Transcript

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• Box 1: The meeting is 3,000 miles away!
• Box 2: So what? They’re covering your flight.
• Box 3: Airmail is for parcels, not people.

Vocabulary

• mile = 1.6 kilometers. This unit is commonly used in the English-speaking world.
• If they are covering your expenses or your flight, it means that they will pay for all your expenses or your flight.
• airmail (n.) /ˈeə.meɪl/ a system of sending letters and parcels by plane
• parcel (n.) /ˈeə.meɪl/ an object wrapped in paper, especially so that it can be sent by post.

Context

• Mimi in box 3 shows that she doesn’t like traveling by plane and considers that planes are for parcels/packages, not for humans!
• There are several things that are relevant to the US culture here:
  • Eunice in box 2 says that Mimi shouldn’t be worried about flying so far, since it will be free for her since the flight is covered/paid for. This is a common attitude when things are paid for, people feel that they can use it them without thinking about the cost. Do you think it makes sense?
  • Mimi in box 1 has to attend a meeting that’s probably on another continent. While this is not uncommon, now there are more or more people who choose videoconferencing instead of flying somewhere.
  • What Mimi says in box 3 could indicate that she’s scared of flying, which is more common among the US population than you would expect.

Language Feature

• Article The
  • Notice the first one of this comic strip: the meeting. Do you know why this article was used? The is used when both the speaker and listener know what they are taking about. The author uses the here to impose on the reader the context. By reading “the meeting”, us, reader, assume that they both know which meeting they are talking about and we quickly build the context this way.