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Hey, it's time to start the show. Are you ready? Good Plus, here we go. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I want A+. English.

Hello, everyone. Welcome to A+, English. I'm Mike. I'm Tickly. And, ah, ghosts. We're going to be talking about ghosts for two days. You scare me.

I'm terrified. The article is titled, Ghosts Appear, question mark, exclamation point. Ethan experiences a sleep problem. Wait a minute, he's having trouble sleeping, and so ghosts?

Has something to do with ghosts? That's a jump. Maybe he just had too much coffee. Probably. Maybe he had some bad cheese before he went to bed. Maybe he had too much Coca-Cola today.

I don't know what's going on, but I don't know about ghosts. But let's talk about ghosts. Our warm-up question is, do you, my friend, do you believe in ghosts? Why or why not?

I do, because I believe in myself. What is that supposed to mean? I'm just kidding. Are you a dead person? I'm just kidding. Are you a ghost? Oh, my God.

You can see me, right? But I can't see through you. Can you feel me? I can see you. You're there. You're physically present. You're not mist or fog or a spirit. I can come in any forms. You could. Maybe you're a vampire. Maybe. You can transform into a wolf or a bat or a cloud of fog or whatever.

But do you believe in ghosts for real? I think I do. You do? Just a little. Well, because I've never seen that. How can you just a little bit believe in ghosts? That's sort of like I just a little bit believe in elephants or something. You either do or you don't. I've never seen one, but it's like everything could be possible in this world. So I'm not going to say there's no ghost. I know you don't believe.

Yeah, but don't you think by now we would have found something like if they actually did exist? You know, don't you think that someone would have some kind of real proof? That is true. All we have are these like weird shows on TV where they have like a black and white camera in a dark building and they're all like, oh, my God, what was that? It's probably the wind. What was that? It was probably a rat. Do you not have any friends that can actually see them? Friends who can see them? Yeah.

Well, actually, I knew a lady here who could talk to ghosts. Right. And probably that's proof. She was interesting. I will say that she was very interesting. She made she she yeah, she's very interesting. But again, I you know, I don't know. I need a little bit more than that. So I would say but maybe I'm a bit closer to what you say instead of just being like, no, I will say no. But I have an open mind.

Oh, so, you know, if I see something and there's no other explanation, then I might have to go, OK, well, that was a ghost. But I kind of I'm pretty sure there would be another explanation of some kind, you know, some real scientific, physical, true explanation and not just ghosts. All right. Well, anyway, let's find out about Ethan's experiences, his problem with sleep and how the hell he started to blame it on the poor ghosts.

OK, let's get to the article.

What's that?

It means your body is asleep, but your mind is awake. You can't move and you might hallucinate sights and sounds.

All right. So as we kick off our article, we can see there are some pictures there to help us follow along with the story. That's great. In the first picture, Ethan and Evelyn, they are at home and Ethan walks into the living room. But something appears to be going on with Ethan. He doesn't look like his normal happy go lucky self. And so Evelyn says, what's wrong? You look so nervous.

So we can imagine how he might look nervous. And then we get a description. He has dark circles under his eyes. So that definitely means he looks tired. And he's also sweating a lot. So he's maybe sweating through fear or through stress or nervousness. And the circles under his eyes showing that he's tired. Well, yeah, he hasn't been sleeping well. He said, I was awake, but I couldn't move. It was like a bad dream.

Wow. That would be a pretty scary experience. You wake up in bed at home and suddenly you realize that even though you're awake and your eyes are open and you're looking around, your body is frozen. Your body is paralyzed, as we might say. I've heard of this happening to people.

He says it was like a bad dream. It was sort of like he woke up while he was having a dream or he experienced this sort of scary night, scary dream or nightmare. And he says, like, it felt like ghosts were holding me down again. That's a bit of a jump to the ghosts. But OK, he couldn't move and he doesn't have any other explanation for it than ghosts were holding him down, keeping him in bed even when he was awake.

So have you ever had an experience like that?

Yeah, yeah, not in quite a lot. I actually had it like two days ago when I was taking a nap. Usually that happens when you hit that snooze button on your alarm because you're kind of like half awake and then you go back to sleep and it's going to happen. Personally, I could see that because when you take a nap, you're kind of interrupting your sleep. Yeah, right.

And I think when they look at people sleeping normally in the nighttime, it's around a half an hour, an hour into the sleep that your body starts to dream and things like that. So if you interrupt that, yeah, strange things could happen in your brain. And so in the picture we see, this is what Ethan felt like, what he was feeling in this experience, what the experience felt like.

Ethan is held down on the bed by ghosts and he can't move. But Evelyn, good old Evelyn, she has a more rational, realistic, scientific explanation. She says, hmm, those weren't ghosts. It's sleep paralysis. So it's an actual thing that doctors know about and have been able to prove, unlike ghosts, sleep paralysis. Is that new to you? It's new to me and many other people, maybe.

