Intro
1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.
2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.
Do animals need to be happy in order to taste good? Many people think so. But even more than this, a lot of people want their food to be cruelty-free. They don’t want food animals to live in unnatural conditions. These days, many companies are being kinder to their animals so people will feel better about buying from them.
The difficult thing is that giving animals lots of space costs money; therefore, foods such as cage-free eggs and grass-fed beef cost more money, too. Some people cannot pay this much for their protein. So, even if a taste test shows that cruelty-free foods taste better, not everyone can spend this much money to eat.
Dominique can’t believe that Marni would use basic eggs. Listen to today’s English lesson to learn more.
Dialog
1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.
2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.
Marni: Dominique, are you hungry? I’m making an omelet here.
Dominique: Marni, are you really making an omelet with those basic eggs?!
Marni: Umm… what do you mean? What’s wrong with these eggs?
Dominique: I mean, are those cage-free eggs?
Marni: I don’t know. I mean, I just got them from the store. I… they’re full of protein. They’re… I don’t know… they’re just eggs.
Dominique: Yeah, they’re not. I mean, those chickens were probably unhappy.
Marni: OK. I just was hungry and wanted to make an omelet. I did not think about the chickens…. What are you telling me… that this omelet’s going to be terrible because the chickens were unhappy?
Dominique: Yeah, and unnatural.
Marni: So, the eggs that are, like, $6.00 a dozen… those chickens were happy, and therefore, I should buy those eggs because the chickens were happy.
Dominique: Yeah! Exactly!
Marni: Oh, my goodness! I just… I just wanted to make an omelet, and I’m just hungry. And I’m fine with my basic eggs.
Dominique: Yeah, but cage-free means cruelty-free.
Marni: OK. Next time you come over, bring me some of your cage-free eggs. You’ll make a cage-free egg omelet. I’ll make my “basic” egg omelet. And we’ll have a taste test to see which one is better.
Grammar Point
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Quizzes
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Discussion
Marni is hungry, so she begins to make an omelet. She offers to make Dominique an omelet, too. But Dominique sees that she is using cheap, standard eggs. She can’t believe that Marni isn’t using cage-free eggs, and she tells her that the chickens who laid those eggs were probably very unhappy.
Marni doesn’t know what to say. She was just hungry and trying to be nice to Dominique. She understands that cage-free eggs are kinder and tastier. But she doesn’t have the money to buy them all the time. Therefore, she tells Dominique that, next time, they will have a taste test to see if it’s worth buying the more expensive eggs.
Do you buy cage-free eggs? If you eat meat, do you think that happy animals taste better?