English Reading Practice To GET FLUENT! (Learn English with News)

Did you know that reading to your.

Brain is like.

Exercise to your body.

Reading is one of the best things you can do to improve your.

Fluency in English and that's why I'm so excited.

To share this.

2.

Hour reading lesson with you.

Welcome back to JForrest English, of course.

I'm Jennifer.

Now let's get started.

First, I'll read the headline.

By turning Twitter into X, Elon Musk Risks Killing Billions in Brand Value.

Did you hear that?

Twitter is no longer called Twitter?

It is now called X.

So as you can see on this platform, this is the logo, The new X logo, which replaces the

bird that everybody knows from Twitter.

So by turning Twitter into X, in this case, when you turn something into something, it

means you transform it.

Or you change it.

So Elon Musk transformed Twitter into X.

It is no longer Twitter.

It is now called.

XI wrote that definition for you.

And here's an everyday example.

I turned these old towels into a beautiful quilt.

So I took these old towels and I transformed them.

I changed them into a beautiful quilt.

Now don't worry about writing all these notes down, because I summarize everything in a

free lesson PDF.

So you can look in the description for the link to download the free lesson PDF.

And notice here in the headline we have Elon Musk risks.

And then you have a verb.

But what do you notice?

About the verb.

It's in the gerund form, the ING form.

That's because the verb risk is a gerund verb, so the verb that comes after risk will be

in the ING form.

For example, I could say you can't risk, and now whatever verb I need is going to be in

the gerund, so you can't risk.

What, Missing the meeting, for example?

Or you.

Can't risk missing.

This lesson that you're watching right now.

So notice this verb is in the ING form because risk is a gerund verb.

All right, let's continue on and learn about how Elon Musk turned Twitter into X.

It's rare for corporate.

Brands to become so intertwined with everyday conversation that they become verbs.

And this is actually really interesting that they said this that they become verbs.

For example, the company Google.

You commonly use this as a verb.

I googled it.

Just Google it.

You're taking the company name and you're actually using it as a verb, which is something

that we do with very popular social media sites.

So you can use Google.

As a verb.

But remember, because it's a verb, you have to conjugate it with your time reference.

I googled it, that's in the past.

Or she WhatsApp me.

Sometimes when it doesn't look very good to spell it as an Ed, we do an apostrophe D to

show the past.

Simple.

She whatsapped me.

He retweeted my picture.

All of these are verbs, and all of them are in the past simple.

It's rarer still.

Listen to the pronunciation here.

Rarer, rarer.

So we have rare.

Rarer.

It's rarer still for the owner of such a brand to announce plans to intentionally destroy

it.

So Elon Musk intentionally destroyed Twitter by rebranding it as the company X.

Now, when you do something intentionally, this is an adverb and it means that you did

it on purpose.

On purpose.

So.

Elon Musk intentionally.

Destroyed the.

Brand Twitter.

He wanted to do it.

It was planned.

It was on purpose.

So intentionally is the adverb.

You can also use it as an adjective and you can say.

It.

Was intentional.

It was intentional.

So this is, as the adjective to be intentional.

It was intentional, it being the decision or the action that you just did.

So he intentionally didn't.

It was intentional.

Are you enjoying this lesson?

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Now let's continue with our lesson on Sunday, Elon Musk decreed.

Decree this is a.

Verb and it's an official statement that something must happen when someone decrees something.

It sounds very strong, but it also sounds extremely official.

I usually hear this in the context of government agencies decreeing certain rules or regulations.

But here Elon Musk is the boss of a company, so he has the ability to decree.

Now, as another example, my company decreed that we have to work on Saturday.

So your company officially said that this must happen.

You must work on Saturday.

On Sunday, Elon Musk decreed that Twitter's product name would be changed.

To X.

So now if you go on Twitter, it's not called Twitter anymore.

It's called X.

Actually, I wonder what?

The website is.

Is it www.x.com?

I don't know.

Let me know in the comments.

Because I haven't tried to go on Twitter since this has happened, so I wonder what the URL

is the website is.

OK, would be changed to X and that he is getting.

Rid of the bird?

Oh no.

The famous Twitter bird.

I like this bird.

It's cute.

Oh well, he's getting rid of it.

When you get rid of something, it means that you permanently remove it.

So you can get rid of items from your home, items you don't need anymore or don't want

anymore, and you permanently remove those items from your home.

A lot of times they will go.

Into the garbage, but they could also be.

Given to someone else.

Or sold or.

Donated so it doesn't have to go in the garbage, but a lot of times it does.

So he's getting rid of the bird now.

Notice that the action is in the present continuous.

He's getting rid of the bird.

Which means he's.

Doing it now, which also means it's not a completed action.

So maybe if you go on to Twitter or X www.x.com.

You will see.

The bird still, because he's getting rid of it.

It's in the present continuous in the past simple.

It would be he got rid of the bird.

He got rid of the.

Bird.

That would be a completed action.

He got rid of the bird.

OK, the poor bird.

Let's continue the bird logo, the bird logo and all the associated words including tweet.

This is what the article mentioned at the beginning where you can use tweet as.

A verb.

I tweeted what I did.

Last night I tweeted my holiday photos.

Whatever you might tweet, Musk's move wiped out anywhere between 4 billion and $20 billion

in value.

Now notice I read this 4 billion and $20 billion.

I could absolutely read dollars for each one, but it's not required.

You can just use $1.00 verbally.

But notice you do you verbally say dollars after the amount and the the denomination.

So 100 million billion.

That's the denomination, $20 billion.

That's how you say it orally.

And notice billion.

There is no S but dollars.

This is where you verbally say S with in plural dollars, dollars.

That's how you say.

It orally OK.

His move.

His strategic move, his move.

This is simply saying what he's planning to do.

Musk's move wiped out, wipe out.

This means to eliminate, but it has the the feeling like it happened quickly.

Oh, they wiped.

It out.

They eliminated it, they got rid of it.

And it happened quite quickly or dramatically so.

His move wiped out anywhere between 4 billion and $20 billion in value, according to analysts

and brand agencies.

It took 15 plus years.