And certainly to Ethan, he says, what's that? What is sleep paralysis? Clearly he has never heard of this. So Evelyn explains, she says, Evelyn explained, she says, it means your body is asleep, but your mind is awake. Now that even that is kind of a strange idea to get your head around to kind of understand. So your body is still kind of in sleep mode, but your mind is awake. Your eyes are open. You're aware of what's going on around you.

But your body is still kind of out of your control in sleep mode. You can't move and you might hallucinate sights and sounds. So that is a very, very strange. And yeah, if you don't know about sleep paralysis, very strange and scary experience. So you can't move. That's the paralysis part. When you're paralyzed, it means you can't move. Often if people have an accident and really hurt their back, right?

They don't have any feeling in their legs or arms or most of their body. That's a form of paralysis too, much more serious. But we also might say you're paralyzed by fright, right? If you see something scary, even if you're awake, but if you see something and you just freeze, you're like, I don't know whether to run or scream or whatever. You might say, I felt paralysis. I felt paralyzed. And if you hallucinate things, you're kind of, your brain is making up things. You're seeing things that aren't there, hearing sounds that aren't there.

And that can happen when you're having problems with your mind. Back to sleep and your sleep habits. Do you usually go to bed and wake up around the same time every day? And how does that affect your sleep?

It really depends on my work. Sometimes I just feel guilty if I don't get everything done before I go to bed.

So you stay up later to get it done.

Yeah. But then if you really stay up, the next day you feel like even worse. So sometimes you should probably just go to bed earlier.

That's kind of what they say, right? You should always have the same bedtime, even on the weekend. And I think they also say, you know, that idea of, oh, I only slept four hours tonight, so I'll sleep 10 hours tomorrow night and I'll feel fine. That's not really a thing. Your sleep is not kind of like your bank account. You can just sort of put more money in next time and it'll be back to normal.

So it really is best to kind of have the same bedtime and the same wake up time all the time. Although, of course, that can be tricky. All right, let's get back to the article.

Yes, I saw a terrible ghost. Well, I'm okay now. But why does this happen?

There are a few reasons. For example, it can happen when you don't have a regular sleep schedule.

Well, I do stay up late watching TV. Maybe that's a reason.

He's thinking about the things he saw, the ghosts around his bed. And he kind of says, yeah, it makes sense. He says, yes, I saw a terrible ghost. Right. But now he knows he was hallucinating that it was just his mind playing tricks on me. His mind created that ghost image. It wasn't actually there.

And he says, well, I'm OK now. So he's kind of recovered. And after Evelyn explains what the simple reason for this might be, he probably feels a little less scared and more relaxed. So he says now he kind of moves on to, you know, why? Why does this happen? He asks. But why does this happen?

And so now we can see Evelyn, she's sleeping there and she looks fine. She's got no ghosts bothering her. She has healthy sleep. She says there are a few reasons. So there are a few different reasons or a few different explanations or why this can happen.

For example, she says it can happen when you don't have a regular sleep schedule. So there you see, if you start to kind of play around with your sleep schedule, sleep just a little bit for a few days and then sleep much more a couple of days later. This can kind of confuse your brain. And we can see that Ethan is thinking back. What have I been doing?

And he recalls the memory that he has been. Oh, Ethan. He has been binge watching TV late at night for days, staying up until one, two, three, four in the morning watching his favorite shows, but also really getting bad quality sleep. So that could be a simple explanation. And he admits it. He's not trying to say, no, no, I'm fine.

No, he says, well, I do stay up late watching TV. You know, he knows that this is not good. Maybe that's a reason. Maybe that is part of the reason or part of the explanation why he had this sleep paralysis experience. So what about you about watching TV, especially late at night? Are you the kind of person who watches TV or uses electronic devices, your phone, your tablet, a laptop or laptop computer? Do you do that kind of stuff before you go to sleep? And how does it make you feel if you do?

What? When I'm not very busy, I do like I love to watch a movie before I go to bed. OK, like if I get very busy, I'm just like too tired to do so. But normally I love doing that. And I don't think it's a good thing. Right. Do you think it affects your sleep? I think it kind of. Because sometimes if the OK, if it's a TV series and it's so good, you can't stop watching it. Yeah, absolutely. That's part of it.

And I think they also say that the screens that laptops and phones especially can use the light there can kind of wake your brain up. It kind of models a sunlight. And of course, your brain should be thinking of darkness and relaxing soft light at night, not bright lights like a screen or, you know, the light we get from the sun. So, yes, that is definitely a thing. I also find if I wake up in the morning and I just grab a book, I can often fall asleep within about 20 minutes.

If I wake up in the morning and grab my phone, I might be up for another two hours. Partly the light, partly also just because I'm looking at this and I'm reading that and I'm checking my email and I'm doing this. There's just so many things to kind of keep your mind active. So I think both the light and the activity, what you're doing, all of those are maybe not quite as good as just a relaxing book or just closing your eyes, listening to music, things like that.

