MULTIMEDIA-ENGLISH
The Bridge (for God so loved the world...)
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6:30
Video page URL
https://multimedia-english.com/videos/esl/the-bridge-for-god-so-loved-the-world-2758
Description

A dramatic, inspiring and powerful illustration of God's love for humanity. Featuring scenes from the Czech short film "Most" (a.k.a. "The Bridge"), the story of a bridge operator who is forced to choose between the life of the son he loves dearly and a train filled with people. The bridge is lifted and the traffic lights are red, but the train driver doesn't notice and they speed towards a sure destruction. Both the father and the son try to stop the tragedy, but things go wrong and the father has to choose. The film is an allegory to understand God's choice, why He gave His only son up to crucifixion.


You can watch the whole short here: Most (The Bridge) (30 minutes)


You can also read about this short on Wikipedia (Most)

Transcript

Once there was a man who had a son that he loved very much.
The man worked as a bridgemaster for the railroad.
His son loved to watch the trains and the people who travelled on them.
People who were lonely, angry, selfish, hurting, and addicted.
A tragic mistake leads to a terrible choice:
Allow everyone on the train to die... or pull the lever and allow his son to be crushed by the bridge.
The salvation of all required the sacrifice of one most dear.
The sacrifice of one bought hope for the future.

This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.
John 3:16

Explanations

BRIDGEMASTER= The person in charge of the bridge. It’s a draw-bridge (it can be lifted up and opened, so that ships can sail trough it), so the bridgemaster controls when the bridge must be up or down. The problem here is that he lifted up the bridge, so the traffic lights went red, but the train driver missed it and didn’t stop and the bridgemaster had to bring the bridge back down if he wanted the train not to crash... but his son was inside the hole of the mechanism.
Notice that we say: He worked AS a bridgdemaster (for professions we use the preposition “as”).

RAILROAD (AmE)= Railway (BrE). The system of trains and tracks.

TRAVELED (AmE) = Travelled (BrE)
The rule for doubling final consonants (run > running) is this:   -V+C>CC
Before adding a suffix beginning with a vowel, we double the final consonant of words ending in one single vowel + one single consonant if the vowel is stressed. So we say ban-banned, but in the word “travel” we shouldn’t double it because it ends in one single vowel + one single consonant... but the vowel E is not stressed, so it should be “traveled” (as you can see on the video). But in British English there is one exception to this rule:
All the words ending in L double the L always (so travel > travelling, travelled, traveller)

ON THEM= When we are talking about public transport (bus, train, ship, plane) we use the preposition ON (not “in”):
- There were many people on the train
- She was reading a book on the bus

But if she was not inside the bus, but on top of the bus, we would say:
- She was reading a book on top of the bus

LONELY= If you are lonely, you feel sad because you feel alone, disconnected (it’s not important if you have company or not, you can have thousands of people around and still feel lonely).

SELFISH= A person who only thinks of themself and not on the others (it’s me, me, me... and then me again).

HURTING= If you are hurting you are suffering (from a physical or an emotional pain).

CHOICE= Election (the verb is “to choose”).

ALLOW (+ infinitive with to) = Let (+ infinitive without to):
- Please, allow me to use your car = Please, let me use your car.

LEVER= /lɪvə*/ (see picture)

CRUSHED= Smashed, destroyed by pressing.

REQUIRED= Needed.

DEAR= Loved.

WHOLE= Complete, entire; full; healthy.

LASTING= That lasts. To last is to have duration:
- The trip from Madrid to Salamanca lasts 2 hours (= it takes 2 hours to travel from Madrid to Salamanca = The journey from M. to S. has a duration of 2 hours = you need 2 hours to go from M. to S.)