Watching a “Harry Potter” or “Star Wars” film can make you smarter. Really.
So says Brian Leaf, SAT tutor and author of “Name That Movie! A Painless Vocabulary Builder.”
Leaf’s two editions – “Comedy & Action” and “Romantic Comedy & Drama” – use popular films to boost your vocabulary. The books serve up movie dialogue snippets filled with the kinds of words that often show up on school exams, like “righteous,” “malice” and “depravity.” Flip the page and find out the meanings of the words as well as the film in question.
Movie experts will guess some of the movies right away. Others may opt for the hints placed at the bottom of the page to get the answers. One wishes the author had hidden some of the character names to better build a sense of mystery, though.
Pop quizzes help reinforce the learning experience. Leaf wisely throws in some movie trivia to sweeten the experience, and by selecting mostly modern films young readers will be better able to relate to the passages.
It all makes for a breezy read that makes prepping for standardized tests palatable. And you’ll feel a little less guilty the next time you pop a movie into your DVD player rather than cracking a book.
Here’s one snippet from “Name That Movie!” to test your brain power – and movie knowledge:
John Beckwith: (discussing Chaz): He lived with his mother ’til he was 40! she tried to poison his oatmeal!
Jeremy Grey: Erroneous! Erroneous! Erroneous on both counts!
The answer is …“Wedding Crashers” (2005), and erroneous means incorrect. Synonyms include fallacious and specious.
And did you recall Bradley Cooper played the unctuous boyfriend who gives Vince Vaughn’s character fits in the movie? Leaf did …
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