Shadowing Practice: TBT part 1 section 1 - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Okay, part one, The Gravedigger's Handbook, featuring Himmel Street, The Art of Somenshing,
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An Iron -Fisted Woman, A Kiss Attempt, Jesse Owens, Sandpaper, The Smell of Friendship,
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Heavyweight Champion, and The Mother of All, Wat Shenz.
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Arrival on Himmel Street.
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That last time, that red sky, how does a book thief end up kneeling and howling and flanked by a man -made heap of ridiculous, greasy, cooked -up rubble.
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Years earlier, the start was snow.
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The time had come for one.
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A spectacularly tragic moment.
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A train was moving quickly.
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It is packed with humans.
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A six -year -old boy died in the third carriage.
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The book thief and her brother were traveling down toward Munich, where they would soon be given over to foster parents we now know of course
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that the boy didn't make it how it happened there was an intense spurt of coughing almost an inspired spurt
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and soon after nothing when the coughing stopped there was nothing
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but the nothingness of life moving on with a shuffle
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or a near silent twitch a suddenness found its way onto his lips then
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which were a corroded brown color and peeling like old paint
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and desperate need of redoing their mother was asleep i entered the train my feet stepped through the cluttered aisle
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and my palm was over his mouth in an instant no
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one noticed the train galloped on except the girl with one
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eye open one still in a dream the book thief also known as liselle memminger could see without question
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that her younger brother verner was now sideways
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and dead his blue eyes stared at the floor seeing nothing
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so the name of the book thief is elisele prior to
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waking up the book thief was dreaming about the fuhrer adolf
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hitler in the dream she was attending a rally at
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which he spoke looking at the skull colored part in his hair
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and the perfect square of his mustache she was listening contentedly to the torrent of words spilling from his mouth.
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His sentences glowed in the light.
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In a quieter moment, he actually crouched down and smiled at her.
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She returned the smile and said, Guten Tag, Herr Führer.
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I cannot read German.
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Okay, so just read that quietly.
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She hadn't learned to speak too well or even to read, as she had rarely frequented school.
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The reason for
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that she would find out in due course just as the
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fewer was about to reply she woke up it was january 1939
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she was nine years old soon to be ten her brother
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was dead one eye open one still in a dream it would be better for a complete dream i think
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but i really have no control over that the second i jumped awake
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and she caught me out no doubt about it it was exactly
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when i knelt down
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and extracted his soul holding it limply in my swollen arms he warmed up soon after
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but when i picked him up originally the boy's spirit was soft
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and cold like ice cream he started melting in my arms
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then warming up completely healing for lesel memminger there was the imprisoned stiffness of movement
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and the staggered onslaught of thoughts this isn't happening this isn't happening and the shaking.
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Why do they always shake them?
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Yes, I know, I know.
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I assume it has something to do with instinct, to stem the flow of truth.
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Her heart at that point was slippery and hot and loud, so loud, so loud.
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Stupidly, I stayed.
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I watched.
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Next, her mother.
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She woke her up with the same distraught shake.
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If you can't imagine it, think clumsy silence.
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Think bits and pieces of floating despair
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and drowning in a train snow had been falling consistently
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and the service to munich was forced to stop due to
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faulty track work there was a woman wailing a girl stood
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numbly next to her in panic the mother opened the door
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she climbed down into the snow holding the small body what could the girl do
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but follow as you've been informed two guards also exited the train They discussed and argued over what to do.
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The situation was unsavory, to say the least.
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It was eventually decided that all three of them should be taken to the next township
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and left there to sort things out.
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This time, the train limped through the snowed -in country.
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It hobbled in and stopped.
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They stepped onto the platform, the body in her mother's arms.
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They stood.
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The boy was getting heavy.
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Liesel had no idea where she was all was white, and as they remained at the station,
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she could only stare at the faded lettering of the sign in front of her.
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For Elisil, the town was nameless, and it was there that her brother verner was buried two days later witnesses included a priest
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and two shivering grave diggers an observation a pair of train guards a pair of grave diggers
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when it came down to it one of them called the
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shots the other did what he was told the question is what
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if the other is a lot more than one okay
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so um i never really understood this part before when he talks about that no There were two guards.
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One calls the shots, the other follows.
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Then he talks about these two gravediggers.
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One calls the shot, one follows.
