Famous People Lessons: English Lesson on Quentin Tarantino

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THE READING / TAPESCRIPT

Quentin Tarantino is an award-winning American film director, screenwriter and actor. He is known for his stylish and violent movies. He rose to fame in the early 1990s for his unique directing method that relied heavily on dialogue. His screenplays are usually full of unforgettable lines and scenes. He has become a cult director around the world while achieving superstar status.

Tarantino was born in Tennessee in 1963. He dropped out of high school when he was 15 to learn acting. He got a job in a video rental store and spent all day watching and analyzing films. He had long discussions about them with customers. For Tarantino, this proved to be an education in directing that he would bring to his own moviemaking.

Tarantino met a movie producer at a Hollywood party who encouraged him to write a screenplay. In January 1992 ‘Reservoir Dogs’ came out and Tarantino instantly became a cult legend. He then wrote the screenplays for the box-office hits ‘True Romance’ and ‘Natural Born Killers’. In 1994, Tarantino made his classic ‘Pulp Fiction’ and won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.

Tarantino made a few more films before writing and directing the ‘Kill Bill’ movies. These films combined the movie styles of Chinese martial arts, Japanese drama, spaghetti westerns and Italian horror. They confirmed him as one of Hollywood’s elite directors. Tarantino once said: "When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them, ‘No, I went to films.’”

245 words

Sources: http://www.wikipedia.org/ and assorted biographies.

SYNONYM MATCH

Match the words from the article on the left with their synonyms on the right. Are your answers the same as other students’?

Paragraphs 1 and 2
1.	fame	a.	reaching
2	heavily	b.	evaluating
3.	achieving	c.	stardom
4.	dropped out of	d.	turned out
5.	analyzing	e.	a lot
6.	proved	f.	left
Paragraphs 3 and 4
7.	encouraged	g.	successes
8.	instantly	h.	justified
9.	hits	i.	urged
10.	combined	j.	best
11	confirmed	k	immediately
12	elite	l	mixed

PHRASE MATCH

Match the following phrases from the article:

1.	He is known for his stylish	a.	unforgettable lines
2	His screenplays are usually full of	b.	out of high school
3.	He has become a cult	c.	classic ‘Pulp Fiction’
4.	He dropped	d.	and violent movies
5.	this proved to be an education	e.	westerns
6.	Tarantino instantly became	f.	arts
7.	Tarantino made his	g.	in directing
8.	Chinese martial	h.	directors
9.	spaghetti	i.	director
10.	one of Hollywood’s elite	j.	a cult legend

LISTENING GAP FILL

Quentin Tarantino is ___________________ American film director, screenwriter and actor. He is known for his ___________________ movies. He rose to fame in the early 1990s for his unique directing method that ___________________ dialogue. His screenplays are usually full of unforgettable ___________________. He has become a cult director around the world while achieving superstar status.

Tarantino was born in Tennessee in 1963. He ___________________ school when he was ___________________. He got a job in a video rental store and spent all day watching ___________________. He had long discussions about them with customers. For Tarantino, this proved to ___________________ directing that he would bring to his own moviemaking.

Tarantino met a movie producer at a Hollywood party who encouraged him ___________________. In January 1992 ‘Reservoir Dogs’ came out and Tarantino ___________________ cult legend. He then wrote the ___________________ box-office hits ‘True Romance’ and ‘Natural Born Killers’. In 1994, Tarantino ___________________ ‘Pulp Fiction’ and won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.

Tarantino made a few more films before ___________________ the ‘Kill Bill’ movies. These films combined the movie styles of Chinese martial arts, Japanese drama, ___________________ and Italian horror. They confirmed him as one of Hollywood’s ______________. Tarantino once said: "When people ask me ________________ school I tell them, ‘No, I went to films.’”

CHOOSE THE CORRECT WORD

Delete the wrong word in each of the pairs in italics.

Quentin Tarantino is an award-winning American film director, screenwriter / screenplay and actor. He is known for his stylish and violent / violence movies. He rose to fame in the early 1990s for his unique directing method that relied heavy / heavily on dialogue. His screenplays are usually full of unforgettable lines and scenes. He has become a cult director around the world while achieving superstar states / status.

Tarantino was born in Tennessee in 1963. He dropped in / out of high school when he was 15 to learning / learn acting. He got a job in a video rental store and spent all day watching and analyzing films. He had tall / long discussions about them with customers. For Tarantino, this proven / proved to be an education in directing that he would bring to his own moviemaking.

Tarantino met a movie producer at a Hollywood party whom / who encouraged him to write a screenwriter / screenplay. In January 1992 ‘Reservoir Dogs’ came out and Tarantino instantly became a cult legendary / legend. He then wrote the screenplays for the box-office hits ‘True Romance’ and ‘Natural Born Killers’. In 1994, Tarantino made his classic / classical ‘Pulp Fiction’ and won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.

Tarantino made a few / several more films before writing and directing the ‘Kill Bill’ movies. These films combined the movie styles of Chinese martial / marital arts, Japanese drama, lasagna / spaghetti westerns and Italian horror. They confirmed him as one of Hollywood’s elite directors. Tarantino once said: "When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them, ‘No, I went to films / filming.’”

SPELLING

The underlined, jumbled words are from the text. Spell them correctly.

