EPISODE 91
LEVEL A1.2/A2.1

 

READING COMPREHENSION

 

BEING AFRAID      

Have you seen this new horror movie – 'The Nightmare’? Well, I saw it yesterday… It wasn’t very scary (=it didn’t make me nervous)… In fact, it was rather funny. I thought that it would be about a nightmare, you know, a bad dream or something, but it wasn’t. It was about a man who had about twenty different phobias. He was afraid of big animals (=he felt nervous when he saw them), he had a fear of heights (=he was afraid of being high above the ground), and he was terrified (=very scared) of travelling by car because he was sure he was going to die in a car accident. In one scene, he had a panic attack because he was late and he had to take a taxi to work… I wouldn’t recommend this film… unless you’re into comedies!

 

More contexts for the new words:

  • All these words are synonyms, but 'afraid’ is the weakest and 'terrified’ is the strongest: afraid / scared / frightened / terrified
  • I am afraid of
  • I was alone in a dark alley and I saw this tall man in black… I was terrified and I ran away!

 

EXERCISE 1

Add the missing vowels (A, E, I, O, U) to complete the sentences.

  1. He hates the mountains – he has a fear of …………………….. HGHTS.
  2. Susan was …………………….. TRRFD when she saw the spider.
  3. Have you seen the latest …………………….. HRRR movie?
  4. Strong irrational fears are called …………………….. PHBS.
  5. I always have panic …………………….. TTCKS before exams.
  6. Walking in a dark street at night can be really …………………….. SCRY.

 

EXERCISE 2

Rearrange the words and phrases to make questions, and then answer them.

  1. have nightmares? / Do you often / What about?
  2. suffer from / Do you / any phobias?
  3. Have you / a panic attack? / ever had

 

ENGLISH IN USE 

 

It is useful to learn words together with the prepositions that can follow them. Many of the adjectives from this lesson can be followed by 'of’.

  • afraid / scared / frightened / terrified of
  • I am afraid of spiders.
  • They were scared of us.
  • Were you frightened of the dark when you were small?
  • We were terrified of doing it.

BUT:

  • She was afraid for her children (= she was afraid that something bad happened to them).

 

 

IDIOM CLOSE-UP

 

A/ Did you get stressed before the exam?
B/ Stressed?! I was SCARED STIFF!

When you are scared stiff, you are extremely scared.

 

PHRASAL VERBS CLOSE-UP

 

  1. If you SCARE someone AWAY (or OFF), you make them feel so frightened or worried that they do not do something that they had planned to do, or they run away.

The country’s high crime rate has scared away tourists.
The thief was scared away when the woman started to scream.

 

  1. When you SCARE someone INTO (doing) something, you make them feel so worried or frightened that they do something.

Many people have been scared into buying bottled water.
The two criminals scared the old man into giving them his wallet.

 

EXERCISE 3

Decide if the sentences below are true or false. Correct the false ones.

  1. When you are very afraid, you are scared tight.
  2. When someone scares you into doing something, you do it because you’re afraid something bad might happen if you don’t.
  3. You are scared away when you watch a horror movie.

 

 

NEWS

 

PHOBIA VICTIM

Jennifer Adams, 36, can safely be called the greatest victim of phobias in the UK. It has been counted that she suffers from no fewer than 78 phobias. These include arachnophobia (fear of spiders), vertigo (fear of heights), agoraphobia (fear of open spaces), and triskaidekaphobia (fear of Friday the 13th). So, we asked Jennifer what she would do if she saw a spider on top of a mountain on Friday the 13th. Her answer was:

‘Hmmm… errr… ummm…. AAAAAAAAA!’

And that was the end of our interview.

 

GLOSSARY

suffers from – has the problem of
no fewer than – at least

 

download lesson (pdf)

>>Answers

KEY TO EXERCISES 

 

Ex.1

  1. heights
  2. terrified
  3. horror
  4. phobias
  5. attacks
  6. scary

 

Ex.2

  1. Do you often have nightmares? What about?
  2. Do you suffer from any phobias?
  3. Have you ever had a panic attack?

 

Ex.3

  1. False – you are scared stiff.
  2. True
  3. False – you are scared away when you don’t do something you had planned.

 

hide