There’s something romantic about vampires. Maybe it’s that they have to keep a deep, dark secret. Or since they live forever, maybe it’s their old-world quality that makes them attractive. And drinking someone’s blood is strangely sexual.

Or, maybe it’s just that vampires tend to be played by really good-looking actors. Remember Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in Interview with the Vampire? How about Kiefer Sutherland from the The Lost Boys?

Now you can add to that list Robert Pattinson, who stars in the new and extremely popular vampire romance Twilight. Listen to Marni tell Devan how the romance got her to the theater, but she’d had enough by the time she left.

Devan

Marni

Marni: I broke down yesterday, actually, I was totally excited to go see Twilight.

Devan: You saw it?

Marni: I wanted to know what all the hype was about. OK, I did not read the books, but I have to admit I went because I totally think that kid, that guy’s cute. Hot vampire? I was in.

Devan: And was it amazing? Epic?

Marni: No, sadly. In some respects. In some respects, not so good. Like there were just so many scenes of them looking at each other, you know, longingly, and it was like, “Just kiss already!”

Devan: Was it scary at all?

Marni: It was not scary. But there’s the whole genre of…

Devan: ...the undead.

Marni: And they go into a little bit of that, the whole theory of being immortal and whatnot, but not really. I mean, it’s more about just them being hot for each other.

Devan: Did they have cool costumes and cool fangs at least?

Marni: No, they didn’t even have fangs.

Devan: They didn’t have fangs.

Marni: No.

Devan: Well that sounds like a bummer. I kind of want to see that other vampire movie that came out at the same time. Do you know what I’m talking about? The Swedish one?

Marni: Oh, Let the Right One In? Is that the one?

Devan: Yeah.

Marni: Yeah, I’ve heard about that. I’ve heard that’s great.

Devan: Maybe that’s the one to see.

Marni: Yeah. Well, I actually spoke to some kids who are really into the whole Twilight series and I think it’s great that kids are reading, so that’s a huge plus, but they said the movie doesn’t do the books justice. Which is generally the case.

Marni admits that she went to Twlight because she thinks the star is hot. The movie is really popular, so Devan expects her to say that it was great. But Marni didn’t really like it.

For a vampire movie, there wasn’t much about vampires in it, and Marni thought the romance was really drawn out. Devan says maybe she’ll go see Let the Right One In a Swedish vampire movie that gets great reviews. It’s vampire romance too, only it stars 12-year-olds.

Do you think vampires are sexy? If you fell in love with a vampire, would you let him or her turn you into one?

Definite & Indefinite Articles

We use the articles “the,” “a,” and “an” all the time. In their conversation about Twilight, Marni and Devan probably use about a dozen of them. For example, Marni talks about “The whole theory of being immortal,” and Devan says the movie sounds like “A bummer.”

A and an are both indefinite articles. We use them to talk about general nouns, as in the sentence, “Do you think I should buy a new pair of shoes?” In this sentence, the speaker isn’t referring to a particular pair of shoes.

The is a definite article. It refers to specific nouns, or nouns of which there is only one. For example, you might say, “The girl who lives next door to me is really cute,” referring to a specific girl, or “The U.N. is located in Geneva,” because there’s only one U.N.

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