When you see this 15 plus, it can be written as plus as an actual word or you can use the

plus symbol symbol and you can say 15 plus years, so in this case.

If you use the.

Symbol.

You don't have a dash.

It would just be 15 plus because technically the dash looks like a -.

That would be very confusing.

15 plus years or as as they have it here, 15 dash plus it took 15 plus years and of

course that means.

More.

Than 15 years.

So when you say 15 plus, maybe it's 16 or 17, but because we generally like to talk

in numbers of zero and five, it sounds better to say 15 plus rather than 16.

And you see this a lot on resumes or people talking about their experience.

I have 15 plus years of experience teaching English for example.

It took 15 plus years to earn that much equity worldwide.

The equity is referring to the value, the company's value.

And this is just the equity that they wiped out that they eliminated by turning Twitter

into X.

The company is obviously worth more than that.

If if the.

Move wiped this much out so the equity is how much it is worth and it took 15 plus years

to earn that much equity worldwide.

So losing Twitter as a brand name is the significant financial hit in this.

Case the word hit.

Means loss Loss.

So you could say we took a hit during COVID.

This means you had a financial loss during COVID, especially in the context of a business,

in a context of a business, we, this means my business, our business.

So our company, our business took a hit during COVID.

That means financially you can use this in an everyday context.

If you don't have a company as well, you might say, well, we sold our home.

But we took a hit.

We took a hit, which means you lost financially on the sale of your home, so you didn't make

as much money as you could have made if you had sold it at a different time, for example.

Oh, we sold our home, but.

We took a hit.

We took a hit.

OK, so losing Twitter as a brand name is the significant financial hit, said Steve Susie,

director of Brand communication Musk, whose company has already declined significantly

in value since he purchased it for 44 billion in October, $44 billion.

So this is how much he purchased it.

For and this one person is suggesting that he.

Just.

Lost almost half the value of the company by turning Twitter into X of.

Course that is just this.

One person's opinion.

It doesn't mean that this is factual.

It's simply his his opinion.

OK, so we purchased it for $44 billion.

Remember that S on dollars.

Dollars in October announced the change on Saturday night.

Now when you see.

This, here and then another, here.

What's happening?

Is all of this is just?

Additional information in the in the sentence.

Let me see if I can move this here.

Just to make it a little more clear, because how you read this grammatically is here.

This announced is going to be conjugated with Musk now because it's in the past.

Simple, there isn't a different conjugation.

For.

Different subjects, so that's pretty easy.

But if this.

Were in the present simple, you wouldn't conjugate it with whatever you last saw.

Here you would conjugate it with whatever came before the 1st.

Musk announced the change on Saturday night.

That right there.

Is.

A complete sentence and then everything in the commas gives additional information, so

information about when he bought the company and how much it was worth at the time.

So that's a very important point to remember, especially when you're writing so Musk and

then this word is conjugated with Musk.

Now here let's take a look at significantly, because they used it twice, significant financial

hit here, this is being used as an adjective, a significant financial hit, and then significantly

is an adverb.

Significant, significantly are both more formal, advanced ways of saying A.

Big or.

A lot.

So I have significant experience.

I have a lot of experience.

Twitter took a significant financial hit.

Twitter took a big financial hit.

So it can mean big in quantity.

Or a.

Lot depending on how it's used in context, but it is a more advanced way.

If I were in a job interview, I would not say I have a lot of experience.

Experience.

I would say I have significant experience because that sounds a lot more professional

than saying a lot.

I have a lot of experience.

But when I'm communicating with my friends, I would absolutely use a lot because significance

sounds too formal for communication with my friends.

So I have a lot of experience.

This means I have significant experience.

OK, let's continue by Monday morning, a new black X logo.

So remember, that's what we saw in the image here.

So if you log into Twitter now, oh look, I'm just noticing underneath he does have the

URL x.com.

I just answered my own question.

OK, x.com Interesting.

So.

Here this is.

The new.

Black X.

Logo that appeared on What Was It On Monday morning.

A new black X logo designed by a fan over the weekend began to appear across the site.

All right, new.

Chief Executive Officer, So Chief Executive Officer, This is the highest.

Ranking position within a company commonly.

Use the short.

Form CEO So the abbreviation You take the 1st letter of each to form the abbreviation.

Chief Executive Officer, CEO.

So new CEO Linda Yaccarino outlined the company's vision for X to become a site for audio, video,

messaging, payments and banking.

So it looks like with.

This rebrand by turning Twitter into X, It appears, based on what we're reading now,

that Elon wants to also expand what the company does.

And it won't just be a social media platform if you can do your payments and banking.

This is interesting because did you know that Elon Musk started PayPal?

PayPal was his company.

He invented it and.

PayPal is, of course.

Payments and banking.

So Elon Musk already has a lot of experience in that area because he invented PayPal.

So I guess that makes sense that he wants to combine.

What he did with PayPal.

Into social media and have it as one site, All right?

So that's interesting to know.

Analysts and brand agencies call the products renaming a mistake.

So renaming.

When you add RE in front of a verb, it means to do it again.

So the verb is to name, to name a company, to name a website.

But.

So they first.

Originally named it Twitter, and now they're renaming it.

They're naming it again to.

X.

Analysts and brand agencies call the products renaming a mistake.

Twitter is one of the most recognizable social media brands, said Todd Irwin, founder of

brand agency Phaser.

Bird decals adorn small businesses and websites worldwide.

Was a decal?

Well, it's basically a sticker, but it's slightly different material.

It's a picture and you put it on to a surface just like you would put a sticker, but it

doesn't.

Stick the same way that a sticker does.

So the way it sticks to the surface is different from a sticker, but it's the.

Exact same concept.

It is an image that you can place on a surface.

So here are some fun flower decals that you could put on your car.

And I'm sure there are all types of decals to suit your preferences.

If you want to put them on your car or put them on your window or wherever you want to

put them.

So that's a decal.

And I'm sure you've seen the Twitter bird decal different places, maybe on laptops.

When you're in a cafe and people have the Twitter bird on their laptop, that's the decal.

It could also be a sticker.

It just depends how it is on the.

Surface if it's a sticker or a decal.

Bird decals adorn small businesses and websites worldwide.

