Learn English Through News - Advanced English Listening

Hi guys, Anna here from English like a native  today we're going to do a little exercise to  

help us to boost our fluency. I'm going to show  you how to jump up from level b1 up to c1 and I'm  

doing this once again with the help of Sensations  English. So Sensations English is a fantastic  

website a great resource for anyone who's learning  English and after this lesson, if you want to go  

and check them out they're offering a seven-day  free trial, which is amazing, anything for free  

go and make the most of it and see if it's going  to help you in your language learning journey.  

I've just realised that some of you may not know  of Sensations English so let me give you a quick  

overview. Sensations English is a site that you  would use in addition to your current learning so  

if you're doing a course, if you're studying for  an exam, if you're just using youtube videos to  

learn the language, then Sensations English is a  fantastic additional resource to really help you  

to improve your level. Now, Sensations English  do offer a find your level test, so if you're not  

sure of your level then they are there to help.  You can take the test today for free, fantastic.  

Now Sensations English have over 600 lessons  available with three new lessons being  

released every week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and  Fridays. All the lessons are focused on current  

news so this is real-life, real-world  vocabulary that you're going to be working with.  

You'll see the lessons are organised into topics  we have community, culture, entertainment,  

hard news, innovation, lifestyle, and natural  world. So there's something for everyone.  

Now there are two types of lessons, the written  and listening lessons, or the video lessons. I'm  

going to open up a video lesson here and show you.  so you have the video at five different levels,  

and you'll also have the transcript  below each video if you feel you need it,  

as well as subtitles within the video as well, and  then below you'll see there are lots and lots of  

interactive games to work with. so you're really  getting a full well-rounded learning experience,  

and then at the very bottom here some  additional interactive tools as well.  

Right back to the lesson let's see what we're  going to work on today. Normally I like to use  

one of their fantastic video lessons but  today I've chosen one of their listening  

exercises. So I've chosen from the community tab  

the Mexico border seesaws win award article. so  let's open this up. now you will see here that we  

can choose which level we want to listen to this  article in. we can either have a1 a2 b1 b2 or c1.  

so i'm going to choose b1 to begin with and here  you will see below we can listen to the article  

and we can also read it at the same time. so  let's have a listen. Border seesaw's win design  

prize first of february 2021. A  collection of bright pink seesaws  

on the border between the US and Mexico  has received the Design of the Year award. 

The seesaws, which are called 'the Teeter Totter  Wall', were put in gaps in the US-Mexico border  

wall. The seesaws allowed people from both  sides to play together across the border. 

The Teeter Totter Wall was designed by  Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello,  

who teach at American universities. Videos of  the seesaws went viral. However, the playground  

equipment was only in place for around 20 minutes. Rael and San Fratello spent 10 years on the  

project. They wanted to talk about the border  issue in an interesting way. The seesaws represent  

the relationship between the two countries,  that people are connected on both sides and  

what happens on one side affects the other. The prize is awarded every year by the Design  

Museum in London. It also recognises  the best designs in six categories,  

which include architecture, fashion and transport.  Tim Marlow, the chief executive and director of  

the museum, said: "The Teeter Totter Wall  encouraged new ways of human connection." 

The creators said they were "totally surprised"  by their win. However, they hope their work will  

inspire people to build "more bridges instead  of walls." Fantastic so now you've heard the b1  

version you may have read along at the same  time the point is you understand the context now  

you've got the story so now if we listen to a  more advanced version of the story you should  

still completely understand despite the fact that  there'll be words that you've never heard before  

and this is where i think sensations english is  a very exciting resource because it allows you  

to challenge yourself but also gives you all the  tools you need to make that progress so let's take  

it up two levels to see one and here you'll see  a completely different version of the same story.  

let's have a listen, shall we. the wall that  builds bridges first of february 2021. The ‘Teeter  

Totter Wall’ has been awarded the prestigious 2020  Design of the Year prize after it succeeded in an  

unlikely act of unification by bringing people  together on both sides of the Mexico-US border. 

The collection of luminous pink seesaws enabled  the young and the young at heart in both countries  

to engage with each other. Breaching the  US government's controversial border wall,  

the seesaws' intense fuchsia beams slotted  between the slats of the metal barrier.  

Despite being dismantled after a mere 20 minutes  of fun, this unusual cross border connection  

attracted praise from around the world after viral  videos of the installation flooded social media. 