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And I understand now that it's because he's tying this into World War II Germany, no?
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And so he said that what
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if the one calling the shots has a whole army or a whole nation of people to command?
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So it's clearly kind of referencing Hitler again, since again, this is a World War II book.
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Mistakes, mistakes, it's all I seem capable of at times.
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For two days I went about my business.
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I traveled the globe, as always, handing souls to the conveyor belt of eternity.
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I watched them trundle passively on.
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Several times I warned myself that I should keep a good distance from the burial of less lovely Selmeminger's brother.
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I did not heed my advice.
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From miles away, as I approached, I could already see the small group of humans standing frigidly among the wasteland of snow.
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The cemetery welcomed me like a friend, and soon I was with them.
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I bowed my head.
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Standing to Liesel's left, the gravediggers were rubbing their hands together and whining about the snow and the current digging conditions,
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so hard getting through all the eyes and so forth.
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One of them couldn't have been more than 14, an apprentice.
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When he walked away after a few dozen paces, a black book fell innocuously from his coat pocket without his knowledge.
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So these gravediggers buried her brother, and the younger one, when he was walking away, he dropped a book.
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A few minutes later, Liesel's mother started leaving with a priest.
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She was thanking him for his performance of the ceremony.
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The girl, however, stayed.
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Her knees entered the ground.
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Her moment had arrived.
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Still in disbelief, she started to dig.
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He couldn't be dead.
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He couldn't be dead.
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He couldn't.
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Within seconds, snow was carved into her skin.
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Frozen blood was cracked across her hands.
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Somewhere in all the snow, she could see her broken heart in two pieces.
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Each half was glowing and beating under all that white.
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she realized her mother had come back for her only
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when she felt the boniness of a hand on her shoulder
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she was being dragged away a warm scream filled her throat a small image perhaps twenty meters away
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when the dragging was done the mother and the girl stood
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and breathed there was something black
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and rectangular lodged in the snow only the girl saw it she bent down
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and picked it up
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and held it firmly in her fingers the book had silver
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writing on it they held hands a final soaking farewell was let go of
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and they turned
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and left the cemetery looking back several times as for me
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i remained a few moments longer i waved no one waved back mother
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and daughter vacated the cemetery and made their way toward the next train to munich both were skinny and pale, both had sores on their lips.
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Liesl noticed it in the dirty, fogged -up window of the train when they boarded just before midday.
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In the written words of the book thief herself, the journey continued like everything had happened.
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When the train pulled into the Bahnhof in Munich, the passengers slid out as if from a thorn package.
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There were people of every stature, but among them the poor were the most easily recognized.
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The impoverished always try to keep moving, as if relocating might help.
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They ignore the reality that a new version of the same old problem will be waiting at the end of the trip.
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The relative you cringe to kiss.
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I think her mother knew this quite well.
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She wasn't delivering her children to the higher echelons of Munich, but a foster home had apparently been found.
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And if nothing else, the new family could at least feed the girl and the boy a little better, and educate them properly the boy.
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Liesl was sure her mother carried the memory of him, slung over her shoulder.
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She dropped him.
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She saw his feet and legs and body slap the platform.
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How could that woman walk?
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How could she move?
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That's the sort of thing I'll never know or comprehend, what humans are capable of.
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She picked him up and continued walking, the girl clinging now to her side.
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Obviously, the mother wasn't literally carrying the boy you know
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because they buried him already but it's a metaphor where um when a parent loses a child
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they carry them with them always all the time they're carrying the memory of them no
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and the pain of having lost them um
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and the mother pagod she she's giving up liselle um she's
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she can't support liselle anymore she couldn't support her kids that's why they're traveling
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because she was gonna leave liselle and her son with another family who could take care of them
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Authorities were met and questions of lateness in the boy raised their vulnerable heads.
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Liesel remained in the corner of the small dusty office as her mother sat with clenched thoughts on a very hard chair.
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There was the chaos of goodbye.
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It was a goodbye that was wet, with the girl's head buried into the woolly, worn shallows of her mother's coat.
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There had been some more dragging.
