"get spooked"

Question

And of course this is why the rules if you like for cervical cancer screening have changed. This realisation that in fact if you do screen, over screen younger women you're going to get spooked because you're going to find all this stuff and really women probably are getting screened too early and women who are older are not getting screened enough to find out these women who have got the chronic infection and who may be at risk of cancer.

(from: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/healthreport/stories/2006/1704762.htm)

What does "get spooked" mean?

And I can't understand the reasoning in the above sentences? Could you please paraphrase it for me?

Thanks in advance!

BarbaraPA · Accepted Answer

"if you like" is way to say "if you want to use this choice of words." My guess is that the speaker was referring to "rules." There are no "real" rules for cervical cancer screening - just guidlines. But he or she wanted to say that the guidelines -- the rules, if you like -- were changing.

"get spooked" means to become afraid of something, usually without any good reason. If you hear the wind outside, making the falling leaves rustle against your door, on a dark, stormy night when you're home alone, you may "get spooked." In this case, the women will have test results that say something other than "everything is great" (even though they don't have actual cancer) and will become afraid.

Here's a summary: The guidelines are changing. We are looking for cancer too early and too often in younger women, and we risk making them afraid about the wrong things, and we aren't looking at the older women enough. We need to find a better way to identify the women who have got the infection that makes cancer a real risk to them.

Philip · Answer

MapleAnd of course this is why the rules if you like for cervical cancer screening have changed. This realisation that in fact if you do screen, over screen younger women you're going to get spooked because you're going to find all this stuff and really women probably are getting screened too early and women who are older are not getting screened enough to find out these women who have got the chronic infection and who may be at risk of cancer.

(from: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/healthreport/stories/2006/1704762.htm)

What does "get spooked" mean?

And I can't understand the reasoning in the above sentences? Could you please paraphrase it for me?

Thanks in advance!

get spooked = become frightened (perhaps more so than necesary)

if you like = if you agree to call them rules (could be eliminated and the sentence would read fine)

Maple · Answer

Thank you first! [C] [C] And could I ask more?

This realisation (that in fact if you do screen, over screen younger women), you're going to get spooked because you're going to find all this stuff and really women probably are getting screened too early and women who are older are not getting screened enough to find out these women who have got the chronic infection and who may be at risk of cancer.

CalifJim · Answer

First of all, you need to realize that this passage is written very poorly. The most charitable interpretation is that it's written in a very informal 'stream-of-consciousness' style. It is not worth the trouble of trying to do grammatical analysis on a passage that is not particularly correct grammatically in the first place! Such an analysis is the equivalent of analyzing a messy finger-painting of a three-year-old child to determine whether the 'painter' was influenced more by Manet and the impressionists or by the abstract expressionism of DeKooning! The time is better spent trying to improve the passage by rewriting it!

Personally, I would not try to force the "adverbial" analysis on that realisation clause. It might be a very clumsy way of saying:

When you realize that younger women are being overscreened, you're going to get spooked.

Or not! It's hard to understand what the writer is trying to say.
_________

really modifies the entire clause that follows it. You can substitute actually or in fact or as a matter of fact and the meaning is about the same.

CJ

Maple · Answer

...It's hard to understand...

so my disable-to-understand-it is justified.

And also thanks for the really part.[C]

I'm curious if such sentences are uttered by an examinee of an English oral test (say, IELTS), what will the examiners' impression be?

Regards!

Maple

CalifJim · Answer

what will the examiners' impression be?

Fluent language -- but hopelessly confused brain!

(Not a totally positive impression, all in all!)

CJ

CalifJim · Answer

so my ~~disable~~ unable-to-understand-it is justified.

Indeed it is!

CJ

(disabled is physically handicapped -- missing an arm, perhaps, or blind, or deaf, etc.)

Maple · Answer

Thanks for your professional comment!!

Khoff · Answer

so my ~~disable~~ unable-to-understand-it is justified.

I would suggest "my inability to understand it."

Maple · Answer

so my ~~disable~~ unable-to-understand-it is justified.

--------This correction fixed a vital mistake and maintains my STYLE. [Y]

I like it! (Apart from trying to speak correctly and naturally, could an English learner have a style?

questionable

.

I would suggest "my inability to understand it."

-----------Received. Terse and more natural!Thank you! [Y] [C]

"get spooked"

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