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Phobias

Date: Oct 30 2009

Grammar: Count and Noncount Nouns

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Intro

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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

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Marni

Ella

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.

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Discussion

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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?

Comments

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cucanh2206

Viet Nam

PumpkinSoup

Thailand

I have a fear of snakes but who are afraid of snake? So I think it's common. I really want to get over it becuase it's very annoying I can't even see a picture of a snake and I really can't face a snake.

orochima

France

everybody have phobias but sometime he doesn't realize it.

kukuka

Ukraine

I am a xenophobe…hehe…no, take it easy, i'm just kidding

Ca_Brazil

Brazil

i think i dont have any phobia. but if i had some i would try to conquer my fear of it.

fosto

Egypt

it's very interesting subject … about Phobias….cuse ther was alot of ppl've this thing…

& if someone've this thing he've 2 cross it…

s id

Saudi Arabia

i think most people have phobias . i have a fear of heights .

mary888

Jordan

I have a phobia of speaking English.. I get shy,, start to stutter..ohhh a problem right?

DigitalStorm

Mexico

hahaha..how could someone has a phobia of water?so, ella never take a bath?ella stinks..

We don't have to spend our money just to get over some sort of phobia cuz phobia happens because you're dramatizing out of a thing.

rose Ahmed

Yemen

i dont have any phobias

but the best way to get over your fears is by face

for example if you have a fear of high place the go to the high place and face your fear and with alittel talk to your self like you can do it and there is no fear to do that and so on .

loveisbitch

China

Actually most phobias are not ,if any , innate. We lare exposed to capricious environment and circumstances , with losts of people and things to deal with. Rat race makes us vulnerable to these psychological diseases triggered by something ,say, an insect ,or a given scene u ever experienced.

loveisbitch

China

loveisbitch

China

I kinda suffered claustrophobia , and I used to confine myself for a month.

TTA

Germany

Arachnophobia…I think thats it what i have

徐慧

China

oh, I have got a little bit of arachnophobia too

ouri

Indonesia

wow, i dont know that that will be lots terms of phobia. i only know some phobia like being afraid of high and dark. i`m afraid of small-crawling animals such as caterpillar, worm and the most scary one for me is leech. Seeing its black color already makes me scream and jump everywhere. i can`t imagine seeing it stick on my skin and suck my blood .