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The Predicament Question (Advanced Program) · Spotlight English: Advanced

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Marina Sante.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: And I'm Colin Lava. Spotlight uses a special English method
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: matter where in the world they live.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: I made big mistakes before, but never this big, and
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: I never regretted anything I did before.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Derek looked at the jail walls surrounding him. He put
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: his head in his hands. How did he get into
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: this predicament?
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Have you ever been in a predicament, a bad situation?
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Have you asked yourself? How did I get here? People
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: face difficult situations ever every day, and often they do
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: not know how it happened. They are in a predicament.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: In other Spotlight programs, we looked at Rick Warren's answers
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: to difficult questions in life. Rick is a famous Christian
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: leader and advisor. Today we look at some of his
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: answers to the question how did I get into this predicament?
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Here is Derek's story.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Derek was only fourteen years old when he joined a gang,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: a group of young people who perform crimes. They may
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: steal cars, sell drugs, and even hurt other people. Gang
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: members are often troubled young people, they may feel alone
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: in life. They want friends. Derek was one of these
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: young men. The gang became his friends and he felt important.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: He felt that he was part of something. However, when
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: he was sixteen, his life changed completely.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Derek was at a New Year's Eve party. He was
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: there with his gang members, but an enemy gang was
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: there too. One of the enemy gang members, Tim, insulted Derek.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Derek felt disrespected, and even worse, it was in front
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: of his friends. Derek could not accept such a public insult.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: He remembers that time.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: My friends looked at me. I pulled the gun from
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: under my clothes and Tim froze. He did not move.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: I liked the feeling I had. It was a sense
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: of power. Tim begged and cried for me not to
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: shoot him, but I pulled the trigger of the gun.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: He fell to the ground and my friends ran away.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: Then I understood that they were not really my friends.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: I stayed there alone. I waited for the police to arrive.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: Then I admitted that I shot Tim. Thankfully, Tim lived.
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: The bullets missed his heart, so I was sent to
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: jail for twelve years.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: That night changed Derek. He understood that the gang members
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: were not truly his friends. He was all alone. Derek
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: was in a bad situation. He was there partly because
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: of his behavior, and he was there partly because of
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: his friends. Rick Warren says that friends can be very important.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Everyone needs friends. They can add such joy to life.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: They can also offer encouragement during hard times. True friends
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: are there in good times and in bad times. But
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Derek did not find good friends. He found friends who
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: influenced him to do wrong things, and they did not
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: stay with him during his most frightening time. They were
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: not with Derek when the police arrested him. These friends
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: all ran away.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Rick Warren believes that many people are in bad situations
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  Speaker 2: because of the friends they choose. Bad friends can get
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: people into predicaments.
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: He says, we are asking for trouble if we choose
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  Speaker 4: the wrong friends. Wrong values, and wrong ways of thinking
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  Speaker 4: will affect our lives.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Rick believes that there are ways to know if a
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: friendship is good or bad. He says that bad friendships
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: make people feel bad. They often find themselves doing things
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: that they do not want to do. They feel pressure
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: from their friends to do these things, and these friends
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: may try to control them through anger or fear.
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  Speaker 4: Rick says the kind of friends you should have will
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: bring out the best in you. They will lift you up,
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  Speaker 4: encourage you, and make you a better person.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Rick Warren says that another way that people get into
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: bad situations is by repeating their mistakes. Often, they do
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: not try to change when they make a mistake, They
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: continue doing the same things over and over. Derek was
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: in the gang for two years before he wanted to change.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: He did not want to change until the terrible shooting.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: That incident made him examine his life.
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: He said the hardest part about being in jail was
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: that no one cared. There was no one to tell
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: me that I needed to change. I had no family.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: I sat in jail and kept thinking about my crime.
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  Speaker 3: I deeply regretted it, so I asked God to forgive me.
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: I asked him to guide me down a different road.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: Then I wrote him a letter to apologize, and now
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: we are friendly. We have both left the gangs. Also,
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: I started reading in jail and I finished my high
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  Speaker 3: school degree. I made a change. Many people refuse to
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  Speaker 3: admit they need to change.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: Rick Warren agrees with Derek. He says that people need
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: to learn from the past.
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  Speaker 4: We are asking for trouble if we refuse to learn
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  Speaker 4: from our mistakes.
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  Speaker 2: It is not easy to learn from mistakes. Many people
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: do want to stop what they are doing, but the
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: problem is that they do not know how. They may
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: have a physical or emotional dependence on something. For example,
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: they may be drinking alcohol or taking illegal drugs, and
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: some people simply cannot stop. For them, it is necessary
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: to get support. They can get help at treatment centers
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  Speaker 2: and from doctors.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Some people are afraid to ask for help. They feel
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: that they have failed so many times before. They may
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: think that it is too late for them. But Rick
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: says it is never too late.
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: God can help us when we honestly look at the facts.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: He has not given up.
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  Speaker 4: On You give him the pieces of your life.
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  Speaker 2: There is a way out of even the most difficult predicament.
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  Speaker 2: With hard work and with God's help, there is always hope.
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  Speaker 2: From what mistakes, have you learned something that made you
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: change what you do? How important is it to have
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: good friends? Tell us what you think. You can leave
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: a comment on our website. You can also find us
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Blue Sky, and x. You can
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: also get our programs delivered directly to your Android or
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Apple device through our free official Spotlight English app.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: The writer and producer of this program a part of
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: the Spotlight team. The voices you heard were from the
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted for this program and
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: voiced by Spotlight. You can listen to this program again
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: and read it on the Internet at WWLYE dot Radio
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: English dot net. This program is called The Predicament Question.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: We hope you can join us again for the next
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: Spotlight program. Goodbye,