Movie Activity: Stranger than Fiction (2006)

Characters (ask the stds to do the matching exercise before watching the movie. Then you show some scenes that define each one of them: Harold (scene
1/2), Ana (scene 4/17), Karen (scene 3) and Jules (scene 13)

Ana Pascal
Harold Crick Karen Eiffel Prof. Jules Hilbert
Favorite
Things
(Choose from
box 1 below)

Personality
Traits
(Choose from
box 2 below)

BOX 1: armchair – books – briefcase – calculator – cigarettes – coffee cup – cookies – flour – green apples – lifeguard -
milk – pencils - stove – tie - typewriter – umbrella – whistle - wristwatch

BOX 2: boring – bright – creative – friendly – hardworking – honest – insecure – intelligent – lonely – moody – mysterious
– open-minded – quiet – sad – sensible – sensitive – shy - talkative – trustworthy - understanding

Brainstorming:
Everybody knows that your life is a story. But what if a story was your life?
a) If your life was a book, what would it be called?
b) Who would you like to write your story?
c) Do you think we can change our destiny by changing our habits?

Preview:
Put Harold’s daily activities in order: (scene 1)
( ) He brushes his teeth 76 times.
( ) He walks home alone. What’s Ana’s business? (scene 4)
( ) He ties his tie in a single Windsor knot. a) She owns a stationery.
( ) He wakes up. b) She owns a bakery.
( ) He has dinner alone. c) She owns a restaurant.
( ) He gets dressed.
( ) He goes to bed at precisely 11:13pm. How does Harold make Ana fall in love with
( ) He runs to the bus stop holding a briefcase him? (scene 17)
and a green apple. a) He buys her dinner.
( ) He takes a 45.7 minute lunch break and a 4.3 b) He sings her a song.
minute coffee break. c) He gives her flowers.
( ) He works as a senior auditor for the Internal
Revenue Service (IRS).
Grammar Activity: Inversion
Kay Eiffel: [narrating] Little did he know that this simple seemingly innocuous act would result in his imminent death.
Harold Crick: What? What? Hey! HELLOOO! What? Why? Why MY death? HELLO? Excuse me? WHEN?

Dr. Jules Hilbert: Little did he know. That means there's something he doesn't know, which means there's something you don't
know, did you know that?

Inversion after negative expressions

We can use inversion in statements for the purpose of emphasis if we decide to start the statement with a negative
expression. Compare the following:

• Under no circumstances would I wear a mini-skirt.

• I wouldn't wear a mini-skirt under any circumstances.

In this example, the first statement is more emphatic than the second one. We can use this approach with a wide variety
of adverbial negative expressions, although it makes them sound more formal. Compare the following:

• At no time would he allow his team mates to argue with the referee.

• Rarely / Seldom have I seen such an exciting game of football.

• Hardly had I taken my seat before two goals were scored.

• I had to show him my press pass and only then did he let me in.

• Only when the players had changed into smart clothes after the match were they allowed to talk to the TV
reporters.
Exercises
Choose the best alternative:

1. Not only ___, but he also owned a film studio.

a) Hughes owned Las Vegas hotels,
b) did Hughes own Las Vegas hotels,
c) owned Hughes Las Vegas hotels, 7. ___ does an individual find himself sought by both parties
as their presidential candidate, as did General Eisenhower.
2. ___ great was the destruction that the South took decades a) Not only
to recover. b) Sometimes
a) Very b) Too c) So c) Rarely
d) If
3. ___, when the Charges found themselves 7 – 0 down.
a) Hardly had the game begun, 8. Only when in danger ___ human beings.
b) Hardly the game had begun, a) snakes will most attack
c) Hardly had begun the game, b) will most snakes attack
c) most snakes will attack
4. Under no circumstances _____ any fights.
a) there can be
b) which they can 9. At no time ____ the office without getting permission from
c) can there be my boss.
a) I left
5. ____ must there be any repetition of such tactics. b) did I leave
a) sometimes c) not only did they notice
b) not only
c) very seldom 10. Never ___ any doubt
about the matter.
6. ____ else can there be a woman like this, so everybody a) has there been
admires her. b) hasn’t there been
a) Anywhere c) there has been
b) Somewhere
c) Nowhere
Listening Exercise:
Complete with the correct words from the boxes: (scene 28)

(Last Paragraph)
Present
Past
save – mention – thank – find – assume
take – feel – be – save
remember – happen – know (2x)– seem – lose

As Harold _____________ a bite of Bavarian sugar cookie, he finally ___________ as if everything ________ going
to be ok. Sometimes, when we ____________ ourselves in fear and despair, in routine and constancy, in
hopelessness and tragedy, we can ____________ God for Bavarian sugar cookies. And, fortunately, when there
aren't any cookies, we can still ___________ reassurance in a familiar hand on our skin, or a kind and loving
gesture, or subtle encouragement, or a loving embrace, or an offer of comfort, not to ____________ hospital gurneys
and nose plugs, an uneaten Danish, soft-spoken secrets, and Fender Stratocasters, and maybe the occasional piece
of fiction. And we must _______________ that all these things, the nuances, the anomalies, the subtleties, which we
______________ only accessorize our days, are effective for a much larger and nobler cause. They are here to
____________ our lives. I ______________ the idea ____________ strange, but I also ____________ that it just so
______________ to be true. And, so it was, a wristwatch ________________ Harold Crick.

What does Karen refer as being good for moments of fear and despair, routine and constancy, hopelessness and
tragedy?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
What are all the things mentioned in the answer above effective for?
_______________________________________________________
Do you agree with what Karen says? What are the little things that make you happy?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
Song Activity: Whole wide world
Wreckless Eric
Fill in the blanks with the verbs in the correct tense:
live – be (3x) – tell – say – go (2x) – weep - find
When I __________ a young boy
My mama ____________ to me
There's only one girl in the world for you
And she probably ____________ in Tahiti
I'___ __________ the whole wide world
I'___ __________ the whole wide world
Just to __________ her
Put the sentences in the correct order:
( ) Trying to pick up a girl
( ) When there are girls all over the world
( ) Why are my eyes filling up with these lonely tears
( ) Why am I hanging around in the rain out here
( ) Hoping that I won't be long
( ) Underneath the tropical sun
( ) Is she lying on a tropical beach somewhere
( ) Pining away in a heat wave there

Or maybe she'____ in the Bahamas ( ) Caressing her warm brown skin

Where the Caribbean sea _____ blue ( ) We'll be sharing the same next of kin
_________________ in a tropical moonlit night ( ) I should be lying on that sun-soaked beach with her
Because nobody's ___________ her about you ( ) And then in a year or maybe not quite

I'd go the whole wide world I'd go the whole wide world
I'd go the whole wide world I'd go the whole wide world
Just to find her Just to find her
I'd go the whole wide world I'd go the whole wide world
I'd go the whole wide world I'd go the whole wide world
Find out where they hide her Find out where they hide her
I'd go the whole wide world (Repeat)
I'd go the whole wide world
Just to find her

Vocabulary
Look for these words in the song and classify them as V (verb), N (noun), A (adjective):

1 Caress ( ) to spend time in a certain place or in certain company

2 Kin ( ) to cry
3 Hang around ( ) a disturbance on the surface of a liquid body, as the sea or a lake
4 Pine away ( ) of the same family; related
5 Sun-soaked ( ) to touch or pat gently to show affection
6 Wave ( ) to suffer grief
7 Weep ( ) to become saturated with sun

Why do you think Ana has fallen in love with Harold while he was singing this song?
What is the song about?
Would you sing it to your girlfriend? Would you like your boyfriend to sing it to you?