Lesson Plan: The Sounds of Silence…Can Be Scary
II. While Reading Tasks
Word Inference
- hallucination |həˌlo͞osənˈāSHən| noun-an experience involving the apparent perception of something not present: he continued to suffer from horrific hallucinations.
- detect |diˈtekt| verb [ with obj. ] discover or identify the presence or existence of: cancer may soon be detected in its earliest stages.
- Guinness World Records is a reference book published annually, listing world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world. The book itself holds a world record, as the best-selling copyrighted book of all time.
- Anechoic |aneˈkō-ik| adjective – free from echo: an anechoic chamber.
- reverberation |riˌvərbəˈrāSHən| noun-prolongation of a sound; resonance: electronic effects have been added, such as echo and reverberation.
- soundproof |ˈsoun(d)ˌpro͞of| adjective-preventing, or constructed of material that prevents, the passage of sound: there was a soundproof, state-of-the-art recording studio.
- unbearably |ˌənˈbe(ə)rəbəl| adjective-not able to be endured or tolerated: the heat was getting unbearable.
- seal |sēl|-verb [ with obj. ]-fasten or close securely: he folded it, sealed the envelope, and walked to the mailbox.
- assume |əˈso͞om| verb [ with obj. ]suppose to be the case, without proof: you’re afraid of what people are going to assume about me.
- distinguish |disˈtiNGgwiSH| verb [ with obj. ] be an identifying or characteristic mark or property of: what distinguishes sports from games?
Reading Comprehension: Word -Recognition
“The real stuff is usually what people notice first. Starved for input, our ears and brain essentially go into overdrive. Sounds that are typically drowned out in the din of modern life become, in some cases, unbearably loud. Spontaneous firings of the auditory nerve can cause a high-pitched hiss, for example.”
Grammar Focus: Preposition Exercise
Anechoic chambers are quiet by design, and are typically used to test things like audio equipment and aircraft fuselages.
Yet even after all that effort to block external sound and thwart internal reflections, silence is surprisingly hard to come by in an anechoic chamber.
Starved for input, our ears and brain essentially go into overdrive.
Many people also have the strange experience of hearing their own blood pumping to their head, their breath, their heartbeat, as well as their digestive system’s symphony of gurgles and blurps.
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