Adorn.

It simply is a formal way of saying they're visible on so.

You can see the decals on small businesses and websites alongside Instagram and Facebook

logos.

Twitter's popularity has also made verbs like tweet and retweet.

I tweeted you.

Did you get it?

Did you?

Get my tweet.

We also use it as a noun, of course.

Did you see my tweet?

So in that case, it's a noun.

Did you see my tweet?

I didn't.

No, No, you tweeted me.

So this would be the.

Verb and this is a noun form Twitter's popularity has also made.

Verbs.

Like, tweet and retweet, Part of modern culture used regularly to explain how celebrities,

politicians and others communicated with the public, said Joshua White, assistant professor

of finance at Vanderbilt University.

And that's the end of the article, so I wonder what they'll say now.

Did you see my ex?

Is that what they'll say?

Did you see my ex?

I didn't know you.

What would it be?

Exed me.

So this is where it I don't know.

It doesn't look the best to do xed.

So this is where a native speaker would do the X apostrophe D to show that it's in the

past.

Simple.

I didn't know you exed me.

Is that what they're?

Going to say now, I have no idea, but that is the logo and the website.

And if we say tweet, I guess it makes sense, We would now say X.

So we'll see how Elon Musk will also modify and change the English language at the same

time he does the social media platform Twitter.

So that is the end of.

The article So what I'll do now is I'll go to the beginning and I'll read the article

from start to finish.

And this time you can focus on my pronunciation.

By turning Twitter into eggs, Elon Musk risks killing billions in brand value.

It's rare for corporate brands to become so intertwined with everyday conversation that

they become verbs.

Is rarer still for the owner of such a brand to announce plans to intentionally destroy

it.

On Sunday, Elon Musk decreed that Twitter's product name would be changed to X and that

he is getting rid of the bird logo and all the associated words, including tweet.

Musk's move wiped out anywhere between 4 billion and $20 billion in value, according to analysts

and brand agencies.

It took 15 plus years to earn that much equity worldwide, so losing Twitter as a brand name

is a significant financial hit, said Steve Susi, director of brand communication.

Musk, whose company has already declined significantly in value since he purchased it for $44 billion

in October, announced the change on Saturday night.

By Monday morning, a new black X logo designed by a fan over the weekend began to appear

across the site.

New Chief Executive Officer Linda Yakarino outlined the companies vision for X to become

a site for audio, video, messaging, payments and banking.

Analysts and brand agencies call the products renaming a mistake.

Twitter is one of the most recognizable social media brands, said Todd Irwin, founder of

brand agency Phaser.

Bird decals adorn small businesses and websites worldwide.

Alongside Instagram and Facebook logos, Twitter's popularity has also made verbs like tweet

and retweet part of modern culture, used regularly to explain how celebrities, politicians and

others communicated.

With the public.

Said Joshua White, assistant professor of finance at Vanderbilt University.

Amazing job.

Feel free to take a break, and when you're ready, let's move on with the next article.

Welcome to our article.

We're talking about Tiktok.

I'm sure an app you're very familiar with.

Let me read the headline.

Agencies have 30 days to ban Tiktok on Government Devices, White House says.

So this article is about.

Banning Tiktok.

You need to know what ban means to understand the context of this article.

Ban is a verb and it means to not allow or to prohibit.

Now, of course, this article is about government, the government Banning TikTok and the government

allows and doesn't allow bans.

Many different things, not just the government.

For example, there are many times, imagine you go to the airport.

There are many things or activities that are banned at an airport that are not allowed.

For example, smoking.

Smoking is banned in all.

Airports.

Now notice here.

I'm using my verb.

To be and then I'm using ban in the Ed form notice.

The.

Spelling.

You add an extra N when it's in the Ed form.

This does not affect pronunciation at all.

Smoking is banned I.

Could.

Use an active sentence and I could talk about who banned smoking at airports, for example

the airport authority, assuming there is one.

The airport authority banned smoking.

This verb ban is commonly.

Used.

In the passive form as well, because a lot of times we're just talking about the result,

we're not necessarily talking about who is banning something.

So how could I take this?

Sentence and put it in the passive form.

What do you think?

I'll give you a second.

Let me write it out for you in the passive form so I can take my active sentence.

The airport authority.

Bans smoking, so I'm now I'm going to take smoking is going to be my subject.

Smoking my verb in the active form is in the past simple.

So now all I have to do.

Is.

Turn it into the passive form which needs.

The verb to be.

And that is going to be in the past.

Simple.

Smoking was banned.

I'm going to leave ban in the Ed form.

Smoking was banned by the airport authority.

So that's my passive sentence.

So you can use the verb ban in an active sentence, and it's very commonly used in the passive

sentence as well.

Let me read the headline again.

Agencies have 30 days to ban TikTok on government devices, White House says.

So this is an order coming from the White House.

All right, let's continue on.

The White House has directed federal agencies that they have 30 days to remove TikTok from

all government issued devices.

So again here they're removing Tiktok because the government has banned Tiktok.

I could say that as just a statement, the government has banned Tiktok.

Notice here.

Notice here that I.

Used Witchford tense.

I used the present perfect verb tense.

Let me see if I can put this in capitals and if it will correct the spelling.

Ah, it likes that.

It likes it in.

Capitals TikTok this is.

In the present perfect now.

Why did I put?

This sentence in the present perfect when I said it out loud, the government has banned

TikTok.

It's because it's an action that's a completed action.

The government has banned TikTok, so you need to remove it from your device.

It's a completed past action but it has a result in the present Completed past action

with a result in the present and the result in the present is.

So now you have to remove it from your device.

That's why I put this in the present perfect when I said it out loud.

30 days to.

Remove Tiktok.

Now keep in mind this isn't the general public.

This is only for government issued devices.

So if you have a phone.

But the government, your job, your employer gave you this.

Phone.

You have to remove Tiktok from this phone.

But let's say you have another phone.

That's your personal phone.

Well, you wouldn't have to remove it.

You would only have to remove Tiktok from your government issued phone.

OK, here we go.

We'll continue on.

U.S.

officials.

Have raised concerns that the Chinese government could pressure bright Dance to hand over information.