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quite a way beyond the outskirts of munich there was a
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town called molking said best by the likes of you
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and me as molking that's where they were taking her to
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a street by the name of himmel a translation himmel means heaven okay
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so himmel is the german word for heaven
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and that's the name of the street
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that liselle was going to live in that's where the family
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that wanted to adopt her that's where they lived no himmel
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street heaven street whoever named himmel street certainly had a healthy sense of irony not
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that it was a living hell it wasn't
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but it sure as hell wasn't heaven either regardless lisa's foster
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parents were waiting the hubbermans they'd been expecting a girl
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and a boy
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and would be paid a small allowance for having them nobody wanted to be the one to tell Rosa Huberman
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that the boy didn't survive the trip.
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In fact, no one ever really wanted to tell her anything.
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As far as dispositions go, hers wasn't really enviable.
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Although she had a good record with foster kids in the past, apparently she'd straightened a few out.
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For Liesel, it was a ride in a car.
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She'd never been in one before.
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So the Hubermans was the name of the family that were going to adopt Liesel.
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And they were really doing it, guys, because back then
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if you adopt a child the government gives you an allowance to help raise them okay
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and so the mother couldn't support her child anymore and
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so the hubbermans were willing to adopt these cells so
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that they would also get money from the government there was the constant rise
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and fall of her stomach and the fruitile hopes that they'd lose their way or change their minds
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among it all her thoughts couldn't help turning toward her mother back at the back north waiting to leave again, shivering, bundled up in that useless coat.
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She'd be eating her nails, waiting for the train.
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The platform would be long and uncomfortable, a slice of cold cement.
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Would she keep an eye out for the approximate burial site of her son on the return trip, or would sleep be too heavy?
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The car moved on with Liesel dreading the last lethal turn.
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The day was grey, the colour of europe curtains of rain were drawn around the
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car nearly there the foster care lady fra heinrich turned around
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and smiled your new home lisa made a clear circle on the dribbled glass and looked out
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a photo of himmel street the buildings appeared to be glued together mostly small houses apartment blocks
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that look nervous there is murky snow spread out like carpet there is concrete empty hat stand trees and gray air.
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A man was also in the car.
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He remained with the girl while Frau Heinrich disappeared inside.
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He never spoke.
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Gleisel assumed he was there to make sure she wouldn't run away
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or to force her inside if she gave them any trouble.
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Later, however, when the trouble did start, he simply sat there and watched.
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Perhaps he was only the last resort, it, the final solution.
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After a few minutes, a very tall man came out.
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Hans Habermann, Liesel's foster father.
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On one side of him was the medium -height Frau Heinrich.
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On the other was a squat shape of Rosa Habermann, who looked like a small wardrobe with a coat thrown over it.
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There was a distinct waddle to her walk, almost cute if it wasn't for her face, which was like creased up cardboard and annoyed as
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if she was merely tolerating all of it her husband walked
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straight with a cigarette smoldering between his fingers he rolled his own
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so hans and rosa haberman are her new parents hans is very tall smoking a cigarette
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that he rolls up on his own rosa is very short and squat and she looks like pissed 24 7.
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the fact was this, Liesel would not get out of the car.
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Rosa Huberman, oh my god, I can't read German.
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Was is los mit dem Kind?
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Ross Huberman inquired.
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She said it again.
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What's wrong with this child?
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She stuck her face inside the car and said, na, come, come.
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The seat in front was flung forward a corridor of cold light invited her out, she would not move.
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Outside, through the circle she'd made, Liesel could see the tall man's fingers still holding the cigarette.
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Ash stumbled from its edge and lunged and lifted several times until it hit the ground.
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It took nearly fifteen minutes to coax her from the car.
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It was the tall man who did it, quietly.
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There was the gate next which she clung to
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so lisel doesn't want to stay there okay um she misses her mom she just lost her brother
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and so she's refusing to she refused to get out of the car
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and then they finally dragged her out of the car
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and now she's holding on to the gate she's refusing to let go of the gate
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there was the gate next
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which she clung to a gang of tears trudged from her eyes as she held on and refused to go inside.
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People started to gather on the streets until Rosa Huberman swore at them, after which they reversed back whence they came.
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A translation of Rosa Huberman's announcement, what are you looking at?
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Eventually, Liesel Memminger walked gingerly inside.
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Hans Huberman had her by one hand, her small suitcase had her by the other.
