Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 494, Types of Story Endings.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 494.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in In beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Go to our website at eslpod.com to download a learning guide for this episode.
The learning guide will help you improve your English even faster by giving you all of the vocabulary words and definitions sample sentences with each of the main vocabulary words we discuss on this episode.
You'll also find cultural notes, comprehension questions, additional definitions and a complete transcript of everything we say on this episode.
We're talking in this episode about story endings, the way that a movie or a play or a novel might end.
It's a conversation between Hamid and Rachel, and we will use a lot of vocabulary that you might use to describe the ending of stories.
Let's begin.
I just finished a really good book.
I thought the characters were headed toward a tragic ending, but there was a twist near the end and everything turned out well.
It was so satisfying.
It wasn't sappy at all.
It was just a happy ending.
I know what you like.
You like those disaster movies with catastrophic endings where everyone dies.
At least that would be more realistic than everyone living happily ever after.
I just saw the series finale of my favorite TV show.
You know what they did?
They ended the series with a cliffhanger.
Nothing was resolved.
That's horrible.
How could they leave people hanging like that?
Weren't you just a little mad?
No, I wasn't.
The ending stayed true to the spirit of the show.
It was a dark show, and the ending was equally dark.
Well, I bet they ended the series that way so they could make a movie sequel.
Yeah, maybe, but I don't care either way.
Life doesn't end neatly, and neither should a good story.
Remind me never to read any stories you write or any movies you make.
Hamid says, I just finished a really good book.
To head toward something means to advance or to progress toward something, to go in a particular direction.
He is heading toward the door.
He is walking.
He is moving in the direction of the door.
Hamid said the characters, he thought, were headed toward a tragic ending.
Something that is tragic is usually very sad, very unhappy.
Often a person dies when there is a tragic ending.
Hamid said, however, that there was a twist near the end.
A twist here means an unexpected change, something that happened and suddenly the story changed completely.
Twist has several different meanings in English, however.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
Hamid says, the ending was so satisfying.
Something that is satisfying here means something that makes you feel good because you were expecting something good and then something good happens.
It was very satisfying.
You can also have a meal that is satisfying.
Food, oh, that was so good.
It was very satisfying.
It made me full.
Rachel says, it sounds sappy to me.
Sappy, S-A-P-P-Y, means too emotional.
So emotional that it may seem a little silly, a little not serious.
Hamid says it wasn't sappy at all.
It was just a happy ending.
I know what you like.
You like those disaster movies with catastrophic endings, where everyone dies.
A disaster movie is a movie about some terrible thing that happens, such as an earthquake, a volcano, usually some sort of natural disaster, but it could be something that is made by man, made by humans.
It could be the end of the world.
There was a famous movie that was called in English Armageddon a few years ago.
That's a disaster movie.
Titanic is in some ways a disaster movie, although it was also, I guess, a romance.
I don't know.
I'm one of the four people in the world who never saw the movie Titanic.
Hamid says that these disaster movies have catastrophic endings.
Something that is catastrophic is something that is disastrous.
It's similar to disaster.
The noun would be catastrophe.
Here the adjective is catastrophic.
Ending very bad a lot of death, a lot of suffering, something that is terrible.
Hamid is saying that Rachel likes these disaster movies that have terrible endings.
Rachel defends herself by saying at least that would be more realistic than everyone living happily ever after.
She says, well, that may be true, but...
At the very least, I can say in my defense that these movies would be more realistic.
Realistic here means showing the world as it really is, showing something how it actually is rather than how you might like it to be.
This is, according to Rachel, more realistic than everyone living happily ever after.
This is an expression.
To live happily ever after means that everything ends up being happy.
There are no big problems.
Children's stories, stories for young children, usually end happily ever after.
Everything is resolved.
Everything is happy.
Because no one likes to read a sad story except Rachel, I guess.
Well, Rachel says, I just saw a series finale.
A series finale is the last show of a certain television series.
Here in the United States, television dramas can last for years and years, sometimes three years, five years, even 20 years.
But eventually, these television shows, these series are ended.
They're canceled.
They're stopped.
And the last show is always a very important one.
And everyone who likes the show will watch this finale.
The finale of something is the last thing, the end of something.
Rachel said she just saw the series finale of My Favorite TV Show.
She says you know what they did?
They ended the series with a cliffhanger.
Nothing was resolved.
A cliffhanger is a chapter or a television show or a movie that seems incomplete.
It leaves people wondering what they will do next, what will happen next.
This is very common for movies that you know they want to make additional movies about the same topic.
So a movie like The X-Men or some of the Star Trek or Star Wars movies.
These often have cliffhanger endings.
Something happens, but it's not completely resolved.
You're not sure what's going to happen.
This is a very common technique in movies and in television shows and in books.
Rachel says in this cliffhanger, nothing was resolved.
To resolve means to complete, to finish, to decide something.
They resolved their argument.
They were fighting, they were discussing something, and then they resolved it.
They came to a conclusion.
Well, this cliffhanger had nothing resolved.
There were still the problems of the series that were remaining.
Hamid says, that's horrible.
How could they leave people hanging like that?
To leave someone hanging means to say or do something that makes other people want to have more information, want to know what will happen next.
A cliffhanger leaves people hanging.
It leaves them waiting for the next episode or the next movie or the next chapter or book.
Rachel says that she wasn't mad.
She says the ending stayed true to the spirit of the show.
To stay true to something means to be consistent with something, not to change your behavior or your action, to do what one has always done.
This is to be true to something.
Spirit here means the opinions, the actions, the beliefs of a person or a thing.
When Rachel talks about the spirit of the show, she means that the ideas, the opinions of the show, the way the show was developed, the thought behind it.
Rachel says that it was a dark show and the ending was equally dark.
When we talk about the ending of a story being dark, we mean that it is negative.
It is mysterious, perhaps even a little evil, a little bad.
That's dark.
Hamid says, well, I bet they ended the series that way so they could make a movie sequel.
A sequel is a continuation of a show or a movie or a book.
It's like a part two or part three of something.
Many popular Hollywood movies have sequels.
I mentioned before the Star Wars movies.
There were many different sequels.
There's also something now called a prequel, which is a movie that takes place before the time of the original movie.
This has also become very popular.
Star Trek and X-Men both have had prequels recently.
Rachel says, well...
Maybe, but I don't care either way, meaning I don't care what happens.
Either way is a phrase used to refer to two options at once, but only one of them will happen.
Somebody says, we could go to a movie or we could go to the beach.
And you say, well, I don't care either way, either option, either choice is okay for me.
Rachel explains that life doesn't end neatly and neither should a good story.
Neatly here means where everything is taken care of, everything is clean and resolved.
Hamid says, remind me never to read any stories you write or any movies you make.
Hamid doesn't like the way that Rachel likes her story endings.
He wants to have happy endings that are resolved.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I know what you like.
You like those disaster movies with catastrophic endings where everyone dies.
At least that would be more realistic than everyone living happily ever after.
I just saw the series finale of my favorite TV show.
You know what they did?
They ended the series with a cliffhanger.
Nothing was resolved.
That's horrible.
How could they leave people hanging like that?
Weren't you just a little mad?
No, I wasn't.
The ending stayed true to the spirit of the show.
It was a dark show, and the ending was equally dark.
Well, I bet they ended the series that way so they could make a movie sequel.
Yeah, maybe, but I don't care either way.
Life doesn't end neatly, and neither should a good story.
Remind me never to read any stories you write or any movies you make.
The script for this episode was written by someone whose stories are never sappy or tragic, but they often have a twist.
Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2009 by the Center for Educational Development.
