Shadowing Practice: The Importance of Being Earnest - Act 1 Pt 1(English Close Captioning) - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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specifically when he crossed out
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specifically when he crossed out
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Thank you.
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Did you hear what I was playing, Lane?
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I didn't think it polite to listen, sir.
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I'm sorry for that, for your sake.
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I don't play accurately.
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Anyone can play accurately.
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But I play with wonderful expression.
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As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte.
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I keep science for life yes sir
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and speaking of the science of life have you got the
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cucumber sandwiches cut for lady Bracknell? yes sir ah by the way Lane I see from your book
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that on thursday night when lord shawman
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and mr worthing were dining with me eight bottles of champagne
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are entered as having been consumed yes sir eight bottles
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and a pint why is it that at a bachelor's establishment the servants invariably drink the champagne?
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I ask merely for information.
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I attribute it to the superior quality of the wine, sir.
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I've often observed that in married households the champagne is rarely of a first-rate brand.
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Good heavens!
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Is married life so demoralizing as that?
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I believe it is a very pleasant state, sir.
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I've had very little experience of myself up to the present.
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I've only been married once.
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That was in consequence of a misunderstanding between myself and a young person.
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I don't know that I'm much interested in your family life, Lane.
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No sir it is not a very interesting subject.
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I never think of it myself.
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Very natural I'm sure.
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That will do Lane.
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Thank you.
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Thank you sir.
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Lane's views on marriage seem somewhat lax.
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Really if the lower orders don't set us a good example what on earth is the use of them.
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They seem as a class to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility.
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Mr. Ernest Worthing.
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Are you my dear Ernest?
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What brings you up to town?
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Pleasure.
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Pleasure.
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What else should bring I don't mind any more.
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Eating as usual I see, LG.
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I believe it is customary in good society to take some slight refreshment at five o'clock.
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Where have you been since last Thursday?
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In the country.
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What on earth do you do there?
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When one is in town, one amuses oneself.
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When one is in the country, one amuses other people.
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It is excessively boring.
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And who are the people you amuse?
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Oh, neighbours.
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Neighbours.
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Got nice neighbours in your part of Shropshire?
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Perfectly horrid.
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Never speak to one of them.
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How immensely you must amuse them.
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By the way, Shropshire is your county, is it not?
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Aye.
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Shropshire.
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Oh, yes, of course.
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Hello?
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Why all these cups?
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Why cucumber sandwiches?
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Why such a reckless extravagance in one so young?
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Who's coming to tea?
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Merely Aunt Augusta and Gwendolyn.
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How perfectly delightful.
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Yes, that is all very well,
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but I'm afraid Aunt Augusta won't quite approve of your being here.
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May I ask why?
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My dear fellow, the way you flirt with Gwendolyn is perfectly disgraceful.
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It is almost as bad as the way Gwendolyn flirts with you.
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I am in love with Gwendolyn.
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I have come up to town expressly to propose to her.
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But I thought you'd come up for pleasure, like all that business how utterly unromantic you are.
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I really don't see anything romantic in proposing it is very romantic to be in love
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but there is nothing romantic at all about a definite proposal.
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why one may be accepted one usually is I believe then
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the excitement is all over the very essence of romance is uncertainty
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if ever I get married I'll certainly try to forget the fact.
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I have no doubt about
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that dear Algie the divorce court was specially invented for people whose memories are
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so curiously constituted there's no speculating on that subject.
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Divorces are made in heaven.
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But please don't touch the cucumber sandwiches.
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They are ordered specially for Aunt Augusta.
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You've been eating them all the time.
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That is quite a different matter.
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She is my aunt.
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Have some bread and butter.
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But the bread and butter is for Gwendolyn.
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Gwendolyn is devoted to bread and butter.
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And very good bread and butter it is.
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Well my dear fellow you need not eat it as if you're going to eat it all.
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You've got to behave as if you're married to her already.
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You are not married to her already and I don't think you ever will be.
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Why unless you say that?
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Well, in the first place,
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girls never marry the men they flirt with.
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Girls don't think it right.
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That is nonsense.
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It isn't.
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It's a great truth.
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It accounts for the extraordinary number of bachelors that one sees all over the place.
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In the second place, I don't give my consent.
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Your consent?
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My dear fellow Gwendolyn is my first cousin.
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And before I allow you to marry her,
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you will have to clear up the whole question of Cecily.
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Cecily?
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What on earth do you mean?
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what do you mean by Cecily
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I don't know anybody by the name of Cecily bring me
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that cigarette case Mr. Worthing left in the smoking room the last time he dined here yes sir
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do you mean to say you've had my cigarette case all
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this time well I wish to goodness you'd let me know
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I've been writing frantic letters to Scotland Yard about it I
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was very nearly offering a large reward well I wish you
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would offer one I happen to be more than usually hard
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up well it's no good offering a large reward now to think it's found I think
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that is rather meaningful I must say,
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however, it makes no matter.