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Buried beneath the folded layer of clothes in that suitcase was a small black book, which for all we know a 14 year old grave digger
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in a nameless town had probably spent the last few hours
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looking for i promise you i imagine him saying to his
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boss i have no idea what happened to it i've looked
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everywhere everywhere i'm sure he would never have suspected the girl
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and yet there it was a black book with silver words written against the ceiling of her clothes okay
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So Liesel stole the book, the book that fell in the snow when her brother died.
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She took it.
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The Gravedigger's Handbook, a 12 -step guide to gravedigging success, published by the Bayearn Cemetery Association.
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The book thief had struck for the first time the beginning of an illustrious career.
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Okay, Growing Up as Sawmange.
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Yes, an illustrious career.
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I should hasten to admit, however, that there was a considerable hiatus between the first stolen book and the second.
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Another noteworthy point is that the first was stolen from snow and the second from fire.
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Not to admit that others were also given to her all told she owned 14 books
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but she saw her story as being made up predominantly of
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10 of them of those 10 six were stolen one showed
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up at the kitchen table two were made for her by a hidden jew
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and one was delivered by a soft yellow dressed afternoon okay
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so this is something that you're gonna have to get used to guys how the thing
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that death does is he jumps forward in time a lot
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like he he's telling you the story in the future no
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and so he says
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that oh she's gonna she's gonna steal another book her second book is gonna be from fire
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but that's a long way off pa
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and then he talks to you about the 14 books she's going to gather as this story goes on
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so you're gonna have to get used to
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that yeah death knows everything already
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and he's going to give you spoilers as this story goes on he will tell you things
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that you will be mad about guys like you will be like why did you spoil
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that for me okay um and it's something
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that you're gonna have to get used to as we continue reading
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when she came to write her story she would wonder exactly
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when the books and the words started to mean not just something
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but everything was it when she first set eyes on the room with shelves
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and shelves of them or when max vandenberg arrived on himmel street carrying handfuls of suffering
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and hitler's mean comp was it reading in the shelters the last parade to Dachau?
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Was it the word shaker?
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Perhaps there would never be a precise answer as to when and where it occurred.
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In any case, that's getting ahead of myself.
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Before we make it to any of that, we first need to tour Liesel Meminger's beginnings on Himmel Street and the art of Somenshing.
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Upon her arrival, you could still see the bite marks of snow on her hands
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and the frosty blood on her fingers everything about her was
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undernourished wire -like chins coat hanger arms she did not produce it easily
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but when it came she had a starving smile her hair was a close enough brand of german blonde
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but she had dangerous eyes dark brown you didn't really want brown eyes in germany around
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that time perhaps she received them from her father
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but she had no way of knowing as she couldn't remember
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him there was really only one thing she knew about her
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father it was a label she did not understand a strange word communist
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she'd heard it several times in the past few years communist
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there were boarding houses crammed with people rooms filled with question and
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that word the strange word was always there somewhere standing in
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the corner watching from the dark it wore suits uniforms no
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matter where they went there it was each time her father was mentioned she could smell it
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and taste it she just couldn't spell or understand it
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when she asked her mother what it meant she was told
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that it wasn't important
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that she shouldn't worry about such things at one boarding house
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there was a healthier woman who tried to teach the children
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to write using charcoal on the wall lisa was tempted to ask her for the meaning
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but it never eventuated one day
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that woman was taken away for questioning she didn't come back okay
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so dark brown eyes would be dangerous in this time guys
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because you might be jewish okay um jews had dark eyes man
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and most germans have blue eyes or light colored eyes and
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so lisel was blonde but she had dark eyes and they said
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that those were dangerous eyes to have eyes that color no
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and we do know that lisel's father was a communist
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and basically this is just marco zusek telling us
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that um politics were messed up in this time no it was clearly a very troubled and scary time.
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When Liesel arrived in Malking, she had at least some inkling that she was being saved.
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But that was not a comfort.
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If her mother loved her, why leave her on someone else's doorstep?
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Why?
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Why?
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Why?
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The fact that she knew the answer, if only at the most basic level, seemed beside the point.
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Her mother was constantly sick, and there was never any money to fix her.
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Liesl knew that, but that didn't mean she had to accept it.
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No matter how many times she was told that she was loved, there was no recognition that the proof was in the abandonment.
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Nothing changed the fact that she was a lost, skinny child in another foreign place with more foreign people alone.
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The Hubbermans lived in one of the small box -like houses on Himmel Street.
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A few rooms, a kitchen, and a shared out house with neighbors.
