Weekend with TV: Donald Trump's Apprentice

Engramme's Weekend with TV #8 - Donald Trump in 'The Apprentice' (Listening B2-C1)

President Donald Trump in a game show? Well, yes! Though he wasn't President at the time...

Source: happyweeble.blogspot.com

"The Apprentice" is an American Television game show that invites aspiring but otherwise unknown business people to compete with each other to win a prize: a one-year $250,000 contract with one of Trump's companies. Real estate tycoon - and now U.S. President - Donald Trump hosted the show for the first 14 seasons. After Trump began campaigning for President of the United States, actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was announced host of the show which debuted in January 2017¹.²

Watch, Listen & Enjoy

Watch the Pilot's Intro: Who are the people who want to be Trump's apprentice?

- Was Donald Trump always successful in his career?

Let's Learn

Listen Again: Here's a challenge: Can you fill in the gaps with the right phrases³ from Mr. Trump's introduction to the series?

New York, my city, where the wheels of the global economy never stop turning. A concrete metropolis of unparalleled strength and purpose that ____________________. Manhattan is a tough place; this island is the real jungle. If you’re not careful, it can chew you up and spit you out. If you work hard, you can really ____________. And I mean really big. My name is Donald Trump and I’m the largest _________________ in New York. I own buildings all over the place, model agencies, the Miss Universe Pageant, jetliners, golf courses, casinos, and private resorts like Mar-a-Lago, one of the most spectacular estates anywhere in the world. But it wasn’t always so easy. About 13 years ago, I was seriously in trouble: I was billions of dollars _________; but I fought back, and I won bigly. I used my brain, I used my negotiating skills, and I worked it all out. Now my company is bigger than it ever was, stronger than it ever was, and I’m having more fun than I ever had. I’ve mastered ______________________. And I’ve turned the name Trump into the highest quality brand. And as the master, I want to pass along my knowledge to somebody else. I’m looking for The Apprentice. Right now, from all over the country, 16 of America’s best and brightest young entrepreneurs are arriving in New York for the chance to work as my apprentice, and ____________________ into the world of big business. They come from all ______________: some have their Ph.D. or Harvard MBA, and have learned their skills in the classroom. Others are ____________________; they own restaurants, or are the top real estate professionals in the country. Some have only a high school diploma, and a few have left their successful small-town companies to come to New York City for the very first time. This is the chance to work for me at a huge salary, and more importantly, learn enough so that maybe they too can become a billionaire someday. This is going to be the ______________________. Who will succeed? And who will fail? And who will be The Apprentice?

(see answers in the first comment below)

---

We Wish You a Wonderful Weekend here at Engramme: Your Daily English Programme. If you've missed any of the week's posts, you can access them all here

Test yourself on the Vocabulary from This Lesson here

Want to use this content in Your Classroom Lessons? Click to download a print-friendly copy

---

1 Adapted from Wikipedia.org^↩
2 In March 2017, Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that he had decided not to continue hosting the show, suggesting Donald Trump was the reason.^↩
3 It is of course not appropriate to 'test' yourself on remembering these phrases from the monolog. You may need to listen more than once to get them all. However, this is a good way to notice and to learn 'whole phrases/idioms/collocations' that can be memorized and used in similar sentences and expressions.^↩