, don't you? I know of a few pharmaceutical 10 companies that would love to bottle your light speed metabolisms 12. Well, if I hear of any hauntings or scary tourist booms, I'll give you a call.

Grammar notes.

Related vocabulary: Villains, scoundrels, zombies, mummies, ghosts, mystery, headlines, unravel 8, ability, escape, carbohydrates, pharmaceutical, metabolism 11.

Verbs:To take a leap. Exs: He took a giant leap over the wall. The company's business took a big leap. She took a leap of faith and asked him to marry her.

To find oneself....Exs: I found myself alone, in the rain, with no transportation. They find themselves in great difficulty each time they use the car. He told me the end of the story; I would like to find it out for myself.