Let me just pause there.

I want to just point out.

Our verb here have.

Raised concerns.

You.

Can raise a concern.

Oh, I have a concern that I'd.

Like to?

Raise at the next meeting.

So it's just another way of saying to share, to share a concern.

Let me write the sentence I just said I have a concern that I'd like to raise.

Again, this is another way of just saying I'd like to share.

Or you could say.

You raised a valid concern in the meeting.

A valid concern is simply a concern that.

We.

Should consider further.

It's a nice way of saying a good concern, A good concern that sounds like very beginner

English, a valid concern.

It's a concern we should consider.

It's a way of saying, I think, your concern.

Is a good.

Concern.

U.S.

officials have raised.

Concern that the Chinese government could pressure Brightdance.

Brightdance.

They actually don't explain it in the article, but Brightdance is the company that owns Tiktok.

If you weren't sure who Brightdance was, the company that owns Tiktok so the Chinese government

could pressure Bright Dance.

When one the Chinese government pressures another, it means they try to get them to

do something specific.

I wrote the definition here.

Now let me share an example sentence.

My Co worker pressured me.

To stay late.

To help them.

So remember we have one my Co worker then we have.

Our verb pressure.

Here it's in the past simple because it's a completed action.

Maybe I'm talking about something that happened yesterday and then one pressures, 11 pressures,

another.

So the other.

Is me my Co worker pressured?

Me and this is what?

He tried to get me to do.

He tried.

To get me to stay late to help them.

So maybe my work day ends at 5:00, but my coworker said, oh please, I really need your

help.

Remember I helped you last week, so it would be really great if you could stay late.

And help me.

It will look really good if you do.

If you don't, I'll tell other people you're not a team player, so those are the.

Ways that someone could press you, usually with an argument.

It could also be by trying to.

Offer.

You something as well.

So the Chinese government could pressure Bright Dance, the owners of TikTok to hand over information.

When you hand something over, it means you simply provide it.

So you provide information here to give something to someone.

To give is to.

Provide.

It's just a different way of saying it, but notice I wrote often.

Because you're required to.

So a government official, a police officer, someone at the airport might say.

Hand over your liquids, remember.

At the airport, liquids are banned once you get through security, so let me write that

because it's another great example.

With the word.

Ban.

Liquids.

Are banned at the airport once you get through security and it's liquids more than 3 oz.

I believe liquids are banned at the airport, so let's say I try to take.

This bottle of water through security, this is more than 3 oz, right?

The airport official would say.

Ma'am, hand over your water.

Now I have to give.

My water to the airport official, but I don't necessarily want to.

I'm required to.

So we generally use the phrasal verb to hand something over when there is this element

of your required to.

You might be required to hand something.

Over because your boss.

Requires it.

Your company requires it.

The bank requires it.

There could be many, many different times beyond the government, but just keep that

in mind when you are using the phrasal verb to hand something over.

So let me write that out.

Liquids are banned at the airport.

I had to hand over my water bottle.

Water bottle.

To the airport official, I don't know what you call the airport officials, to be honest.

I'm just going to call them airport officials to the airport official, so the.

Chinese government may pressure try to convince bright downs try to get them to hand over

information.

So again, this is saying that Bright Downs may not want to give the information to the

Chinese government, but they may feel.

Required to Why?

Well.

Maybe the Chinese government will somehow cause problems for them if they don't.

I'm not.

Sure, I just shared that as an example.

If you have an idea, feel free.

To share it in the comments, hand over information collected from users, so of course to hand

over your personal information that they get.

Because you use the app.

Tiktok.

That could be used.

For intelligence or disinformation purposes, Disinformation.

You might be wondering what this is.

I recognize information.

What's disinformation?

Disinformation is when you share false information, but you do it on purpose.

So to share false information, share false information on purpose, let's continue on.

As CNN has previously reported, independent security experts have said that type of access

is a possibility.

So.

What type of access are they talking about?

And what what is this possibility?

That type of access they're talking about the fact that bright dance may be required

to hand over or to use our vocabulary.

That bright dance may be pressured to hand over your personal information.

So that's the type of access, the personal information, and it's a possibility when something

is a possibility.

To me, this sounds like a 5050 chance.

Oh, it's a possibility.

So if someone asks you.

Do you think it could?

Rain today.

It's a possibility.

Do you think we'll get bonuses this month?

It's a possibility 50%.

We will 50% we.

Won't.

Now you can make.

This stronger you could say there's.

A high possibility that will.

Get bonuses this month.

A bonus is money additional to your paycheck.

So you get your paycheck and then you get more money.

Bonus money, usually because performance.

Was really positive.

Now if I say there's a possibility to me this again like I said, it sounds like 50-50.

But of course if I add the word high possibility, I'm increasing the chance and to me this sounds.

About.

70% possible, maybe even 80%, but I'll say 70% plus.

That it's possible.

So it's more likely than not.

What would be the opposite of high possibility?

What do you think?

If I want to say there's only a 30% chance, what would be the opposite?

There's a What word would I replace?

There's a high possibility, there's a low possibility, there's a low possibility that

we'll get bonuses this month.

So that's probably about a 30% or minus.

So 30%.

Twenty percent, 15%.

So notice we have possibility which is 5050.

You can modify.

It as high possibility or low possibility you can use this to talk about.

Receiving something like a bonus.

You can use this about the weather, the traffic, really about anything you're making a prediction

on.

So in this.

Case They're saying security.

Experts are saying there's only A50 for 50% chance that the Chinese government.

Would.

Pressure Bright Dance to hand over to give that information, though there has been no

reported incident of such access to date, so there's no evidence that the Chinese government

is actually requiring Bright Dance to hand over this information, or that Bright Dance

is handing over the information Regardless.

There's no actual evidence of that, but the US government is still banning TikTok from

government issued phones.

Brooke Oberwedder, A spokesperson for TikTok, called such a ban little more than political

theater.

So by saying as political theater, it's saying it's.

It's a joke, you.

You.

Shouldn't take it seriously.

It's comical.

So it's a way of insulting the government's actions.

Why?

Well, probably because there is actually no evidence that could be a reason why.

