ELL HubDavid Epstein
David Epstein
Vocabulary
spawn (verb)
- Definition:
- to cause something new to begin, often creating many similar things
- Example from the episode:
- “And it became this rollicking tale, of course, that spawned imitators and changed children's literature.”
- Example sentence:
- “The idea spawned a small club at school.”
beat (noun)
- Definition:
- a short moment in a story
- Example from the episode:
- “They'd say, I just did not understand this beat in the story, whatever it was.”
- Example sentence:
- “The movie had a funny beat that made us laugh.”
hardwired (adjective)
- Definition:
- built-in or natural in someone or something, as if it is part of how they are made
- Example from the episode:
- “And humans have a hardwired, what's called ‘additive bias,’ to always solve problems by putting more and more on.”
- Example sentence:
- “We are hardwired to notice faces.”
lose track of something (idiom)
- Definition:
- to stop noticing or remembering something, often because you are busy or distracted
- Example from the episode:
- “So it's a great system in that way that people can really lose track of what the other party doesn't understand if they start taking for granted the meaning of things in their world.”
- Example sentence:
- “I lost track of time and missed the bus.”