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  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Verb Phrase 140. The verb phrase today is to

  • black out. Okay. Today we actually have five meanings for black out and we also

  • give you five examples to cover each meaning. All right. Let's take a look at the

  • note here. Let's look at the first meaning. The first meaning of black out which is

  • maybe the most common one. It means to faint or lose consciousness. So if you faint,

  • you fall on the floor. We could say that somebody just blacked out.

  • You can almost imagine you know, it's like your eyes see black. You're out.

  • You're unconscious. So you don't know what's going on. Let's look at the first

  • example. I was so weak and sick from illness, I just blacked out and fell to

  • the floor. So that's perfect for the first example. Let's look at the second

  • meaning here. if someone blacks out a period of time

  • or memory, he or she can no longer remember that experience. So a lot of

  • times ...well I don't know if we do it purposely or sometimes it's just our

  • mind that does it and to help protect us. So we actually have some examples here

  • for this one too. Here somebody might say I just tried to black out that memory..

  • It means sometimes sometimes you try to purposely do it. Because when you

  • think of that , it's just too painful and you can't handle it. So I'm just trying

  • to black out that memory and it's too painful to think about. Yeah. Or actually

  • this is ... the next one can also cover this too. We sometimes say amnesia is a

  • natural defense mechanism that blacks out a tragic memory. So if you had

  • something very terrible happen to you. Sometimes we know, people get amnesia.

  • They can't remember their identity. They can remember a lot of things they learned,

  • but they can't remember their identity. And we sometimes say it's a natural

  • defense mechanism because your mind couldn't handle it for a period of time.

  • You know , eventually usually most peoples' memories do come back and they

  • do remember their identity. But you know, you you might black it out. Whether it's

  • consciously or unconsciously. You try to black it out. So you don't remember it

  • anymore. We also use blackout really ... I didn't put in here but a lot of times we

  • might use it when people are really drunk. They got so drunk, they went out that

  • night. Maybe they remember the beginning of the night , but when they got past a

  • certain drunk point ... maybe they probably they could have also collapsed so they passed

  • out woke up somewhere. We say that they blacked out. He blacked out. You know , from

  • being too drunk. And if he blacked out, when he wakes up he can't remember a

  • period of the time when he was very, very drunk. All right. Let's look at the next

  • one. To prevent something from being broadcast in a specific area. Okay. With

  • this one of course .. we have the next one here. In some countries, in some communist

  • countries some news is blocked out from being reported in the media. So the

  • government is blocking it out because maybe they fear people finding out this

  • information or finding out the truth about this information. So it might be

  • blacked out in that sense. All right. Let's look at the next one here. To cover

  • with black lines. Literally putting black lines over something, so that something

  • cannot be read. Then we say to black out. Let's look at this example here. We

  • were able to get this government document from the Freedom of Information

  • Act. That's a law that was passed that people have the right to find out this

  • information. So they can request it from the government. However one of the big

  • problems is sometimes you do get some information that's useful. But there's

  • other times you'll just get a lot of papers with a lot of black lines through

  • it. So, so let's continue. This is what they usually say. However the government

  • blocked out or blacked out many lines for national security reasons.

  • So they blacked them out. So you can't read it. So I don't know how freedom of

  • information. Well, you have the freedom to get a lot of black lines. I guess if they

  • black out too much. Usually they always claim it's national security reasons and

  • that's why they can do that. But that's what it is. That's blacking out with a pen.

  • They actually draw black lines over. They draw

  • deep enough that you can't see through it. Okay. And oh well this one. I could just

  • give you an example for this one. Because actually I gave you two examples for one

  • of the other ones. For lights, if we say the lights blackout well this is a

  • blackout. Just means to go out. Yeah the lights are blacked out for several

  • hours. You know during that storm. Or you know maybe there really was a blackout

  • an electric pole went down and the lights were blacked out. So you can use

  • it that way as well. Okay. Anyway I hope you got it. I hope it was

  • clear. I hope it was informative. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Verb Phrase 140. The verb phrase today is to

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