So political theater is just a way?

To insult the government and insult against the government.

Now notice here, ah ban, ah ban.

What do you notice that's different from the examples?

I gave before.

The government banned TikTok.

Let's talk about the ban.

What do you notice?

Well, my first sentence, the government ban TikTok is a verb.

Ban is being used as a verb.

The government banned TikTok.

This is a verb to ban.

That's the verb.

Not bad ban.

Now our other example was let's meet to discuss the ban in this case.

The OR a.

Ban is a noun and an easy way to identify If something is a noun or a verb.

It's a if it's a verb, it's going to be conjugated.

If it's a noun, it will have an article, or it could have a plural form as well, so it's

an easy way to identify it.

Let's meet to discuss the ban.

Now I could say what type of ban?

The TikTok?

The TikTok ban.

Let's meet to discuss the TikTok ban.

Let's meet to discuss the smoking ban, the ban.

So you will see this.

As a noun as well, Canada announced.

It would also be.

Banning the app on government devices now here.

It would also be.

Banning the app right now.

Is.

The app banned in Canada, if I say, the government announced.

It would also be.

Banning the app today.

The app is not banned but is going to be banned in the future.

And here it says as soon as Tuesday.

So by the time you're watching this, most likely TikTok has been banned in Canada.

Again, present perfect because it's a completed past action with a result in the present.

The government, this time of Canada has banned TikTok.

The ban was implemented on Tuesday and I'll just say March 1st.

I don't know when that Tuesday was, but I'll just say March 1st has ban TikTok the ban.

This is our noun, right?

The ban was implemented.

This just means when it started implement, you implement a government rule policy regulation.

In this case, a ban was implemented on Tuesday, March 1st.

Oh, and the European Commission last week issued it's own prohibition.

This is another way of saying it's own ban.

They're just deciding to use prohibition, which is the noun form of the.

Word prohibit.

Because remember at the beginning I said to ban is to not allow.

To prohibit so.

Prohibition is the noun form of the verb.

Prohibit, but we're.

Practicing ban and honestly prohibition isn't as common.

Ban is the more common natural.

So I encourage you to use BAN.

Last week issued it's own ban.

In this case it's a noun on the app on official devices.

Remember, this isn't for a regular citizen, this is just for a phone, a device that was

issued by the government.

So keep that in mind on official devices, citing cyber security concerns.

Over half of all U.S.

states have also partially or fully.

Banned tiktok so notice here have have banned what?

Verb tense is this.

The present perfect and in this case we're using have because US state is our plural

and it would be they they have banned Now partially means that only some of Tiktok is

banned.

I don't know how you partially ban an app to be honest I'm not sure and fully is 100%

so partially would be.

50% of Tiktok There's some things that you can use, but some things that you cannot use.

So maybe somehow it's possible that you can.

You can watch Tiktok videos, but you're not allowed to upload your own video.

I don't know if that's possible, but that would be an example of partially banned.

Fully banned is 100%.

Of course, tiktok on the devices of government employees.

Again, this is just government employees, and the US House of Representatives previously

announced it had restricted the app on electronic devices managed by the chamber.

OK, it had restricted this.

Is our past perfect.

Now we pass.

Perfect.

We use this for a pass action that happens before another pass action.

So first.

It restricted the app on electronic devices and then it banned the app.

So restrictions happened 1st and then the ban came.

It had restricted the app.

So I wonder in your country, have they banned Tiktok on any devices?

Is that something they're talking about?

Do you use Tiktok?

What do you think?

Share your comments below and I can't wait to read them.

So now what I'll do, That's the end of the article.

So what I'll do is I'll read the article from start to finish so you can focus on my pronunciation

and follow along with my pronunciation.

So let's do that.

Now.

Agencies have 30 days to ban TikTok on government devices.

White House says the White House has directed federal agencies that they have 30 days to

remove TikTok from all government issued devices.

U.S.

officials have raised concerns that the Chinese government.

Could.

Pressure bright dance to hand over information collected from users that could be used for

intelligence or disinformation purposes, as CNN has previously reported.

Independent security experts have said that type of access is a possibility, though there

have been no reported incident of such access to date.

Brooke Oberwedder, A spokesperson for TikTok, called such a ban little more than political

theater.

Canada announced it would also be banning the app on government devices beginning as

soon as Tuesday, and the European Commission last week issued it's own prohibition on the

app on official devices, citing cyber security concerns over half of.

All U.S.

states.

Have also partially or fully banned TikTok on the devices of government employees, and

the US House of Representatives previously announced it had restricted the app on electronic

devices managed by the Chamber.

Amazing job.

Feel free to take a break, and when you're ready, let's move on with the next article.

Welcome to our article.

This is a light hearted article about pets in the workplace.

So let me read the headline.

Pet perks tempt staff back into the workplace.

There's already some great vocabulary in this headline right here.

For example, the word perk.

Do you know what a perk is?

A perk?

This is a noun, and it's an advantage or something extra.

This can be money or goods, and you're given because of your job, so of course you get

your salary, but perks are additional for.

Example I could say.

If I want to recruit you to work.

For my company, I could say our company offers amazing perks.

Now what are those perks?

Free lunch.

So you get your salary, your paycheck, but you also get free lunches, so that will save

you money.

So it's like you're getting paid more.

Free lunches.

Free gym memberships and free.

Language classes.

Those are some amazing perks, right?

What about you?

Do you get any perks from your company?

If you do, share some examples in the chat below.

OK, so pet perks.

So these are perks related to pets.

Pet perks tempt staff back into the office.

So let's take a look at this.

Tempt.

This is a verb tempt, and this means to make someone want to have or do something.

So in our specific topic, we're talking about wanting the staff, the employees to come back

to the office, so to not work at home and to work physically in the office.

So how are they going to tempt you?

How are they going to make you want to?

It's another way of saying convince tempt you, convince you make you want to.

Well, they can.

Offer you some.

Perks and in this case some pet perks.

Do you have any pets?

Do you think pet perks would be a good way to?

Tempt someone to come into the office Let's continue on with our article.

Mr.

Griffin, who I assume is this man in the picture with these two adorable dogs.

