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Why!We!Binge!Sh*tty!Reality!TV!When!We’re!Bummed!TF!Out!
(Cosmopolitan,!18!March,!2020)!
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Suddenly!I!was!watching!back-to-back!episodes,!obsessing! over! blowout! fights! in!
the!Hamptons! and! abhorrent! name-calling!in!Beverly!Hills.! The! over-the-top-ness!
of!their! manufactured,! rich-people! probs! was! somehow!exactly! what! I! needed! to!
wind!down!and! put!my! own!angst!in!perspective.!No!matter!how!crappy!I!felt—or!
how! many! hours! I! spent! dissecting! my! boss’s! cryptic! emails—at! least! I! wasn’t!
dating!someone!who!pretended!to!have!cancer.!
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Okay,! sure,!legit! scientific! studies!(that! were! probably! commissioned! to!
personally! victimize! me,! just! sayin’)! found! that! more! than! four! hours! of! screen!
time!a!day!is!linked!to!depression.!But!in!binge!moderation!(yes,!it!exists),!I!still!say!
reality! marathons! are!kiiind!of! the! greatest.! Actual! psychotherapist! Fran! Walfish!
backs!me!up:!“It’s!an!automatic!distraction!from!whatever!you’re!dealing!with,”!she!
says.! “It! breaks! the! almost! obsessive! cycle! that! a! depression! can! create! in! the!
mind.”!
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Read!the!excerpt!above!and!answering!the!following!questions:!
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a)!!Extract!two!examples!of!euphemism.!
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b)! Extract! two! clipped! words! and! classify! them! according! to! the! shortening!
position!within!the!word.!!
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c)! Think! about! the! motivations! of! clipped! words! (textual,! ideational! and!
expressive),!and!say!which!type!is!preferred!in!the!examples!extracted!in!(b).!
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d)!!Find!one!bound!lexical!morpheme!and!one!derivational!morpheme.!
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e)!Find!one!deverbal!noun,!one!denominal!verb,!and!one!deverbal!adjective.!
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f)!!Provide!the!word-building!model!(WBM)!of!the!underlined!words.!
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