Installed by University of  California’s architecture professor,  

Ronald Rael, and San José State University’s  associate professor of design Virginia San  

Fratello, the seesaws have been a decade  in the making. The creators hoped the  

design would encourage a reassessment of the  effectiveness of borders. According to Rael,  

the installation was intended to stimulate  dialogue in "a very frank way but using humour." 

“The wall became a literal fulcrum for US-Mexico  relations,” Rael wrote at the time. “Children  

and adults were connected in meaningful  ways on both sides with the recognition  

that the actions that take place on one side  have a direct consequence on the other side.” 

Tim Marlow is the director of London's  Design Museum, which oversees the prize.  

He explained that the seesaw had  struck a chord with the judging panel  

for its capacity to stimulate human  connection. "It remains an inventive  

and poignant reminder of how human beings can  transcend the forces that seek to divide us." 

Astonished at the “unexpected honour”  of their win, Rael feels the recognition  

comes at an apposite time, as the incoming  American administration inspires hopes of  

a sea change in US border policy. Brilliant  so now we're going to go through the script  

the story the article not the script we're  going to go through the article and pick out  

any words that are advanced or different  and that you may not be familiar with  

and we'll just make sure that you're clear on all  of those words so the total wall has been awarded  

to be awarded something is to be given  an award so we can just use that as a  

verb to be awarded they've been awarded the  prestigious prestigious means very respected  

it's a very respected highly respected 2020 design  of the year prize after it succeeded so it was  

successful in an unlikely act of unification  unification means to unite to bring together  

unification by bringing people together on both  sides of the mexico us border by the way i'm  

using my phone and this allows me to point out  to you that sensations english have just released  

their app which is great it means you can now use  their fantastic site on the go okay so carrying on  

the collection of luminous pink seesaws now  luminous normally means um something that reflects  

light or has very bright light um it can also mean  very beautiful so it's bright and beautiful okay  

so these bright beautiful pink seesaws enabled  the young and the young at heart in both countries  

to engage with each other so to enable is to give  someone the ability to do something and the young  

at heart this is a lovely phrase and it just means  old people or older people who are still very  

playful like being a child um but it doesn't mean  immature it just means playful so young at heart  

to engage with each other to engage is to  interact and connect breaching the us government's  

controversial border wall so to breach something  is to go over it to break it if you breach  

the guidelines or the rules it means that you  break them you go beyond the limits of what they  

said what they say you should do so they've  breached the wall they've gone over the wall  

controversial controversial is a great word  controversial let me just get the exact meaning  

here it means to cause disagreement or discussion  so there's always lots of controversial things  

being spoken about in the news so things  that cause disagreement and discussion  

so we've breached this controversial border wall  the seesaws intense frucha beams now intense means  

strong and frucia it can either be a colour or  a flower but in this case it's the color and the  

color is the colour between pink and purple yeah  so the intense the very strong pinky purpley color  

beams slotted between the slats of the metal  barrier now to slot is to place something usually  

between two things is to put something in a in a  place among other things and it's a place that's  

very well fitted so you slot it in so you might  say someone slotted in very nicely to your life  

but we often slot things into place into position  between two things and we're talking about these  

slats of metal a slat is a thin piece of wood or  metal that's usually used in things like furniture  

so you'll have slats on the base of your bed um or  on some cupboards some blinds i have some slatted  

blinds and there's just these thin pieces of wood  that turn so that is a slat a long thin piece of  

material and these are slats of metal barrier  despite being dismantled so to be dismantled  

is to be taken apart despite being dismantled  after a mere 20 minutes of fun so mia here means  

a small unimportant amount of something a  mere a mere 20 minutes it wasn't very long  

a mere 20 minutes of fun this unusual cross-border  connection attracted praise from around the world  

so praise is is comments of um of well it's like  likes and comments of support so praise wonderful  

you're amazing this is fantastic we love it so uh  where am i i tracted praise from around the world  

after viral videos of the installation so the  installation installation is normally used for  

art that has been installed somewhere so it's  not just a a picture on a wall in an art gallery  

it would be like something that's installed in a  space does that make sense uh so the installation  

here is the actual seesaws seesaw sea salts um  installation viral videos of the installation  

flooded social media so here we're using the  word flood metaphorically a flood is normally um  

a huge amount of water in a place where it  doesn't normally live so if there's lots of  

heavy rain there'll be floods but we can use it  metaphorically to talk about a large amount of  

here we're talking about messages that  have come in um or sorry a large amount of  

copies of the video have gone flooded social  media installed by university of california's  

architecture professor ronald rael and san jose's  state universities associate professor of design  

