131: Intelligence

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Are you highly intelligent?

Questions about the Video File:

  1. What does being socially awkward means? Why does it happen?
  2. Why falling in love is difficult for intelligent people?
  3. Why an intelligent person seems quiet to an outsider?
  4. Why smart people may seem lazy?
  5. Why smart people aren’t interested in small talks?

 

General Questions:

  1. How do you define an intelligent person?
  2. Do you consider yourself intelligent? What would you name as the most prominent sign of your intelligence?
  3. Do you wish you were more intelligent? How would your current life be different if you were more intelligent? Would you say it would change for better or worse?
  4. How would intelligent people behave differently in a romantic relationship? Would they do better or worse than normal people?
  5. Do you agree with this: “the more intelligent, the more bitter”?
  6. Will you make serious attempts to educate your children to be extraordinarily smart? Why? Why not?
  7. Does being smart guarantee your professional success?
  8. Are people born intelligent or nurtured to be so?

 

Related expressions and idioms

(not) Be all it’s cracked up to be: (not) be as good as everybody thinks or as most people believe

  • The café served fine coffee but honestly, it was not all it’s cracked up to be.

Go with the flow: do as other people do or agree with them because it’s natural or easy to do so

  • When it comes to political trends, go with the flow if you do not want to attract attention.

To be hard on somebody/yourself: to criticize someone your yourself severely especially when it sounds unnecessary

  • She was too hard on herself for failing her exam and couldn’t stop beating herself up for several days.

Birds of a feather flock together: people who have the same type of personality and interest seem to attract each other and spend time together

  • She is just a nerd like them, that’s why she feels comfortable around them, birds of a feather flock together.

To spring into action: to start a job or activity suddenly and quickly

  • She usually springs into action when she is around her folks.

Go the extra mile: try harder than it is expected

  • By studying long hours, she went the extra mile to pass all her exams with As

Bore someone to death: make someone feel extremely bored

  • Sport has never been my interest. Speaking about it bores me to death

 

Related Quotes:

  • “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.” Albert Einstein

 

Related Words and Phrases:

Insanely (adv) extremely

  • She was insanely jealous of her younger brother. She thought her parents liked him far more 

Breeze (v) inf. To accomplish something easily 

  • She breezed through the exams as if they were not hard at all.

Land (v) to get a job successfully, especially one which is difficult for most

  • Nobody could believe she landed a job with the best company in town only a few months after her graduation.

awkward (adj) uncomfortable

  • I felt awkward to start a conversation with my boss at the party.

Label (v): to describe a person or thing with a word or phrase which is more often than not unfair (usually used in passive form)

  • He was labeled as “oversensitive” only because once he got upset over something small in public.

overthink (v) to think about something more than normal

  • Don’t over think your problems, just try to come up with an action plan to solve them gradually.

Bring up (a topic) (ph v): to start discussion or talking about a particular topic

  • It was only after an hour that he brought up the topic of his unemployment.

Critical (adj) if you are critical you end to criticize things and people a lot

  • She was critical of her daughter’s school for letting them to carry cell phones in classes. She seriously thought it was a terrible idea.

Willingness(n): the state of being eager or contented to do something

  • His willingness to retake the test made them believe that most probably he hadn’t cheated on the exam.

Cautious (adj) careful and tending to avoid danger

  • He was a cautious driver and that is why he had never had an accident.

Reserved (adj) not interested in communicating with other people

  • Unlike her sister who is very sociable, Gina is rather reserved.

doom (n) a bad situation which is out of control

to spell doom: to cause something bad happen

  • I believe it was his negative attitude that spelled doom for his friendships and ruined them.

 Stagnant (adj): without movement or activity

  • A stagnant economy can lead into high rates of unemployment.

Introverted (adj) an introverted person doesn’t feel like sharing feeling and emotions with the other

  • Being an introverted, Mike could not mange any long term relationship.

Extroverted (adj) an extroverted person feels at ease to express his/her vies and emotions

  • To be a successful film critic you need to be extroverted.

Gravitate (v) to be attracted something or someone and hence go towards them

  • The baby was gravitated to the colorful candies in the shop

Relate to someone (v) to understand someone’s feelings

  • I can hardly relate to elderly people. It seems their world is very different from mine.

Credit (n) appreciation and approval you give to someone because you think they are worthy of it

  • She deserves the credit for the party, she has been planning it for a whole week and honestly it is perfect.

Crave (v) to want something strongly

  • She craved a big change, everything sounded boring to her.

Stimulated (adj): motivated

  • To keep your students stimulated you need to engage them in a wide range of class activities

Strive (v) to make a hard attempt to achieve something

  • She strived to gain a management position in the company.

Soak up (information) (ph v) to collect and remember as much information as possible

  • She spent hours googling about her job and soaked up a lot of information

Mundane (adj) usual and boring

  • He had a mundane job with an average salary, the was nothing especial about him

 

Related Collocations

Socially awkward: if you are socially awkward you don’t feel comfortable in social situations

  • Being socially awkward, Henry couldn’t connect to many people on the first encounter.

Social setting: a particular social situation

  • most stories try to create a realistic social setting.

To acknowledge one’s fault: to accept you have made a mistake

  • she acknowledged her fault in setting a date for the party and called all the guests and informed them about the change.

Highly intelligent: very intelligent

  • highly intelligent people are not always appreciated and it is not fair.

Pros and cons: advantages and disadvantages

  • only you can decide what are the pros and cons of staying in this job.

There is a good chance: it is very likely

  • there is a good chance he will cancel like always.

Local and global news: national and international news

  • he had a glance at the newspaper and looked for the local and global news