Mr.

Griffin, who is head of IT for marketing agency Rise at Seven, turns up at its.

Sheffield headquarters with his furry friends, Jesse and Oscar.

So furry friends.

This is a cute and casual way of saying the word pet.

So you could say I have pets, I have two pets, I have two furry friends and those are your

pets, of course.

So I'll write that here Pets.

And the names of his dogs are Jesse and Oscar.

I don't know which one is which, Okay.

Now let's take a look at this.

He turns up at its Sheffield headquarters.

So a headquarter is the main office of A.

A company for example Googles headquarter is in California.

I don't know if that is true or not.

Is just an example.

So this company's headquarters is in Sheffield.

I don't know where that is.

Now he turns up at its.

Sheffield headquarters.

The location of the office turns up.

This is another way of saying arrive.

It's a casual way, but a very common way, and the verb turn up is a phrasal.

Verb This is very commonly used.

For example, what time did you turn up at the party last night?

What time did you turn up?

You can use this in more casual situations, but here they're using it in a more professional.

Situation, but this is a.

More casual, informal article.

This isn't a scholarly article or an academic article.

So that's why they're.

Using this casual phrasal verb, turn up, Let's continue on rise allowing dogs.

Remember, his company is called Rise at 7:00, so they're just shortening it to Rise Rise

allowing dogs.

The company allowing dogs in the office has meant that I've been able to take both my

collies Collies.

This is a type of dog, so this is the breed, the breed.

So we use that specific word, breed, breed of dog, and that means the type of dog.

And here the breed is collies, which is actually short for.

What are they?

I believe they're Border Collies.

Border Collies is the long name and then people just commonly call them collies, so I just.

Googled it to make sure and yes the breed is border Collie but I spelled it wrong so

I need to correct that and notice border Collie dog breed and then you can look at the different

pictures for this breed or find out more information.

So I just corrected the spelling here.

Now, what's your favorite?

Breed of dog I really love Labs, which is short for.

Labrador Retriever, but everybody just calls them the short form, which is Labs.

What's your favorite breed of dog?

Feel free to share that in the comments, Okay.

So here this man Mr.

Griffin, He can take his two.

Dogs Jesse and Oscar into the office so that his company allowing him to do that.

That is a perk.

So here I could say our cough.

Our company offers amazing perks like you can bring your.

Dog into the office.

That is an example of a perk for this company.

Let's continue on.

They get to meet new people.

In this case the they is the dogs.

They get to meet new people, have new experiences and I get to spend more time in work with

my colleagues.

So there's some benefits for the dogs they get to.

Socialize, meet new people, and there's some benefits.

For.

Him Mr.

Griffin, which is he gets to.

Interact with his colleagues.

He gets to work with his colleagues.

So do you think bringing a pet into the office is a good idea?

Is that a good perk?

Would that tempt using our vocabulary?

Would that tempt you to return to work if you were allowed to bring your furry?

Friend your pet.

OK, let's continue on.

It's a complete win win situation.

Now I already explained what the win win is.

Remember he listed some benefits for the dogs.

The dogs win.

They get to socialize.

He wins because he gets to.

Work with his.

Colleagues and the company wins because the company has the employees at work, which is

what the company wants.

So it's a win win.

Everybody gets what they want.

So this is a good.

Expression to have, especially when both parties have an advantage.

It's a win, Win.

It's a win, win situation.

I like this as far as I'm concerned.

This is a great way to express an opinion.

Let me share an opinion.

As.

Far as I'm concerned, and then you can list your opinion.

Perks are a great way to tempt people to return to work, to return to in person work.

Of course, in person work.

As far as I'm concerned, and then this is simply my opinion.

Now you can put our.

Expression at the beginning or you can add it at the end so you can state your opinion.

Perks are a great way to tempt people.

To.

Return to in person work as far as I'm concerned and then you can just add it.

So you can add it at the beginning or at the end.

So feel free to practice sharing your opinion related to.

Perks or pet perks in the comments and use this expression.

As far as notice we have our verb to be.

I'm concerned.

So if you were going to talk about.

A group opinion.

You could say as far as we're concerned as far as.

He's concerned Mr.

Griffin, right?

As far as.

I'm concerned, so don't forget your verb to be.

And to conjugate that, let's continue on.

Like millions of other people, Mr.

Griffin got his dogs during the pandemic.

Did you get any pets during the pandemic, actually?

I.

Did I got a cat during the pandemic and then I got a second cat a year later?

So now I have two cats.

But bringing cats into the office is not a good perk because cats are not meant to go

into the office.

They wouldn't enjoy that at all.

Okay with most of us home working homeworking.

To be honest, I don't see it written like this.

When I saw this homeworking I thought of doing homework.

This is not an expression I commonly.

See.

What I commonly see is working from home, working from home.

Now this.

Is an article.

From the BBC.

So perhaps this expression homeworking is common in British English.

I don't know if that is true or not, but in American English, honestly I have never seen

homeworking.

I thought doing homework for me, I would say with most of us working from home, working

from home.

So if you are learning American English, I would recommend using working from home with

most of us working from home.

At the time, as a result of lockdowns there was a huge surge surge.

Surge is an increase and when you say surge it generally represents a sudden a quick increase

and.

A big increase, an increase quickly and in the amount of the increase is quite large.

So it would go from 10 to 80 in two hours.

That would be a surge we.

See this a lot with gas prices, right?

Gas prices have increased quickly, but the amount of the increase is a lot.

It didn't just increase by a couple cents, it increased by a couple dollars increase.

So.

Gas prices have surged.

Gas prices have surged.

There was a huge surge in pet ownership, so during the pandemic many people bought pets,

so.

The amount of people buying pets increased quickly and the number was quite large as

people wanted increased companionship.

Companionship while having dogs in the workplace is likely to remain a rarity, A rarity, a

rarity.

This comes from the adverb of frequency, rare, rarely which.

Means not.

Not a lot.

Not frequently.

So they're saying that dogs.

In the workplace is not going to be common.

It's going to be a rarity, something that doesn't happen a lot.

This example is part of a wider trend, companies introducing new incentives.

