Here is Level 2, Lesson 18: “Flour Baby, Part 2” adapted from VOA Learning English.
- Listen, read, translate if needed, and practice along with the audio player and dialogue below.
Professor Bot: In Part 1 of this two-part lesson, Ms. Weaver gave Anna and Pete an assignment. Ms. Weaver instructed them to do everything by themselves.
“Themselves” is a reflexive pronoun.
In today’s lesson, Ms. Weaver will look at Pete’s and Anna’s research. First, let’s see Pete’s experiment.
(Pete throws the bag of flour on his chair and throws many other things on his flour baby. Next, we see him outside enjoying ice-cream without his flour baby.)
Ms. Weaver: Okay, Pete, let me see your research first.
(Pete hands her a big binder filled with research.)
Ms. Weaver: That’s a heavy binder. And you and your Baby look great.
Pete: Thanks, Ms. Weaver. We feel great!
Ms. Weaver: Anna. Anna, you’re next. Anna? Anna wake up!
(She wakes up but is very confused.)
Anna: I’m here, Baby! I’m here! I’m here! Here’s your bottle.
(She accidentally squirts her bottle and milk goes everywhere.)
Ms. Weaver: Anna, you and your baby look awful. What happened?
Anna: Well, I took her everywhere. Everywhere. And I fed her every three hours. So, I haven’t slept since … what day is it?
Ms. Weaver: It’s Friday. What happened there?
(Ms. Weaver points to a large bandage on Anna’s flour baby.)
Anna: Oh, that. Oh, that. I was making myself a salad and had a little accident with a knife. I put my flour baby in front of me. And then I accidentally stabbed it. But I gave it First Aid!
Ms. Weaver: Is that a burn?
Anna: Yes. Yes it is. While I was making myself dinner, I put Baby next to me. I accidentally knocked her into the sink. So I put her in the microwave to dry. That’s when she caught fire.
(Pete smiles, thinking he’s won.)
Professor Bot: Okay. So, we use a reflexive pronoun when it refers to the subject of a sentence or clause.
But we DON’T use a reflexive pronoun with prepositions of place.
Anna uses examples of both in one sentence: While I was making myself dinner, I put Baby next to me.
We use a reflexive pronoun in the first part of the sentence. “Myself” refers to the subject “I.”
But in the second part of the sentence, we don’t use a reflexive pronoun in the prepositional phrase. We use the pronoun “me.” Why? “next to” is a preposition of place.
(Back in the meeting room, we’re about to learn who won the parenting experiment. Pete is smiling, thinking he won.)
Ms. Weaver: Anna, Anna, you should be very proud of yourself.
Pete: Proud? She stabbed and burned her baby!! And she only did one page of research…and it’s covered in milk. Ew.
Ms. Weaver: Yes, Pete. But she followed instructions.
Pete: Hey, I did …
Ms. Weaver: Please, Pete. Anna, I think your baby has lost some weight. Is there something else you want to share?
Anna: Yes. I’d like to share … these! I made them myself this morning.
Pete: You baked your baby? You should be ashamed of yourself!
Anna: I baked them at the end of the experiment, Pete. At that point, this was just a bag of flour.
Pete: It was always just a bag of flour!!
Ms. Weaver: Pete, will you listen to yourself?! You sound crazy.
Pete: I sound crazy! This whole experiment was crazy!! She was the one who carried around and fed it and …
(Anna puts a cookie into his mouth. He chews it and begins to smile.)
Pete: Mmm. That is good.
(They all agree and eat the cookies.)
Professor Bot: So, what have we learned? We’ve learned when to use reflexive pronouns and when not to.
2. Watch the Lesson 18: “Flour Baby, Part 2” American English video lesson.
3. Take the Lesson 18: “Flour Baby, Part 2” quiz to check your American English knowledge. Click here to take the quiz.
4. Answer the following question in the comments section below:
Tell about a time you had to do something new. It could be a school or a work assignment or learning a new skill like sewing, cooking or drawing. Or, it could be a sport, a game, a kind of craft or art. Tell about what you learned during the new experience.
About the Author
Hello. I’m Danijela.
Very interesting lesson also video with Ana and Pete.
I the quiz my score was 4/4.
Thank you very much Maestro Sersea.
Hello everyone
Well, learning how to do remote work is a great experience. I’ve been doing that lately. It requires having a good computer, gaining experience in handling software tools, and adding another organizational aspects to our own lives if we want to be successful.
In the quiz I got 4 of of correct answers
Thank you Maestro
Thanks to all
Hello , hind from Iraq.
My score was 3/4
I had many time when I was young because I’m not wasting my time and always I will investment it like ( cooking cuisine ,sewing , knitting , running sport, but I’m retired next year so l learn Turkish language with learn English language although we learn English language in primary and secondary school so we use it in our job but we can’t speaking very well while we don’t read Turkish language so I want more skill by lyric Turkish song in you tube .
Lesson 2.18.4 Year 2
Level 2, Lesson 18 Quiz ” Flour Baby ” Part 2
I got 100%, It was quite an interesting quiz.
Below is the answer to the above question.
During my school and college life between the end of examinations till the start of a new session, I was supposed to polish my cooking, stitching, and sewing skills. According to my mother’s instructions, I had to prepare at least one meal for the whole family with the help of our elderly loyal maid, we called her ” Mocci”
Without her our home was incomplete. I remember, my mother always used to say,” To have a good servant is to have blessing. Whatever I learned from her, later on in my practical life I got benefited a lot.
Greeting Maestro Sersea
Since my chilhood I wanted to learn crochet, so I decided to take a course online, I learned to do differents stitchs and how to read the embroidery patterns, and so I did my first embroidery, no one known that I had learned, one day my sister ironing a new skirt burn it out and she was almost to the point to cry and I said to her if you let me I can help you, and I made to her an embroidery in the part burned out of the skirt. When I gave her the skirt she was surprised and happy. It is wondefulr learn new skills mainly when are enjoyables.
Best Regards
Greetings Maestro Sersea
I forgot to post my result quiz. My scored was 100% in this quiz.
Thank you much.
Hello everyone,
In the quiz I got 4/4.
Thank you Maestro.
Hello!i got 4/4 on the quiz, for me it not easy to do something for the first time, i’m a technician my job is to assembly and disassembly some components from power train heavy equipment, for the first time i was scared and stressed, now i have experience