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.