PDLyE II – UNIT 4 – Practice Handout

Class #2 March 2023

GRAMMAR
1) Circle the finite verbs and underline the non-finite verbs. Classify the finite
verbs according to person, number, tense and aspect, mood and voice. Classify
the non-finite verbs into to-infinitive, bare infinitive, gerund, past participle or
present participle.

a. She was running really quickly.

b. Being a quick runner, she won the race.
c. May the good Lord shine a light on you!
d. She was seen running quickly through the crowd.
e. Every planet we reach is dead.
f. O green world, don’t desert me now!
g. Try not to be heard by anyone, please.
h. Such things have never been done.
i. All she could do is run.
j. This is how they work, whether it be right or wrong.

2) Look at the words in bold and decide if the S-V agreement in the following
sentences is right or wrong. If wrong, correct and explain why.

a. I realize I am one of the few Americans who know the sound of rocks cutting
through flesh and striking bone.
b. It remains to be seen what precise form of words are agreed by the 12 heads of
government.
c. They know everyone are here.
d. The series trending on Netfilx in Argentina is División Palermo.
e. In addition, lack of food, affordable pre-school and out-of-school childcare, and
responsibility for the care of elderly relatives and household mean that part time
work seems the only practical option.
f. The news on climate change are not any comforting. Figures show that
temperatures will continue to rise yearly.
g. Mathematics, which challenge students, is more likely to involve practical, oral and
mental activities than writing.
h. Nobody have their fridges repaired any more, they can’t afford it.

VOCABULARY
1) Match the pictures with the movie genres.

Action film Animation Comedy Drama Historical Horror film

____ ____ ___ ____ film ____ ____
Musical Rom-com Sci-fi ____ Thriller War ____ Western
____ ____ ____ ____

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Class #2 March 2023

2) Match the nouns with the definitions

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Class #2 March 2023
3) Define the phrases in bold using your own words.

1. The film is based on a true story.

2. It is set in NY in the 1940s.

3. It was directed by Stephen

Spielberg.
4. Hugh Grant plays the part of
Florence’s husband.
5. It’s been dubbed into many other
languages.

4) Watch locations 1,2 and 3 in the following video and explain what the following
expressions mean and what they refer to in the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR-vYp6pXLg
THE GHOSTBUSTERS’ FIREHOUSE

PHRASE REFERS TO DEFINITION

… a surefire hit…

… the box office…

To live up to sb’s
expectations.

HOGWARTS CASTLE

PHRASE REFERS TO DEFINITION

… a novel series

… a worldwide
phenomenon…
… the second highest-
grossing film series…
CGI

PARADISE FALLS FROM UP

PHRASE REFERS TO DEFINITION

… most touching and
visually accomplished…
… the drawing board…

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 PDLyE II – UNIT 4 – Practice Handout
Class #2 March 2023
… their animated
rendering…
DVD extra feature

WRITING – A review

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PDLyE II – UNIT 4 – Practice Handout
Class #2 March 2023

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Class #2 March 2023
READING COMPREHENSION
PART 1
Look at the following pictures.

How could they relate to each other? Explain what you see and make out of them.

1) Have you ever won an award?

2) How important is it for you to win a competition?
3) Do you agree with the following statement? ‘Participation is more important
than winning.’
PART 2:
1) Do you ever read the paper? Do you read it online? How do you keep up with
current events?
2) What Argentine newspapers can you name? Any in other languages?
3) What Argentine film do you know of have been nominated to the receive the
Academy Awards?
PART 3:

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 PDLyE II – UNIT 4 – Practice Handout
Class #2 March 2023
1) Watch the following trailers:

https://www.imdb.com/video/vi4265065241/?playlistId=tt0089276&ref_=tt_ov_vi
https://www.imdb.com/video/vi100645401/?playlistId=tt1305806&ref_=tt_ov_vi

How are they related?