An incentive could be a perk.

An incentive is just something to try to get you to do something specific and a perk.

Is a type of.

Incentive.

So a perk is a type of incentive to try to make staff happier to come into the office

more often.

Job search engine at Zuna I'm not familiar with This site at Zuna says that the number

of adverts.

This is another difference probably between British English and American English.

We don't say adverts in American English.

We just say.

Ads.

The number of ads which is short for advertisement advertisement, so we just.

Take.

Ad from that advertisement, The number of ads that highlight in office.

Perks.

Has now.

More than doubled, so we could probably say.

Has surged, has surged since before the start of the pandemic, so now people are searching

for in office perks as part of their job search criteria they want.

Perks.

The increased incentives range from free exercise and language classes.

That would be a great perk for you, right if your company offered free English training

to complementary food.

And subsidized childcare.

OK, so they.

Range from 2 from 2 when you.

Use the word.

Range from you're going to have one end from this to this and you're going to have a range,

right?

So you could.

Say our prices range from $100, so that is the lowest price to $500.

That's the.

Range of the prices from.

Two, let me write that for you.

Our prices range from $100 to $500.00, so here they use.

Range from 2.

Now notice this word.

Complimentary food.

Complimentary food.

What does that mean?

It means free.

It's just another way of saying free.

Free food subsidized.

If your child care is subsidized, it is not free because that would probably be very expensive.

It is not free, but it is reduced so the the cost is reduced.

Which means likely the employer will.

Pay some of the child care, but you still have to pay.

The majority of the child care that would be subsidized.

So in this case it's reduced but complimentary.

That means free.

Let's continue on.

Employees aren't in a rush.

To return to the office, which means they're not doing it quickly, because if you're in

a rush, it means you're moving quickly.

So, Rush.

Moving.

Quickly, but notice they are not in a rush to return to the office.

So what about you?

Are you in a rush to return to the office or no, after enjoying the improved work life

balance that came from remote working?

Remote working, of course, is another way of saying working from home.

But remote is a broader category.

Because home I'm home right now, I'm working from home.

But if I were in a hotel room in another city, but I was recording this lesson, I'm not technically

working from home because I don't live in that hotel in a different city.

But I am working remotely.

So working from home is a category of remote work.

Says Paul Lewis, chief marketing officer at Adzuna.

As a result, companies are desperate to find new and unique ways.

To lure employees back, lure is another way of saying.

Tempt, tempt to tempt the definitions.

Are.

Slightly different between tempt and lure, but they have the same overall meaning.

To lure is to persuade someone to do to do something or go somewhere.

To.

Persuade someone is to try to convince someone to try to get someone to do something or to

go somewhere, usually by offering them something, hey.

If you come to the restaurant with me, I'll buy.

You.

Lunch I'm trying to lure you to the restaurant with me.

I'm trying to tempt you to come to the restaurant with me, so they're very similar.

Tempt to me is more common because.

Honestly.

When I hear lure.

We generally use it in a more negative situation.

For example, the man lured the child into the into.

His van.

And then obviously something negative happened, right?

So when I hear Lure, there's usually a negative result as that person is persuaded to go somewhere

or do something, or the scammer lured me in and then stole all my money.

So although the meanings are generally the same, I specifically.

Here.

Tempt more in negative context, use more when the result is negative and in the news often

the result can be very negative, talking about murder.

Or death, for example.

But tempt is generally more neutral.

I don't hear it specifically used in negative, and when I hear the word tempt, I don't think

instantly of negative news stories.

So because of that, I would probably.

Just use the word tempt at central london-based financial planning firm First Wealth.

Oh, that was a mouthful.

So at the company First Wealth.

And this is just information about the where they located.

They're located in central London.

That's where they're based.

Based is another word for located we're.

A Canadian based company.

We're a North American based company.

We're a central london-based company.

And then, well what type of company?

A financial planning firm.

Firm is just another word for company commonly used with financial services lawyers.

Very specific.

Companies, but it's just another word for company.

At central london-based financial planning firm First Wealth, that's a mouthful at the

company.

First Wealth workers are being tempted back again.

Tempted back.

So they are.

Trying to convince them to do something.

Attempt to convince someone to do something back via free sessions at a nearby gym.

So this is the perk.

The free sessions at a nearby gym.

This is a perk.

An example of a perk.

Let me write this here.

Perk.

This is a perk.

I wrote it.

As a full sentence, because this is a noun, so I want you to see that as the singular

noun.

You need the article.

This is a perk, but of course with plural nouns we don't use the article, so I could

say these are perks.

Now of course this is just.

One perk.

So we need more than.

One, but I'm just.

Showing you Grammatically, we don't need that article here, but because this is singular,

we need that article.

So how about this as a perk?

Would this tempt you to go back to the office if you got free sessions at a gym?

So free gym membership beauty treatments are another incentive that companies are booking

to get their staff excited about.

Coming into the office.

So this is another perk.

This is a perk is a perk, and the perk is beauty treatments.

That's an interesting one.

I can't imagine what kind of beauty treatments you would get.

I guess it's not in the office.

It could be.

After work on your lunch break, you could go get a manicure or a pedicure or whatever

you want.

So beauty treatments are another you could just say are another perk.

They're using the word incentive, remember.

A perk is a type of incentive.

Beauty treatments are another perk that companies are booking to get their staff excited about

coming into the office.

So you could also say that companies are booking to tempt their staff into the office, temp

their staff into the office, and that's the end of the article.

So now what I'll do is I'll go to the top and I'll read the article from start to finish

and you can follow along with my pronunciation, pet perks, temp staff back into the office.

Mr.

Griffin, who is head of IT for marketing agency Rise, at 7:00 turns up at its Sheffield headquarters

with his furry friends, Jesse and Oscar Rise.

Allowing dogs in the office has meant that I've been able to take both my colleagues

in, he says.

They get to meet new people, have new experiences, and I get to spend more time in work with

my colleagues.

It's a complete win win.

Situation as far as I'm concerned.

Like millions of other people, Mr.

Griffin got his dogs during the pandemic, with most of us home working at the time.

As a result of lockdowns, there was a huge surge in pet ownership as people wanted increased

companionship.

