Hello English learners（学习者）. Welcome back（在后） to EnglishPod. My name is Marco. And I'm Erica. And today we have a very special lesson because we're going to be focusing（使集中） a little bit（一点） more on grammar. That's right.

  We're going to look today at the difference between past（过） simple（笨蛋） and past（过） progressive or sometimes called past（过） continuous. Exactly（确切地）. So we are going to take a look（看） at these two structures（结构） which are a little bit（一点） confusing at times. And we're going to be practicing（练习） today. But before（ 在…之前） we get started, why don't we take a look（看） at vocabulary（词汇） preview. Vocabulary preview（预演）.

  Well, this dialogue is all about telling（ 告诉） a story in the past. And we're going to hear two words in the dialogue that we need to understand the meaning of. So the first one, ages. Ages. I haven't seen you in ages. Okay（好）.

  So if I tell you, I haven't seen you in ages. Basically（基本上）, you haven't seen me in a really long time. Okay. So it's a way of exaggerating（夸大） a little bit（一点）. Yes. And this word, ages, we can use in many different ways.

  Like（喜欢）, I've been studying English for ages. Or for example, I can say（比如说[用于举例]）, I haven't been to the dentist（ 牙科医生） in ages. Oh, well, I guess you better go, huh? Right. So ages, a very long time. Yes.

  Now（现在） another phrase, to run into somebody. So to run into somebody. I ran into Matt. Okay. So if you ran into Matt the other day, you met him unexpectedly（出乎意料地）. Okay.

  So you didn't plan to meet, you didn't have a date, you just casually（ 偶然地） on the street met. Exactly. Okay. So I ran into your friend the other day. Okay. So two good words.

  We're going to hear both of these in the dialogue. So why don't we get started with dialogue first time. Mike, what's going on, man? Long time no see. Hey, Pat（轻拍）. Yeah, I haven't seen you in ages.

  How's it going? Things are going great. It's funny running into you like this. Small world, huh? You know, just last week I ran into Matt as（当…的时候） well. Yeah?

  How's he doing? He's doing well. We went out for a couple（夫妇） of beers and the funniest thing happened. Oh, yeah? Well, we were talking and catching（捉住） up on what we've been doing, talking about work and family. And all of a sudden（ 突然的）, Matt saw a mouse run out of the chair and he completely（十分） lost it.

  He started freaking（怪诞的思想、行动或事件） out and screaming（尖叫）. Really? Yeah. And the funniest thing was, then he jumped（跳） onto（到…上） his（他的） chair and started shrieking like a girl. He should have been there. Everyone's staring（ 盯着看） and laughing.

  It was hilarious（欢闹的）. All（ 全部） right. Very good. So a funny story. And as we saw, a lot of stuff（材料） in the past, right? That's right.

  And we're going to look at that in a moment. But first, we've got lots of exciting language to describe when somebody gets really emotional（感情的）. Okay. So why don't we start now with language takeaway（外卖食品）. Language takeaway. We have four words here.

  Now, in the dialogue, the guy（家伙） in the story lost it. So he saw a mouse and he completely lost it. To lose it. Okay. So when you lose some, you lose it. What are you losing?

  You're losing control（控制） of yourself and your emotion（情感）. Okay. So you lose your temper（(钢等)韧度）, maybe. Yep. So when I lose it, do I just get angry? Angry or upset（心烦的） or even sad, but it's usually a negative feeling.

  Okay. So it's not a good thing to lose it. No. So for example, when I showed my boss（老板） the sales（ 卖） figures（数字）, he completely lost it. Okay. Very good.

  So that's what lose it means. And now our second word is very similar, but has a little bit of a difference. That's right. He started freaking out. Okay. So to freak out.

  To freak out. Now, freak out is very similar to lose it, right? Yeah. But why don't we hear an example now of somebody freaking out? It's just, uh, no, no. Okay.

  Forget it. Forget it. All right. Just forget it.