Forget the Oscars, ‘Argentina, 1985’ already won

By Agustín Mango - Editor
From the box office to raising awareness about authoritarianism, Santiago Mitre’s film
has made its mark.
Salma Hayek’s tone of voice was so grim when she started to announce the winner
that it became instantly clear to everyone: Argentina, 1985 hadn’t won Best
International Feature Film at the Oscars, and there would be no tercera.
Santiago Mitre’s film about the prosecution team behind Argentina’s landmark Trial of
the Juntas was beaten in the category by Germany’s All Quiet in the Western Front. It
was Argentina’s first nomination in that category since 2015 (Damian Szifron’s Wild
Tales) and expectations were high in a country that recently celebrated its third World
Cup win.
Drawing parallels with football, people were eager for a third Academy Award for
Argentina, following Luis Puenzo’s The Official Story in 1986 and Juan José
Campanella’s The Secret in Their Eyes in 2010.
Last week, Mitre shared images of himself on social media wearing the national
football team’s shirt, holding three fingers up against a street ad of the film in L.A.
Other stars posted pictures of little tailor-made estampitas (religious stamps) of the
film. On Sunday, when people realized that the category would be announced by
Hayek and Antonio Banderas, hopes grew even higher.
The loss was a hard blow.
“We experienced it just like everybody did. We had gotten very wound up, so it was
sort of a disappointment, although a great film won”, said star Ricardo Darin in a TV
interview after the ceremony.
In reality, it was not much of a surprise. The winner turned out to be the obvious
candidate, an anti-war epic that had already swept the nominations board with eight
other bids, including Best Picture. The film also won Best Cinematography, a potential
clue about this pensive, violently contemplative film’s appeal to Academy members.
Still, Argentina, 1985 has already won.

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Class #2 March 2023
It has served as a powerful and popular reminder for Argentine society of its
commitment to the “Never Again” denouncement of state terrorism and the well-
established policy of memory, truth and justice. Audiences sobbed at the heart-
breaking testimony of Adriana Calvo de Laborde — who gave birth while handcuffed
inside a car— and burst into applause mid-film, at the end of prosecutor Julio
Strassera’s landmark indictment. The film brought back not only the horror suffered by
the Junta’s innocent victims but also a sense of pride in being the first nation to
prosecute a military dictatorship since Nuremberg.
Mitre’s film is as timely as you can get in a global context of hindered democracies,
with the invasion of Ukraine by an autocratic state, the ongoing aftermath of the
January 6 insurrection in the US, and the recent assault on Congress in neighboring
Brazil by Jair Bolsonaro supporters.
With that context in mind, it was no secret that the film was trying to appeal to young
viewers, among whom ultra-right and anti-democratic discourse has been gaining
support. In Argentina, three of the four people indicted for the recent assassination
attempt of Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner are in their twenties. The
ages of the protagonists and the film’s intelligent use of comedy bolstered the hoped-
for appeal — comedy which has been unanimously praised as a simple yet audacious
way to ease audiences into one of the most horrible chapters of Argentine history.
It’s certainly more effective in raising awareness about the dangers of authoritarianism
in today’s world than grandiose remakes centering old European pacifism.
As with most good films dealing with complex, real-life political events, Argentina,
1985 hasn’t been free of criticism from different fronts. Supporters of the Radical Party
that governed in the 1980s were openly critical of the downgraded role of President
Raul Alfonsin and his administration as active promoters of the trial. Human rights
activists have also mentioned the film does not show the importance of popular
protest and civil organizations in putting social pressure on the streets to get the trials
going.
A more niche critique points to Strassera’s passiveness as a prosecutor during the
dictatorship and his political stances afterward — the film frames him as a judicial
bureaucrat who found himself in a David vs. Goliath fight against powerful and
dangerous enemies.
In response to some of these observations, the film’s creators have been outspoken
about their ideas, even participating in interesting public debates about the role and
uses of fiction to depict real-life, polarizing political events. The “controversy” was a
good opportunity for interested viewers to read about things like cinematographic
language, the notion of representation, and the way movies differ from other art forms
in the way they state their ideas.
Contemporary Argentine cinema has been saturated with movies about the
dictatorship, to the point that it became almost like a genre in itself, one that large