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For now that I look at the inscription inside,
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I find that the thing isn't yours after all.
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Of course it's mine.
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You've seen me with it a hundred times.
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And you have no right whatsoever to read what's written inside
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it is a very ungentlemanly thing to read a private cigarette case oh it's absurd to make a hard
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and fast rule about what one should read
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and what one shouldn't more than half of modern culture depends
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on what one shouldn't read i'm quite aware of the fact
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and i don't propose to discuss modern culture it isn't the
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sort of thing one should talk of in private i simply want my cigarette case yes
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but this isn't your cigarette case now this cigarette case is a present from someone of the name of cecily
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and you said you didn't know anyone of that name?
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Well, if you want to know,
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Cecily happens to be my aunt.
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Your aunt?
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Yes.
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Charming old lady she is too.
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Lives at Tunbridge Wells.
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Just give it back to me, don't you?
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But why does she call herself Little Cecily if she is your aunt and lives at Tunbridge Wells?
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From Little Cecily, with her fondest love.
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My dear fellow, what on earth is there in that?
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Some aunts are tall, some aunts are not tall.
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That is a matter that surely an aunt may be allowed to decide for herself.
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You seem to think that every aunt should be exactly like your aunt.
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That is absurd.
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Now, for heaven's sake, give me back my sickle.
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Yes, but why does your aunt call you her uncle,
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from little cecily with her fondest love to her dear uncle
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jack there is no objection i admit to an aunt being a small aunt
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but why an aunt no matter what her size may be
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you should call her own nephew her uncle i can't quite
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make out besides your name isn't jack at all it's earnest
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it isn't earnest it's jack you've always told me it was
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earnest well i've introduced you to everyone as earnest you answer to the name of earnest you look as
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if your name was earnest you were the most earnest looking
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person i ever saw in my life it's perfectly absurd you're saying that your name isn't Ernest.
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It's on your cards.
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Yes, here is one of them.
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Mr. Ernest Worthing before the Albany.
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I'll keep this as a proof that your name is Ernest
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if ever you attempt to deny it to me or to Gwendolyn or to anyone else.
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Well, my name is Ernest in town and Jack in the country
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and the cigarette case was given to me in the country.
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Yes, but that does not account for the fact that your small aunt Cecily,
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who lives at Tunbridge Wells,
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calls you her dear uncle.
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Come, old boy, you'd much better have the thing out at once.
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I may mention that I've always suspected you of being a confirmed and secret Bunburyist and I'm quite sure of it now.
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Bunbrist?
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What on earth do you mean by bunbrist?
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I revealed you the meaning of that incomparable expression
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as soon as you are kind enough to inform me why you are earnest in town and Jack in the country.
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Well, produce my cigarette case first.
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Here it is.
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Now produce your explanation and pray make it improbable.
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My dear fellow, there is nothing improbable about my explanation at all.
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In fact, it is perfectly ordinary.
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Old Mr. Thomas Cardew, who adopted me when I was a little boy,
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made me in his will guardian to his granddaughter, Miss Cecily Cardew.
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Cecily, who addresses me as her uncle
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from motives of respect which you could not possibly appreciate
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lives at my place in the country under the charge of her admirable governess,
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Miss Prism Where is that place in the country, by the way?
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That is nothing to you,
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dear boy You're not going to be invited I may tell you candidly
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that the place is not in Shropshire I suspected that,
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my dear fellow I have Bunbury'd all over Shropshire on two separate occasions
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But go on Why are you earnest in town and jack in the country?
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My dear Audrey I don't know whether you will be able to understand my real motives.
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You are hardly serious enough.
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When one is placed in the position of guardian,
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one has to adopt a very high moral tone on all subjects.
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It is one's duty to do so.
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And as a high moral tone can hardly be said to conduce very much to either one's health or one's happiness,
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in order to get up to town I've always pretended to have a younger brother by the name of Ernest,
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who lives in the Albany and gets into the most dreadful scrapes.
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That, my dear young Aldi,
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is the whole truth, pure and simple.
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The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
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Modern life would be very tedious if it were either,
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and modern literature a complete impossibility.
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That wouldn't be at all a bad thing.
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Literary criticism is not your forte, my dear fellow.
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Don't try it.
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You should leave that to people who haven't been at university.
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They do it so well in the daily papers.
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Now, what you really are is a Bunburyist.
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I was quite right in saying you were a Bunburyist.
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Well, you were one of the most advanced Bunburyists I know.
