F2F Class Notes (Raph)

Do you have the habit of binge-watching TV shows? Do you believe that habit affects your sleep patterns? Reread the article below and write a paragraph about that.

Vocabulary

Fatigue (n): 1- extreme tiredness.
E.g.: She was suffering from fatigue.

Insomnia (n): 1- the condition of being unable to sleep, over a period of time:
E.g.: Holly suffered from insomnia caused by stress at work.

Binge (n): 1- an occasion when an activity is done in an extreme way, especially eating, drinking, or spending money:
E.g.: He went on a five-day drinking binge.

Adverse (adj): having a negative or harmful effect on something. (adv: Adversely)
E.g.: The match has been cancelled because of adverse weather conditions.
E.g.: They received a lot of adverse publicity/criticism about the changes.
E.g.: Cancellations and delays may continue to adversely affect the airline’s financial performance.

Stream (v): 1- to listen to or watch sound or video on a computer directly from the internet rather than downloading it and saving it first.
E.g.: Streaming movies online is a lot more convenient than having to download them.

Advent (n): 1- the fact of an event happening, an invention being made, or a person arriving.
E.g.: Life was transformed by the advent of electricity.

Prevalent (n): 1- existing very commonly or happening often.
E.g.: These diseases are more prevalent among young children.
E.g.: Trees are dying in areas where acid rain is most prevalent.

Back-to-back (adj): 1- happening one after another, without interruption:
E.g.: Hamilton is celebrating back-to-back victories in the German and British Grands Prix.
E.g.: I’ve had ten back-to-back classes today. I’m exhausted!

Pattern (n): 1- a particular way in which something is done, is organized, or happens:
E.g.: The pattern of family life has been changing over recent years.
E.g.: A pattern is beginning to emerge from our analysis of the accident data.
E.g.: Many behavior(al) patterns have been identified in the chimp colony.

Plot (n): 1- the story of a book, film, play, etc..
E.g.: The movie has a very simple plot.
E.g.: The plots of his books are basically all the same.

Binge-Watching Television Causes Sleep Problems
(Source: breakingnewsenglish.com/1708/170820-binge-watching-tv.html)

New research shows that binge-watching television can adversely affect your health. Binge-viewing involves excessive watching of back-to-back TV shows in a single sitting. It has become prevalent across the world with the advent of online streaming and downloading services. Researchers from the University of Michigan in the USA and the Leuven School for Mass Communication Research in Belgium surveyed 423 people aged 18-25 on their TV-viewing habits. Their research found that binge-viewing greatly interrupted sleep patterns. Co-author Professor Jan Van den Bulck said: “Our study signals that binge-viewing is prevalent in young adults and that it may be harmful to their sleep.”

The researchers asked participants about their sleep quality, levels of fatigue and prevalence of insomnia. They also enquired about their frequency of binge-watching programs on televisions, laptops and desktop computers. Over 80 per cent of the participants reported binge-watching, with 20 per cent doing so several times a week. Binge-watchers are 98 per cent more likely to experience poor sleep quality. A researcher said: “Bingeable TV shows have plots that keep the viewer tied to the screen. We think they become intensely involved with the content and may keep thinking about it when they want to go to sleep.” She said this caused people problems when trying to sleep.

Pronunciation

Slide: /slaɪd/

Sled: /sled/

Insomnia:  /ɪnˈsɑːm.ni.ə/

Fatigue: /fəˈtiːɡ/

Binge: /bɪndʒ/

Short Vs. Long Vowels:

Depending on their position in the word and the pronunciation of that word, the length of the vowel can change and have a different sound. Not all letters make the same sound in all words, and that’s what vowel length is about. What is a vowel, you ask? Check out this course on American English pronunciation to find out what they are, and how to pronounce them.

If you know American English, you know the American English vowels: A, E, I, O, and U. The letter Y is sometimes counted as a vowel too. Find out the basic sounds and functions of both vowels and consonants in this guide to American English pronunciation.

The easiest way to remember the difference between short and long vowels is by remembering the rule about long vowels, specifically. If a word with a certain vowel in it says the name of the vowel, then that vowel is making a “long” sound. By “name” we mean, the name of the actual letter. When we look at “a” we pronounce it /ā/, or “ayy.” This is the first letter of the alphabet, and when looking at the isolated letter, we’ll refer to it by its name: the way we say it when we begin to recite the alphabet. This is known as a long vowel sound, because it says the “name” of the letter. The same goes for the other vowels.

A short vowel sound is a vowel sound that does not follow this rule. When reading a word that uses a short vowel sound, will say the sound that the letter can make that is not its actual name. So in the case of “A,” the word “main” might have a long “A” sound because we pronounce the “A” as /ā/, whereas the word “man” has a short vowel sound.

Don’t know the American English alphabet? Learn how to read and write the alphabet in this course.

Examples:

Now we’ll go down the list of vowels and show you their pronunciation in the phonic code, and give examples of how to pronounce both. If the phonic code is too confusing, just remember:

/a/ is short and /ā/ is long. Same goes for the rest of the vowels:

• /a/ and /ā/
• /e/ and /ē/
• /i/ and /ī/
• /o/ and /ō/
• /u/ and /ū/

Let’s get started with those examples.

A a

Short: /æ/ Long: /eɪ/
Short: “fat” Long: “fāte”

E e

Short: /ɛ/ Long: /iː/
Short: “wet” Long: “whēat”

I i

Short: /ɛ/ Long: /iː/
Short: “win” Long: “wīne”

O o

Short: /ɒ/ Long: /oʊ/
Short: “bot” Long: “bōat”

U u

Short: /ʌ/ Long: /juː/
Short: “cup” Long: “cūbe”