virginia san frantio i hope i said that right the  ceciles have been a decade in the making now this  

phrase is a common phrase again to be uh something  so a year a week a month a decade a century in  

the making is just a fancy way of saying it took  that long to create so this particular installment  

has been a year a decade a decade in the  making it's taken 10 years to create this  

the creators hoped the design  would encourage a reassessment  

so a reassessment is like a rethink so rethink  of the effectiveness of borders according to rael  

the installation was intended to stimulate  dialogue stimulate means to encourage  

to excite and dialogue means conversation  so it was intended to get people talking  

in a very frank way but using humor so in a very  frank way means a very honest open and direct way  

in a very frank way but using humor so still being  fun not being too serious and negatively emotional  

the wall became a literal fulcrum i think  i'm pronouncing that correctly fulcrum a  

fulcrum this is a new word for me as well  so a fulcrum i've got it written here is  

the point at which a bar or something that is  balancing is supported or balances so if you  

imagine a seesaw or a set of scales when you get  it to the point where it perfectly balances it's  

not weighed in either direction it's perfectly  balanced that's fulcrum apparently the point  

of balance so this is a literal fulcrum so this  is you know literally the seesaws are balancing  

and the war became a literal fulcrum for u.s  mexico relations rael wrote that's what ryell  

wrote at the time um sorry children and adults  were connected in meaningful ways on both sides  

with the recognition that the actions that take  place on one side have a direct consequence  

on the other side so recognition is to understand  and see something i recognize that i understand it  

that the actions that take place take place  is another way of saying happen so the actions  

that happen on one side have a direct consequence  consequence is impact of an action have a direct  

consequence to the other side so if one side  goes up the other side goes down vice versa  

tim marlow is the director of london's design  museum which oversees to oversee something is  

to supervise to watch it to check everything is  working how it should which oversees the prize  

he explained that the seesaw had struck a chord  so if something strikes a chord it means that  

you um you understand it you have a feeling of  connection to that thing so if i hear a mother  

talking about her difficult pregnancy and labor  then i would it would strike a chord with me i  

would feel connected to what she was saying  because i understand it i feel it i get it  

so to strike a chord to to gain an understanding  and a connection so this seesaw had struck a chord  

with the judging panel panel is a name that we  give a group of people that are chosen to do a job  

so here is a judging panel so it's a group of  judges who've been brought together to judge  

the awards for its capacity to stimulate human  connection capacity here just means ability it  

remains an inventive and poignant reminder um  poignant means it's kind of like to be a bit  

sad it invokes um yeah a sense of sadness  and regret so it's a bit sad and regretful  

so it um remains an inventive but a sad reminder  of how human beings can transcend the forces that  

seek to divide us to transcend is to go beyond  limits so it's usually to get better to be better  

or bigger than the limits  that have been set before you  

astonished so astonished is to be surprised  astonished at the unexpected honor of their  

win so the honor that's been bestowed upon them  to be honored is again to be highly respected and  

praised the unexpected honor of their win rael  feels the recognition comes at an opposite time  

now opposite not the same as the word opposite is  another new word for me so fulcrum and opposite  

this means apt in the circumstances or in relation  to something so it's apt for the circumstance  

it's very appropriate for the circumstance so  here he says he feels the recognition comes at  

an appropriate time basically is what it means at  the right time at an opposite time as the incoming  

american administration inspires hopes of a sea  change in u.s border policy and sea change means  

a profound a big noticeable transformation  okay so i've covered a lot of vocabulary there  

and some of it about three of those so sea change  is a phrase i've never heard before opposite and  

fulcrum were new to me so if if there's new stuff  for me there as a native i'm sure there's at least  

one or two new phrases or words for you there  too and hearing it within context of a story  

that you already understand is such a great way  for you to absorb and experience that vocabulary  

it's much better than just picking a word at  random and trying to learn the meaning of it  

because it has no connection for you and so it  makes it harder to learn now this is how i like  

to work with sensations english resources i think  it's really fantastic to challenge yourself beyond  

your level i think it helps to stimulate a  faster progression sensations english then  

also offer lots of interactive games for you to  further explore each lesson and so i do highly  

recommend this particular resource obviously they  have sponsored this video but i wouldn't work  

with them if i didn't think they were absolutely  fantastic so if you haven't taken a trial with  

them then please do go over make the most of that  free opportunity to use their resource for a week  

and if you have any questions regarding anything  i've covered it in this video then please put it  

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to another lesson. Until next  time guys take care and goodbye