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The roof was flat, and there was a shallow basement for storage.
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It was supposedly not a basement of adequate depth.
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In 1939, this wasn't a problem.
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Later, in 42 and 43, it was.
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When air raids started, they always needed to rush down the streets to a better shelter.
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In the beginning, it was the profanity that made an immediate impact.
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It was so vehement and prolific.
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Every second word was either sawmensch or sawcurl, or, and then I do know that one is, um, a -hole, no, that's the German word for that,
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so I won't say that.
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For people who aren't familiar with these words, I should explain.
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Sow, of course, refers to pigs.
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In the case of sawmensch, it serves to castigate, berate, or plain humiliate a female.
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Sock -curl, pronounced sock -carol, okay, now I know that, is for a male.
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Um, again, I can't say that.
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Can be translated directly into hmm.
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That word, however, does not differentiate between the sexes, it simply is.
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Liesl's foster mother shouted that first evening when she refused to have a bath, you filthy pig, why won't you get undressed?
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She was good at being furious.
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In fact, you could say that Rosa Haberman had a face decorated with constant fury.
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That was how the creases were made in the cardboard texture of her complexion.
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Liesel naturally was bathed in anxiety.
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There was no way she was getting into any bath or into bed for that matter.
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She was twisted into one corner of the closet -like washroom, clutching for the non -existent arms of the wall for some level of support.
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There was nothing but dry paint, difficult breath, and the deluge of abuse from Rosa.
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Leave her alone, Hans Habermann entered the fray.
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His gentle voice made its way in as it's slipping through a crowd.
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Leave her to me.
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So Rosa Habermann just keeps cursing and screaming at Liesel, like she wants to give her a bath, and Hans Habermann is like, relax, I'll handle it.
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He moved closer and sat on the floor against the wall.
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The tiles were cold and unkind you know how to roll a cigarette he asked her
346
and for the next hour or
347
so they sat in the rising pool of darkness playing with the tobacco
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and the cigarette papers and Hans Habermann smoking them
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so he was teaching her how to roll cigarettes so she would trust him When the hour was up, Liesl could roll a cigarette moderately well.
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She still didn't have a bath.
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Some facts about Hans Huberman.
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He loved to smoke.
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The main thing he enjoyed about smoking was the rolling.
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He was a painter by trade and played the piano accordion.
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This came in handy, especially in winter, when he could make a little money playing in the pubs of Malking, like the knoller.
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He had already cheated me in one world war, but would later be put into another.
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So he fought in World War I, but he survived death, but then he would also fight in World War II,
358
a perverse kind of reward where he would somehow manage to avoid me again.
359
To most people, Hans Haberman was barely visible, an unspecial person.
360
Certainly, his painting skills were excellent, his musical ability was better than average.
361
Somehow though, and I'm sure you've met people like this, he was able to appear as merely part of the background, even if he was standing at the front of a line.
362
He was always just there, not noticeable, not important, or particularly valuable.
363
The frustration of that appearance, as you can imagine, was its complete misleadance, let's say.
364
There most definitely was value in him, and it did not go unnoticed by Liesel Memminger,
365
the human child, so much cannier at times than the stupefyingly ponderous adult.
366
She saw it immediately.
367
His manner, the quiet air around him.
368
When he turned the light on in the small, callous washroom that night, Liesel observed the strangeness of her foster father's eyes.
369
They were made of kindness and silver, like soft silver, melting.
370
Liesel, upon seeing those eyes understood that Hans Haberman was worth a lot.
371
Some facts about Rosa Haberman.
372
She was five feet, one inch tall, and wore her brownie, gray strands of elastic hair in a bun.
373
To supplement the Haberman income, she did the washing and ironing for five of the wealthier households in Mulking.
374
Her cooking was atrocious.
375
She possessed the unique ability to aggravate almost anyone she ever met, but she did love Liesel Meminger.
376
Her way of showing it just happened to be strange.
377
It involved bashing her with wooden spoon and words at various intervals.
378
So Rosa's such a meme person, but she genuinely does care about Liesel.
379
It's just she's very cranky.
380
When Liesel finally had a bath, after two weeks of living on Himmel Street, Rosa gave her an enormous injury -inducing hug.
381
Nearly choking her, she said, So man, it's about time.
382
After a few months, they were no longer Mr. and Mrs. Huberman.
