Intro
1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.
2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.
What’s scary about flowers? Nothing, unless you happen to suffer from anthophobia, a fear of flowers. But flowers aren’t nearly as terrifying as clouds if you have nephophobia, a fear of clouds.
Most phobias aren’t rational fears, like being afraid of getting sick or experiencing pain. A phobia is an extreme fear of something simple that most people don’t find frightening at all. Some of the most common phobias include fear of heights (acrophobia) and fear of spiders (arachnophobia). But some phobias are much more bizarre, like fear of knees (genuphobia), fear of poetry (metrophobia), or fear of the color yellow (xanthophobia).
If all these big words ending in phobia are giving you logophobia (fear of words), don’t worry. Phobia names come from Latin or Greek and are difficult to remember and pronounce. They sound like gibberish to most native English speakers, too!
Listen to Marni and Ella talk about what scares them the most.
Dialog
1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.
2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.
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Marni: I was wondering if…this might be a sensitive subject, but do you have any phobias?
Ella: What don’t I have a phobia of? I have lots of phobias actually. Water is one of them. But my most recent encounter with my phobia is my fear of butterflies. It’s actually called lepidopterophobia.
Marni: Wow. That’s quite a word.
Ella: But yeah, phobias are very real, you know?
Marni: They absolutely are. I have a few myself. I’ve got a little bit of arachnophobia, fear of spiders.
Ella: Have you ever thought about hypnosis or some type of encountering, where you face the fear to get over it?
Marni: Yeah, I feel like I do that a little bit because I have a fear of heights. Like when I fly and things I feel like I’m sort of conquering my fear. But no, I’ve never felt like I need to invest any money or time into actually…I don’t feel like it impairs my life.
Ella: Exactly. It’s just like, you avoid it. I don’t go to meadows or any type of forests. Or water, I just stay on land. It all works out. I don’t need to pay money to get over my fear.
Marni: Yeah. Well, you might have to face it someday. Water…you know, the earth is 3/4 water.
Grammar Point
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Discussion
Ella has some strange phobias, including fear of water and fear of butterflies. Marni’s phobias, fear of heights and fear of spiders, are more common.
There are different ways of trying to get over your phobias. Some people try hypnosis, where someone puts you to sleep and then tries to send you psychic messages to not be afraid anymore. Other people try facing their fears. For instance, if you have a fear of heights, you might try climbing a mountain or standing atop a very tall building. When nothing bad happens to you, you might realize that your fear is irrational.
Neither Marni nor Ella has ever tried any of these methods. They think it is fairly easy to live with their phobias. But Marni thinks that Ella might have to try to conquer her fear of water eventually.
Do you have any phobias? What is the best way to get over your fears?
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