Focus Skills: (Objectives )
Comprehension: ( Main idea and supporting details, Cause and effect)
Vocabulary: Context Clues: Definition and Restatement
Informative Articles often appear in magazines and newspaper . This informative article explains why some people have unhealthy fears. It also tells about ways these people can be helped. The title of each section tells what that part is about.
VOCABULARY:
panic (noun) sudden fear that cannot be controlled.
phobia (noun) strong and unreasonable fear of something
coping (noun) handling successfully.
Vocabulary Strategy
Context Clues: Definition and Restatement explain that context clues are words or phrases in the text that help readers understand unfamiliar words. In a definition clue, the meaning of a word is stated directly. In a restatement clue, the writer uses different words to restate the meaning of a term.
Examples:
Definition: Senseless fears are known as phobias.
Restatement: Some people have claustrophobia, which is the fear of being in small, closed places.
Building Background
Several phobias are mentioned in this article, but their names are not given.
acrophobia: fear of heights
agoraphobia: fear of open spaces
aviophobia: fear of flying
claustrophobia: fear of small spaces or being closed in
hydrophobia: fear of water
mysophobia: fear of dirt or germs
ophidiophobia: fear of snakes
xenophobia: fear of strangers
MOTIVATION:
What are you afraid of? Have you ever tried to get rid of a fear? Discuss your special fear with a partner.
The Mackinac Bridge is the largest suspension bridge in the world. The bridge runs from one part of the state of Michigan to another. A full five miles long, the bridge is built 200 feet above the water. Most people can drive across the bridge without any trouble. But some are afraid of heights. They are afraid to cross the bridge. They're not just afraid-they're in a panic. Sometimes they get halfway across the bridge and just freeze. They stop their cars, put their heads down, and cry. They don't move until help comes. This happens five to ten times a day during the summer, when there is heavy traffic on the bridge. A professional bridge driver is sent to take the stopped car across.
WHO IS AFRAID?
It's hard to tell who will be afraid to cross the bridge. Sometimes it's a man, other times a woman. It can be a young person, but just as often it's an older adult. At times, a person on a motorcycle can't get across. Sometimes even truck drivers have to ask someone to take their rigs across. The panic hits-they feel dizzy or they can't breathe--and they just have to stop. The bridge is safer than most roads. Eighty million cars have crossed it, and only one car has ever driven off it. It happened during a high wind, in 1989. It makes no sense to fear crossing the bridge. But some people are terrified at the thought of it.
THINK IT THROUGH
Who is afraid to cross the Mackinac Bridge? How does this fear affect them?
SENSELESS FEARS
This kind of senseless fear is called a phobia. People suffer from many kinds of phobias. Some fear heights. Others dread entering wide-open places. Still others are afraid of being closed into small spaces. Many are afraid to fly in airplanes. Dirt and germs are some people's biggest fear. They don't want to touch anything, however clean, for fear of getting sick. Others are afraid of animals, like cats or snakes.
A phobia is not simply a fear. A phobia is being afraid when there is really nothing to be afraid of. In some people, the fear is so strong they can't do the things they want to do. There are people so frightened of open spaces that they never leave their homes.
What are the results of a phobia?
FOCUS
Read to discover how phobias get started.
HIDDEN MEMORIES
What makes a person become so afraid? Most of the time, no one knows the reason. Sometimes, though, a person can figure out how the fear began. Often, it relates of something that happened when the person was a small child. One woman was terrified at the sound of running water. She went to a doctor for help. At last, the doctor figured out what had made this woman afraid. As a little girl, she had gone on a picnic with her family. Her parents told her to stay away from the river. But she went wading anyway. She fell into the river and was trapped by the water's strong current. She couldn't get out. She had to stand under a waterfall for several minutes while water splashed down on her head. Her aunt found her and rescued her; the woman barely remembered this event. Yet all her life, it had made her afraid of the sound of running water. Phobias are sometimes hard to figure out. What started as a shock from one event can become fear of many things or ideas. A small boy once scared by a dog might grow up to fear all dogs and cats. Just the sight of a fur coat could terrify him!
How can childhood events lead to phobias?
Find out two ways people with phobias learn to survive.
GETTING HELP
How can people with phobias be helped? Like the woman afraid of running water, people can try to learn why they are afraid. Sometimes doctors can help a person get over a fear bit by bit. A man afraid of dogs might start by patting a small piece of fur. Then he might pat a toy dog. Next, he might try standing near a dog that is tied up. With each passing week, he could stand closer and closer to the dog. When he no longer dreaded being near it, he might pat the dog. Little by little, he would shed his fear.
Many people have a fear of flying. There are even classes for people who are afraid to fly in an airplane. These people talk about their fears and work on their phobia. When the class ends, they take an airplane trip together to show they can do it.
COPING WITH FEAR
Most people just live with their phobias. They do what they must, even if they are afraid. Those who can’t carry on just stay away from the things that scare them. If they are afraid to fly, they take the train.
Sometimes people are unaware of fear until they try something new. Many probably never know they are afraid of big bridges until they set out to cross the Mackinac. Suddenly, panic strikes. They can’t breath. They can’t move. They just want to hide their eyes and cry. But they should hang on- help is on the way, both now and over the long haul.
Comprehension
How can people with phobias learn to live with them? (Main idea and supporting details)
Many people have strong fears, called phobias, that greatly affect their lives. This is the main idea of the article. List at least five details that support this main idea.
Would reading this article help someone with phobia? Explain. (evaluating)
The main idea is the most important idea of a paragraph. Supporting details tell more about the main idea.
Read this paragraph from "Trapped by Fear" about phobias. Then fill in the tables below. Write the main idea in the table on the left. Summarize the details in the table on the right.
People suffer from many kinds of phobias. Some fear heights. Others dread entering wide-open places. Still others are afraid of being closed into small spaces. Many are afraid to fly in airplanes. Dirt and germs are some people's biggest fear... Others are afraid of animals, like cats or snakes.
Main idea:
Details:
Events in stories often have a cause-and-effect relationship. The cause is the reason something happens. The effect is what happens as a result. To find the effect, ask, what happened? To find the cause, ask, why did it happen? or What caused it to happen?
Read these sentences about the article "Trapped by Fear." Think carefully about which event is the cause and which event is the effect. Then fill in the chart.
To figure out the meaning of a word, look for context clues. Definition or restatement context clues will tell you the meaning of the word.
Irrational means:
2. One of the most common phobias is claustrophobia-the fear of closed places.
Claustrophobia is:
3. A person with that phobia would feel great anxiety, or nervousness, in a small room.
Anxiety is:
4. Some people have acrophobia, that is, the fear of crowds.
acrophobia is:
5. Those people may not be able to walk down a congested (crowded) street.
Congested means:
Pretend that you are an advice columnist. Write a short piece of advice to someone who is afraid of heights. Use at least four of the words you learned from the reading.