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.