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  • Hi this is to Tutor Nick P and this is Verb Phrase 173. The verb phrase today is to

  • dumb down. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If some content you know,

  • what's inside the material , the content. If some content is dumbed down, the

  • content of a book, speech, show, etc. is simplified. So it is made into a simpler form

  • or simpler English or reduced intellectually to make it available to

  • more people. All right. Let's continue. Now, now of course, this idea to dumb down

  • obviously it means that the level is too high for the people you're trying to

  • explain it to or tell it to or teach it to. So you have to lower it. That's what

  • they mean by to dumb it down. It doesn't sound so nice, but basically it means that

  • you have to simplify it. Okay. Let's continue. Let's look at ... we have got three

  • examples here. Example number one. That speech is too technical, you need to dumb

  • it down. Okay. And put it into layman's terms. You know simple terms. So the

  • average person will be able to understand it. So you need to dumb it

  • down because the... maybe they're using too many high-level technical words that

  • average people won't understand. So they have to dumb it down a little bit, so

  • more people can understand what they're saying. At least the audience that he's

  • going to be speaking to. All right. Number, number two here. Many have accused the

  • Department of Education of deliberately dumbing down the material or the course

  • material and requirements rather than doing the hard work of finding ways to

  • teach students to absorb more knowledge. Yeah. This has been over the years some

  • people have noticed this and said this you know, instead of trying to find more

  • ways to you know, really make sure the students know more knowledge. It's

  • sometimes easier to simply dumb ... if you dumb down the material then maybe

  • at least those beginning students can get higher grades and then maybe if they

  • get used to it then you might have to dumb it down again. But anyway this is another

  • way that we often hear dumb down used. All right. Number three here. They had to

  • dumb down and make simplified versions of those classic novels. So these might

  • make classic novels that were written on a very more intellectual higher level

  • for students who are just starting to learn English. So maybe their vocabulary

  • is limited , but they still wanted to have versions of the classic novels for them.

  • So they had to change some of the writing and change some of the words to

  • use more simplified words. So they had to dumb down the novel maybe make a shorter

  • version of it or at least a more simplified version of it. So they had to

  • dumb down that book or that novel. Okay. Anyway I hope you got it. I hope it was clear.

  • Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.

Hi this is to Tutor Nick P and this is Verb Phrase 173. The verb phrase today is to

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