Introduction

A cabbie’s life was not that easy back in the 1930s as it is not today, but for Tommy Angelo, he was a straight guy, and he didn’t want to get himself into trouble with gangsters’ life, but on a fateful night on one of his late shifts, everything was going to change and his life was never to be simple anymore. Welcome to the first episode of English Plus Mafia 1 series | An Offer You Can’t Refuse. We will meet Tommy Angelo in this series, and we will learn a lot of English along the way, and there’s a lot of practice on the website, so you can go there after you watch the video and take your English to the next level.

Video Episode

Language Tip

“Case Must be getting cold by now”

Let me just remind you quickly with this expression in the context of our episode.

The detective was taunting Tommy in a way to make him spill the beans and tell him what he knows about the mob. Tommy was in a bad situation being chased by other mob members, so he had no other choice but to cooperate. He started with the Morello case and said…

Tommy: And they handed you the Morello case, right outta the gate?

Norman: That’s what the paper says, ain’t it? And what’s it to you?

Tommy: Tough break. Case must be getting pretty cold by now…

Norman: What, you got somethin’ might warm it up?

So, obviously we haven’t used ‘must’ in this context to describe something obligatory, or something you have to do, so what does ‘must’ mean in this context?

We use ‘must’ to talk about probability. When you know something for sure, like 100% sure, you don’t need anything but the verb you want to use.

e.g.

The case is cold. (You know it, 100%)

But what if you are venturing a guess, but you’re pretty sure about it, like 90% sure or maybe a little more? In this case, you can’t just use the verb because that means you know, but you don’t. So you can use ‘must’ in this case to say that this is probably what is happening, etc.

e.g.

The case must be cold — or like in our context — The case must be getting cold by now… (You are almost sure, but not 100%)

So, what if you’re 50/50 about it, can you use ‘must’ in that situation? Not really, ‘must’ means you’re pretty sure, but if you’re not sure and you’re just talking about one possible scenario, you can use ‘may’ ‘might’ ‘can’ or ‘could’ but not ‘must’.

e.g.

The case might be getting cold by know… (I don’t really know, but I just think so; It’s possible; either way, I’m not so sure whether it’s getting cold or not…)

I hope you found that useful and you learned something new that you can add to your writing and speaking arsenal. Start using ‘must’ in this meaning and you will see that it is definitely very useful.

And now let’s see if you were paying attention to the episode when you watched it. Let’s do a quick comprehension check.

Comprehension Check

Let's see how much you remember of what happened in the episode.

Name
Email
1. 
How does the story begin?

2. 
What did Tommy use to do before he became a mobster?

3. 
Why did Tommy arrange the meeting with detective Norman?

4. 
How did Tommy meet Paulie and Sam

5. 
How did Tommy manage to lose the chasing cars?

6. 
Where did Sam and Paulie want to go?

7. 
What happened after Tommy drove the guys back to the bar?

8. 
How much money was there in the envelope?

9. 
What did Tommy do after that night?

10. 
Why didn't Tommy want to be mixed up with the mafia?

11. 
How did Tommy end up back at Salieri's?

12. 
Which of the following character did we NOT see in the episode?

Vocabulary Check

Mafia  | EP 1 | An Offer You Can't Refuse

Focus: Vocabulary
Quiz time: 5 minutes
Name
Email
1. 
A ______ is a person who is paid to hurt or threaten people.

2. 
The ______ is used in expressions such as walking down the ______ to refer to the activity of getting married.

3. 
Someone who is ______ behaves in a way that is morally wrong, especially by doing dishonest or illegal things in return for money or power.

4. 
If you ______ off someone who is following you, you manage to get away from them, for example by running faster than them.

5. 
A ______ is an offer or a suggestion that someone makes to you, usually concerning some work or business that you might be able to do together.

6. 
Some people say like ______ to emphasize that they strongly disagree with you or are strongly opposed to what you say.

7. 
If a group of factory workers, nurses, or other people work ______s, they work for a set period before being replaced by another group, so that there is always a group working. Each of these set periods is called a ______. You can also use ______ to refer to a group of workers who work together on a particular ______.

8. 
A cold ______ is a police inquiry that has been suspended with the crime still unsolved.

9. 
Someone's Achilles ______ is the weakest point in their character or nature, where it is easiest for other people to attack or criticize them.

10. 
Short for it ______ or that ______, and either means that it makes sense

11. 
If you ______ out with someone, you have an argument and stop being friendly with them. You can also say that two people ______ out.

12. 
This makes us ______ means this makes us even.

13. 
If you ______ somewhere, you remain there or walk up and down without any real purpose.

14. 
Someone's ______ is the area which is most familiar to them or where they feel most confident.

15. 
If you say that someone is looking over their ______, you mean that they feel anxious all the time about what someone may do to them.

16. 
I didn’t ______ this coming means I didn’t expect this would happen.

17. 
If a vehicle or other moving thing ______s or if you ______ it, it suddenly changes direction, often in order to avoid hitting something.

18. 
If you come away from somewhere ______, you have failed to get what you wanted.

19. 
Right out of the ______ means at or from the very beginning

<a href="https://englishpluspodcast.com/author/dannyballanowner/" target="_self">Danny Ballan</a>

Danny Ballan

Author

Danny is a podcaster, teacher, and writer. He worked in educational technology for over a decade. He creates daily podcasts, online courses, educational videos, educational games, and he also writes poetry, novels and music.

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