Pronunciation ChallengeWhat’s the smartest age? - Shannon Odell

While intelligence is often associated with things like IQ tests, these assessments fail to capture the scope and depth of a person's varied abilities.

Intro:

Hello VoiceTubers, our topic revolves around intelligence today. Have you ever wondered what it means to be intelligent? And if there is such a thing as the smartest age?

First, let’s have a look at the definition of the word intelligence. Intelligence is an innate ability to learn and retain information to deal with new or challenging situations.

Here’s something that a neuroscientist would like you to know: Our brain is the most complex organ in our body, and it is also considered the most complex system in the known universe! (Wow!)

So how do we measure something that is so complex? Let’s talk a little more later after we go over our sentence of the day and vocabulary words.

Here is our key sentence from the video.

[1’27’’]Sentence:
While intelligence is often associated with things like IQ tests, these assessments fail to capture the scope and depth of a person’s varied abilities.



Pronunciation Tips:

[1’45’’]
while - sounds like wile
intelligence - the word has four syllables and the stress is on the second syllable
associated - sounds like uh-soh-see-ay-tuhd, and put the stress on the second syllable
fail - has a long ay sound

And now the whole sentence one more time a little bit slower.
([2’31’’] Slower version of sentence)

[2’49] Vocabulary:
associate (v.) KK[əˋsoʃɪ͵et] IPA/əˈsoʊ.ʃi.eɪt/
to be connected to something.
Example:
She always associates the smell of baked cookies with memories of her grandmother.


assessment (n.) KK[əˋsɛsmənt] IPA /əˈses.mənt/
the act of judging the amount, value, quality, or importance of something, or the judgment or decision that is made.
Example:
I need to get a full health assessment done before the insurance company will approve my application.


scope (n.) KK[skop] IPA/skoʊp/
the range of a subject covered by a book, programme, discussion, class, etc.
Example:
Her colleague gave her a quick update on the scope of the meeting discussion, of which she missed this morning due to a dental appointment.



Outro:

Neuroscientists have also discovered that different parts of the brain work best at different ages. At any given age, you’re getting better at some things but also getting worse at some other things. For example, raw speed in processing information appears to peak at around age 18 or 19, then it starts to decline immediately. Meanwhile, short-term memory continues to improve until around 25 years of age, then starts to level off and begins to drop around age 35.

However, aging may also bring some positive cognitive changes. For example, many studies have shown that older adults have more extensive vocabularies and greater knowledge of word definitions than younger adults. So the saying ‘older and wiser’ is true in some aspects, as we age we accumulate more knowledge and experiences from life.

There’s still a lot of mysteries relating to the human brain still yet to be discovered, but I’d like to conclude by suggesting that we should do our best to keep our brains active! Don’t stop learning because this is a great way to exercise and keep our brains healthy!

Thanks for listening guys! I’ve really enjoyed hosting these VoiceTube shows since June of 2021, but unfortunately, there are some new plans of changing the show’s format next year so I think I probably only have a few more episodes left to do. I should be here till the end of the year so I hope you do tune in again and practice your pronunciation with me next week! Alright, don’t forget to record your Pronunciation Challenge sentence and see you guys around!

P.S. Look me up on Instagram @jennydashti if you’d like to stay in touch!