OK,我們看一下今天所有的單字,第一個單字是 asleep,它是不是形容詞,是睡著的意思。 所以一個人睡得很甜,就是be fast or be sound asleep.

譬如說,Liam was fast asleep with his mouth wide open.

那麼我們平常說入睡,片語就是fall asleep.

譬如說,She was dead tired, but she couldn't fall asleep.

她超累,但卻睡不著。 那我們看一下另外一個句子,這邊是睡著的意思,是形容詞。

Please be quiet, the baby is asleep right now.

請保持安靜,現在嬰兒是正在睡覺的。 那我們今天看到說sight,這一個名詞,它是景象的意思,也可以指視力的意思。 譬如說,to lose one's sight,它就是有失明的意思。 譬如說,Joseph lost his sight as a baby.

他在小時候的時候,他的那個視力就失明了。 那我們看另外一個片語,我們也會說,to catch sight of something,代表看見什麼事情。

We caught sight of a small plane circling the mountain.

或者是去觀光,我們英文也可以說sightseeing,因為sight本身就有景點的意思。

Can we get tickets for the sightseeing bus here?

那我們再看另外一個句子,這邊指的是春天花朵盛開的景象。

The sight of the flowers in spring is very pretty.

春天花朵盛開的景象是非常漂亮的。 我們下一個單字看到的是terrible這一個字,它就是可怕的啦,糟糕的。 所以如果是很糟糕的一個意外、錯誤,都可以用這一個字。

Terrible accident, mistake, experience, weather,就是很糟糕的天氣。 或者是你很痛,哪裡很痛,terrible pain,一個糟糕的消息啦,terrible news, terrible smell。 或者是講一個人也可以,terrible singer, a terrible cook, a terrible student,都是可以的。 譬如說,She couldn't erase the terrible experience from her memory.

好,那我們看另外一個句子。

We were very sad to hear the terrible news on the radio.

我們從收音機裡面聽到這則可怕的消息,真的好難過呀。 那最後的一個單字呢,是regular,是形容詞,是規律的、固定的意思。 所以譬如說有一個固定的工作,that means you have a regular job, 或者是常客,英文叫regular customer,或常常去拜訪誰的啊, a regular visitor, or a regular meeting, 或甚至是你常常有規律在運動,你就可以說regular exercise, 那我們這邊用常客再來一個句子。

I'm a regular customer of this coffee shop.

那有時候我們口語當名詞也可以,就直接說I'm a regular of this coffee shop, that's also fine.

好,let's make another sentence with regular, we are using it as an adjective here.

So the company holds regular meetings every month to discuss progress.

這間公司呢,每天都,每個月都會固定開會來討論工作的進度喔。 所以我們的magic box看到的這個片語是stay up late, 代表熬夜去做什麼事情喔。 譬如說,I want to stay up tonight and watch the late show, 今天想要熬夜。 那你後面如果要加動詞的話,可以說stay up late doing something, 代表你熬夜在做什麼事情。

OK, that's pretty much all we have for today's lesson, but right now before we wrap up, we will go to our review time activity.

And we are back with our review time.

Before we wrap things up, it's time for our traditional look at the new words that we have learned, words and little phrases, that we have learned in the article for today.

Just to remind you guys, those words were asleep, sight, terrible and regular.

So we are going to play a little game of opposites.

Are you ready to play opposites?

Yes.

It won't be too scary, don't worry,

I hope it's not.

it won't wake you up in the middle of the night screaming unless you do really, really badly and embarrass yourself.

Oh my gosh.

Well, let's hope that doesn't happen.

The words aren't too tough, and the words I will give you will be kind of the opposite of those words.

So for example, if we were learning the word cheap,

I might say the word expensive, and then you would know, oh, the opposite of expensive is cheap, or something like that.

Pretty simple, right?

Yes.

All right, so let's get to it.

So I'll start off easy.

Wonderful.

Wonderful.

Wonderful.

Terrible.

That's right.

If something is wonderful, it's really great.

If it's terrible, it's really, really bad.

Okay, here's another one, not too challenging.

Awake.

Awake?

Mm.

Mm, asleep.

Asleep.

If you're asleep, you're going,

If you're awake, you're going,

Hey, what's for lunch?

Or something like that.

Yes, exactly right.

And okay, another simple one.

Strange.

Strange.

Unusual.

Unusual.

Unexpected.

Probably regular.

Or I could also be very easy and say irregular.

Irregular is the opposite of regular.

That's too obvious.

Yeah, absolutely.

This one's a little more of a challenge, but it's not a challenge because it's the last one, and I will also say sound.

Sound.

So I can hear it.

It's not like I can see it.

Yes.

So it's a sight.

Right, exactly.

Sounds are collected through your ears.

Sight is through your eyes.

You see things with your sight.

You hear things, and it's sound.

All right, well done, guys.

We have one more day of talking with Ethan.

Well, not so much talking with Ethan, but talking about ghosts and sleep paralysis.

Which one is the one that is scaring you at night?