383
With a typical fistful of words, Rosa said, Now listen, Liesel, from now on you call me Mama, she thought a moment.
384
What did you call your real mother?
385
Liesel answered quietly.
386
Also, Mama.
387
Well, I'm Mama number two then.
388
She looked over at her husband and him over there.
389
She seemed to collect the words in her hand, pat them together, and hurl them across the table.
390
That sock hurl, that filthy pig you call him, Papa, understand?
391
Yes, Liesel promptly agreed.
392
Quick answers were appreciated in this household yes mama mama corrected her
393
so manch call me mama when you talk to me at
394
that moment hans hubberman had just completed rolling a cigarette having licked the paper
395
and joined it all up he looked over at lisal
396
and winked she would have no trouble calling him papa i love this i love
397
that marcos zusac in how many pages was it one two three four five six In six pages,
398
Marcus Zusak convinces us that these parents that adopted her are nice people.
399
In six pages, he manages to make them very, very lovable, and he brings them to life in six pages.
400
I love this book, man.
401
So we're going to end the video there, but we will continue on with part one in the next video.
402
So click on that if you want to continue.
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Daily ConversationHigh School StudentsUniversity Students
![Class of '09 - Ending 1 [Gameplay Walkthrough]](https://img.youtube.com/vi/i1SLIy_oQsg/mqdefault.jpg)
B2524 sentences
Class of '09 - Ending 1 [Gameplay Walkthrough]
High School StudentsUniversity Students
B11
37 sentences
The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004) Clip 4
High School StudentsUniversity Students
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “TBT part 1 section 1”. This video has 402 sentences and 4810 words to shadow. The speech runs for 29:33. The speaker talks at a natural 163 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 80% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| thief noun | /ˈθiːf/ | One who carries out a theft. |
| cigarette noun | /ˈsɪɡəɹɛt/ | A small cigar consisting of tobacco or another substance, wrapped up in a thin roll with paper, intended for smoking. |
| bury verb | /ˈbɛɹi/ | To outlive. |
| cemetery noun | /ˈsɛm.ɪˌtɛɹ.i/ | A place where the dead are buried; a graveyard or memorial park. |
| adopt verb | /əˈdɑpt/ | To take voluntarily (a child of other parents) to be in the place of, or as, one's own child. |
| gravedigger noun | /ˈɡɹeɪvˌdɪɡ.əɹ/ | A person employed to dig graves. |
| sock noun | /sɑk/ | A knitted or woven covering for the foot. |
| quietly adverb | /ˈkwaɪ.ɪt.li/ | Producing little or no noise. |
| cling verb | /ˈklɪŋ/ | To hold very tightly, as to not fall off. |
| digger noun | /ˈdɪɡɚ/ | A large piece of machinery that digs holes or trenches. |
| hurl verb | /hɝl/ | To throw (something) with force. |
| illustrious adjective | /ɪˈlʌs.tɹi.əs/ | Admired, distinguished, respected, or well-known. |
| nameless adjective | Not having a name. | |
| shiver verb | /ˈʃɪvɚ/ | To tremble or shake, especially when cold or frightened. |
| spurt verb | /spɜɹt/ | To cause to gush out suddenly or violently in a stream or jet. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. | |
| walk away verb | To withdraw from a problematic situation. | |
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| come down to verb | To reach by moving down or reducing. | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| get ahead of verb | To take preemptive action before a potential development becomes reality. | |
| get through verb | /ɡɛt ˈθɹu/ | To overcome; to endure. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- If you can't imagine it, think clumsy silence.
- What's wrong with this child?
- What did you call your real mother?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is packed · be given · was forced |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | you've been informed · i've looked · have suspected |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | face, which was · man who did · woman who tried |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 64 contractions and reduced forms, such as couldn't, wasn't, gonna. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thief /ˈθiːf/, filthy /ˈfɪlθi/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shiver /ˈʃɪvɚ/, washroom /ˈwɒʃrʊm/, shelf /ʃɛlf/, observation /ˌɑbzɚˈveɪʃn̩/
- Long words — get the stress right: cemetery /ˈsɛm.ɪˌtɛɹ.i/, illustrious /ɪˈlʌs.tɹi.əs/, genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/, uncomfortable /ʌnˈkʌm.fɚ.tə.bl̩/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like thief, cigarette, bury.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.