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What on earth do you mean?
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You have invented a very useful younger brother called Ernest in order
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that you may be able to come up to town as often as you like.
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I have invented an invaluable permanent invalid called Bunbury in order
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that I may be able to go down to the country whenever I choose.
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Bunbury is perfectly invaluable.
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If it wasn't for Bunbury's extraordinary bad health,
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for instance, I shouldn't be able to dine with you tonight at the Savoy,
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for I've really been engaged to Aunt Augusta for more than a week.
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I haven't asked you to dine with me anywhere tonight.
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I know.
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You are absurdly careless about sending out invitations.
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It's very foolish of you.
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Nothing annoys people so much as not receiving invitations.
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Anyway, I can't dine at the Savoy.
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I owe them about 700 pounds.
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All by on earth don't you pay them.
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You've got heaps of money.
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Yes, but Ernest hasn't.
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Ernest is the sort of chap
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that never pays a bill then let us dine at willis's
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you had much better dine with your aunt Augusta i haven't
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the smallest intention of doing anything of the kind i dine there on monday
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and once a week is quite enough to dine with one's own relations
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and i know perfectly well whom she will place me next
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to tonight she will place me next to mary farquhar who
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always flirts with her own husband across the dinner table
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that is not very pleasant indeed it is not even decent
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and that sort of thing is enormously on the increase
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and the amount of women in london who flirt with her own husbands is perfectly scandalous.
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It looks so bad it's simply washing one's clean in and in public.
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Besides, now that I know you to be a confirmed Bunburyist,
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I naturally want to talk to you about Bunbury.
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I want to tell you the rules.
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You're not a Bunburyist at all.
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If Gwendolyn accepts me, I'm going to kill my brother.
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In fact, I think I'll kill him in any case.
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Cecily is a little too much interested in him.
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It is rather a bore,
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so I'm going to get rid of Ernest,
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and I strongly advise you do the same with Mr...
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with your invalid friend who has the absurd name nothing will induce me to part with Bunbury
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and if ever you get married
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which seems to me extremely problematic you will be very glad
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to know Bunbury a man who marries without knowing Bunbury has a very tedious time of it
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that is nonsense if I marry a charming girl like Gwendolyn
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and she is the only girl I saw in my life
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that I would marry I certainly won't want to know Bunbury then your wife will you don't seem to realize
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that in married life three is company and two is none.
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ah that must be aunt augusta only relatives or creditors ever ring in
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that Wagnerian manner now if i get her out of the way for 10 minutes
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so
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that you can have an opportunity for proposing to Gwendolyn may
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i dine with you at Willis's tonight oh i suppose so
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if you want to yes
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but you must be serious about it now i hate people who are not serious about meals it's
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so shallow of them
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Why practice speaking with this video?
Engaging with The Importance of Being Earnest provides a fantastic opportunity to improve your English speaking skills. The first act introduces witty dialogues and varied expressions that display the vibrancy of English. By practicing speaking along with the characters, you can not only enhance your vocabulary but also grasp the nuances of intonation and emotion in conversation. This is particularly beneficial for those looking to learn English with YouTube, as the characters embody real-life scenarios and social interactions, making the language practical and relatable.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
In this transcript, several key grammatical structures and expressions stand out:
- Question Forms: The dialogues feature various question forms such as, “What brings you up to town?” This structure highlights how to inquire about someone’s intentions or reasons thoughtfully.
- Use of Present Continuous: Phrases like “When one is in town, one amuses oneself” exemplify the use of the present continuous to describe ongoing actions. This is crucial for learners to convey their activities dynamically.
- Idiomatic Expressions: The phrase “Who are the people you amuse?” reflects idiomatic speech that is common in informal conversations, showcasing how native speakers often express humor and social critique.
- Conditional Statements: The statement, “if the lower orders don't set us a good example...” displays conditionals effectively. Understanding this will enhance your English speaking practice by allowing you to express hypothetical situations fluidly.
Common Pronunciation Traps
As you practice with this video, pay special attention to some tricky words and pronunciations. Certain terms can be challenging:
- “Cucumber sandwiches”: The rapid flow of this phrase can lead to mispronunciation, so ensure you clearly articulate each word.
- Words like “demoralizing” and “establishment”: These longer words can pose a challenge in terms of both pronunciation and rhythm. Break them down into syllables while shadow speaking for better retention.
- “Champagne”: This word often misleads non-native speakers due to its soft 'ch' sound. Make sure to practice its pronunciation to improve English pronunciation overall.
By focusing on these elements and using video content to shadow speak, you can significantly enhance your English communication skills. This immersive technique allows you to mimic native speakers, ultimately leading to greater fluency and confidence in your speaking abilities.
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.
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