Paragraph 1
1.	stylish and nloetvi movies
2.	his quienu directing method
3.	He has become a ulct director
4.	superstar ttussa
Paragraph 2
5.	He odppred out of high school
6.	pesnt all day watching and analyzing films
7.	He had long sdsiisoscnu about them
8.	this proved to be an eiodactnu in directing
Paragraph 3
9.	movie upreodrc
10.	write a sparyecnle
11.	box-eofcif hits
12.	Tarantino made his ssalicc ‘Pulp Fiction’
Paragraph 4
13.	These films dionemcb the movie styles
14.	aairmlt arts
15.	one of Hollywood’s eitel directors
16.	film loshco

PUT THE TEXT BACK TOGETHER

Number these lines in the correct order.

( )	office hits ‘True Romance’ and ‘Natural Born Killers’. In 1994, Tarantino made his
( )	classic ‘Pulp Fiction’ and won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.
( 1 )	Quentin Tarantino is an award-winning American film director, screenwriter and actor. He is known for his stylish and
( )	violent movies. He rose to fame in the early 1990s for his unique directing method that relied
( )	customers. For Tarantino, this proved to be an education in directing that he would bring to his own moviemaking.
( )	in a video rental store and spent all day watching and analyzing films. He had long discussions about them with
( )	Tarantino met a movie producer at a Hollywood party who encouraged him to write a screenplay. In January
( )	1992 ‘Reservoir Dogs’ came out and Tarantino instantly became a cult legend. He then wrote the screenplays for the box-
( )	heavily on dialogue. His screenplays are usually full of unforgettable lines and scenes. He has become a cult
( )	ask me if I went to film school I tell them, ‘No, I went to films.’”
( )	director around the world while achieving superstar status.
( )	Tarantino made a few more films before writing and directing the ‘Kill Bill’ movies. These films combined
( )	Italian horror. They confirmed him as one of Hollywood’s elite directors. Tarantino once said: "When people
( )	Tarantino was born in Tennessee in 1963. He dropped out of high school when he was 15 to learn acting. He got a job
( )	the movie styles of Chinese martial arts, Japanese drama, spaghetti westerns and

SCRAMBLED SENTENCES

With your partner, put the words back into the correct order.

1.	violent for movies his He stylish is and known
2.	screenplays His lines unforgettable of full usually are
3.	become the a world cult He director has around
4.	and films all watching analyzing spent day
5.	an be to proved this directing in education
6.	Hollywood movie party producer Tarantino at met a a
7.	out came Dogs’ Reservoir ‘ 1992 January In
8.	screenplays for the box - office hits He then wrote the
9.	of one as him confirmed directors elite Hollywood’s
10.	me film if school I people went ask to

QUENTIN TARANTINO DISCUSSION

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
1.	What do you know about Quentin Tarantino?
2.	Would you like to meet Quentin Tarantino?
3.	What would you like to know about Quentin Tarantino and why?
4.	___________________________________________________
5.	___________________________________________________
6.	___________________________________________________
7.	___________________________________________________
8.	___________________________________________________

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
1.	What did you learn from this text about Quentin Tarantino?
2.	What questions would you like to ask Quentin Tarantino?
3.	What would his answers be to those questions?
4.	___________________________________________________
5.	___________________________________________________
6.	___________________________________________________
7.	___________________________________________________
8.	___________________________________________________

QUENTIN TARANTINO SURVEY

Write five questions about Quentin Tarantino in the table. Do this in pairs/groups. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper.

Without your partner, interview other students. Write down their answers.

	STUDENT 1 _____________	STUDENT 2 _____________	STUDENT 3 _____________
Q.1.
Q.2.
Q.3.
Q.4.
Q.5.

Return to your original partner(s) and share and talk about what you found out. Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

WRITING

Write about Quentin Tarantino for 10 minutes. Show your partner your paper. Correct each other’s work.

______________________________________________________________________________

HOMEWORK

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information about Quentin Tarantino. Talk about what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. QUENTIN TARANTINO POSTER: Make a poster showing the different stages of the life of Quentin Tarantino. Show your poster to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all find out similar things?

4. MAGAZINE ARTICLE: Write a magazine article about Quentin Tarantino. Include an imaginary interview with him. Write about what he does every day and what he thinks about.

Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Give each other feedback on your articles.

5. LETTER: Write a letter to Quentin Tarantino. Ask him three questions about his life. Give him three suggestions on what he should do in his future. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your “Quentin Tarantino expert” partner(s) will try and answer your questions.

ANSWERS

SYNONYM MATCH:

Paragraphs 1 and 2
1.	fame	a.	stardom
2	heavily	b.	a lot
3.	achieving	c.	reaching
4.	dropped out of	d.	left
5.	analyzing	e.	evaluating
6.	proved	f.	turned out
Paragraphs 3 and 4
7.	encouraged	g.	urged
8.	instantly	h.	immediately
9.	hits	i.	successes
10.	combined	j.	mixed
11	confirmed	k	justified
12	elite	l	best

PHRASE MATCH:

1.	He is known for his stylish	a.	and violent movies
2	His screenplays are usually full of	b.	unforgettable lines
3.	He has become a cult	c.	director
4.	He dropped	d.	out of high school
5.	this proved to be an education	e.	in directing
6.	Tarantino instantly became	f.	a cult legend
7.	Tarantino made his	g.	classic ‘Pulp Fiction’
8.	Chinese martial	h.	arts
9.	spaghetti	i.	westerns
10.	one of Hollywood’s elite	j.	directors

ALL OTHER EXERCISES:

Look at the text in "THE READING / TAPESCRIPT" section at the top of this page.

Famous People Lessons.com English Lesson Plan on Quentin Tarantino