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Class #2 March 2023
audiences grew distant from. And although Argentina, 1985 is a film about democracy,
it brought some of the themes we had so often seen poorly depicted back into the
mainstream.
Argentina, 1985 was also a successful case of an Argentine production of an Argentine
story with an Argentine director, backed by a Hollywood studio that joined the film as
a co-producer — not just a distributor. While Argentine production companies today
are almost exclusively creating tons of content for streaming platforms with large
budgets, Mitre’s film also proves that you can deliver interesting products outside that
formula with independent talents like Mariano Llinás, famous in the independent art-
film world, who co-wrote Argentina 1985.
Meanwhile, the international film industry has taken notice — Mitre was signed by the
Hollywood talent agency CAA and Darin, who reportedly sparked interest among top
producers, has been personally congratulated by stars like Oscar-winner Cate
Blanchett.
So, despite the defeat on Sunday, Argentina, 1985 won on several fronts — box
offices, civic dialogue, and international praise. Just like the end of the film has shown
us, achievements are not absolute outcomes. They can be gray, nuanced, and even
invisible. Mitre himself, before knowing what the Oscar envelope contained on Sunday
night, highlighted the most important aspect of the journey for him.
“Cinema is not a sport, it’s storytelling,” he wrote. “And this film, which depicts such
an important event for our country, for democracy, for justice, for the stories
regarding memory, will go on forever.”
Source: https://buenosairesherald.com/culture-ideas/forget-the-oscars-argentina-
1985-already-won

1) Decide if the following statements are True or False. Justify by marking the
information in the text.

a. Argentina, 1985 is the third Argentine production to have won an Academy

Award. T / F
b. Salma Hayek and Antonio Banderas announced the category Best International
Feature Film at the 2023 Oscar Ceremony. T / F
c. According to the writer: “The film brought back not only the horror suffered by the
Junta’s innocent victims but also a sense of pride in being the first nation to
prosecute a military dictatorship since Nuremberg.” T / F
d. The writer thinks that the film has no linkage whatsoever with any current affairs
but connects people with the feeling of hindered democracies. T / F
e. the film’s intelligent use of comedy makes it easier for audiences to understand
and feel what this part of the Argentine history means. T / F
f. The film hasn’t received any criticism from any different groups. T / F

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g. The film did not receive any praise from Hollywood stars. T / F
h. Mitre feels bad because he has lost a competition. T / F

2) Explain the meaning of the following phrases:

a. From the box office to raising awareness…

b. … there would be no tercera.
c. … hopes grew even higher.
d. “We had gotten very wound up, so it was sort of a disappointment… “
e. … an anti-war epic that had already swept the nominations board with eight other
bids…
f. Mitre’s film is as timely as you can get in a global context of hindered
democracies…

3) Match the following expressions to their corresponding meanings.

1. box office a. Of a person or organization which has

complete power and makes decisions
without asking anyone else's advice.
2. grim b. Cried with short breaths, making
noises.
3. prosecution team c. A person or company that
commercializes films.
4. landmark d. The art of telling stories.
5. tailor-made e. A formal accusation that someone has
committed a crime.
6. an epic f. Made sth softer.
7. bids g. Brave, courageous.
8. sobbed h. The lawyers who try to prove that a
person on trial is guilty.
9. heart-breaking i. Tied up with a metallic device that
prevents prisoners from escaping.
10. handcuffed j. The degree of success of a film or play
in terms of the number of people who go
to watch it or the amount of money it
makes.
11. burst into applause k. Reduced.
12. indictment l. Nominations.
13. autocratic m. Sad.
14. aftermath n. Online platforms used to broadcast
shows.
15. bolstered o. Something that breaks your heart.
16. audacious p. Specially designed for a particular
person or purpose.
17. downgraded q. Clapped at sth suddenly.

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Class #2 March 2023
18. a distributor r. The situation that results from an
important event, esp. a harmful one.
19. streaming platforms s. a film, whose story extends over a long
period of time or tells of great events.
20. storytelling t. Of extreme importance to the turn of
events.

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