While having dogs in the workplace is likely to remain a rarity, this example is part of

a wider trend.

Companies introducing new incentives to try to make staff happier to come into the office

more often.

Job Search Engine at Zuna says that the number of adverts that highlight in office perks

has now more than doubled since before the start of the pandemic.

The increase incentives range from free exercise and language classes to complementary food

and subsidized.

Healthcare.

Employees aren't in a rush to return to the office after enjoying the improved work life

balance that came from remote working, says Paul Lewis, chief marketing officer at Edzuna.

As a result, companies are desperate to find new and unique ways to lure employees back

to the office.

At central London-based financial planning firm First Wealth, Workers are being tempted

back via free sessions at a nearby gym.

Beauty treatments are another incentive that companies are booking to get their staff excited

about coming into the.

Office.

Amazing job.

Feel free to take a break.

And when you're ready, let's move on with the next article.

Our headline Lab Grown Meat Beef for dinner without Killing Animals or the Environment.

So in this picture, as you can see, this looks like a piece of meat, right?

But clearly this is also a lab, so this is meat that was made in a lab and no animal.

Had to be killed.

Wow.

The future is here, so let's learn about this very interesting topic.

Imagine biting into a juicy burger that was produced without killing animals.

Let's take a look at this adjective juicy.

It describes the burger.

Notice my pronunciation?

Burger, burger, burger, burger into a juicy burger.

When something is juicy, This is an adjective that normally describes food, and it means

it has a lot of juice, which you can think of as a lot of liquid.

So think of a piece of fruit like a pineapple and all the liquid in that pineapple.

So a pineapple is juicy.

A mango is juicy.

What's another juicy fruit?

Can you think of any others?

Share it in the comments.

So imagine biting into a juicy burger.

And I should note that generally, in terms of describing meat, juicy is a pot positive

quality.

You want your burger to be juicy.

The opposite is dry.

So let me write this opposite of juicy is dry because when something is dry, there's

no liquid at all.

Now generally this is used as a negative.

Oh, the burger was really dry.

The meat was dry.

It's a negative.

So a juicy burger that was produced without killing animals.

Notice here we have our ING, our gerund form of the verb.

Why?

Because.

Without is a preposition, and we use the gerund verb after prepositions without killing animals,

meat grown in a laboratory.

Notice the pronunciation here, because there is a difference between American English,

which I teach, and British English in American English laboratory, laboratory.

But notice in the headline they're referring to lab grown meat.

If you can't remember the correct pronunciation, just call it a lab, because the majority of

the time we do call it a lab.

It's the short form for the word laboratory.

I'm going to the lab.

I need to go to the lab.

Can you drop me off at the lab?

OK?

Meat grown in a laboratory from cultured cells.

Which I imagine is.

What we see in this image here is turning that vision into a reality.

When you turn a vision into a reality, it's another way of saying it becomes real.

So right now, for example, Elon Musk is turning his vision of going to Mars into a reality,

right?

Every day he's getting closer and closer with the actions that he's taking.

And right now you by watching this video and learning these advanced expressions, you're

turning your vision of speaking English fluently and confidently into a reality, right?

So let me write that down for you.

So here it is.

And notice again we have that ING or gerund verb because we have the preposition of.

I'm turning my vision of speaking English fluently and confidently into a reality.

Several start-ups are developing lab grown beef, pork, poultry and seafood.

So these are the different types of meat that are being developed in the lab, the laboratory

if widely adopted, widely adopted.

This means that many people are using the product or service, and in this case the product

is lab grown meat, so using would be purchasing it, right?

That would mean it's widely adopted, so many people are using it.

Many people.

Are.

Using it and notice if widely adopted.

Well the subject is lab grown meat but it they just place it after.

But you could also say if lab grown meat is widely adopted and then you could continue

on with your sentence.

So just an alternative way of writing that lab grown meat also called clean meat.

So this is an alternative name could eliminate much of the cruel, unethical Treatment of

Animals raised for food.

It could also reduce the considerable environmental cause of meat production.

OK, notice they're using the modal verb could.

It could reduce the environmental cost.

It could eliminate.

They're doing that because this is right now a hypothetical situation, because it it doesn't

actually exist in the market fully.

It's still being developed today.

So we could, as a modal verb, is used to show possibility, possibility or potential possibility,

potential.

It doesn't mean it will happen.

And remember, because it's a modal verb, it's followed by the base verb, not the infinitive.

That's why it's could eliminate and not could to eliminate.

So modal.

Plus base verb.

That's the sentence.

Structure.

All right.

It could also reduce the considerable.

This is a nice adjective.

Considerable as an adjective means large when we're talking about the degree.

So how much of an environmental cost is there?

If I say there's a considerable environmental cost, it's a large amount of environmental

cost.

So large an alternative word for it would be significant.

You could also say significant environmental cost of meat production.

So you could say in a more everyday context, I have a considerable amount of work to do.

So it's telling you how much a large amount.

The meat is made by first taking a muscle sample from an animal.

Of course muscle.

Now muscles are all over our body, I'm just pointing at a common one.

I don't have very big muscles, but there's a muscle there.

Technicians.

These are the people who work in a lab, a lab tech.

So we also commonly shorten the word technician because it's very common to casually say I'm

a lab tech, I'm a laboratory technician.

Now of course, if you're writing your formal resume, you wouldn't say lab tech, you would

use the full form.

But in casual conversation or speech, you would definitely say, oh, I'm a lab tech,

technicians collect stem cells from the tissue.

So within muscle there is tissue, and then within that tissue there are cells, stem cells

from the tissue, multiply them dramatically.

So dramatically is a adverb, like significantly, dramatically, again, it means to a large degree,

I could also say considerably as an adverb.

So it means quite quickly in this context 'cause we're talking about multiplying.

So to multiply means you would go from 2 to 4, four to eight, 8 to 16 and then be on and

on and on.

But it does that dramatically.

So it the IT happens very quickly and in large quantities.

So you could go from 2 stem cells to 1000 stem cells in a small amount of time.

So that would be dramatically and allow them to differentiate into primitive fibers.

So fibers are like strands of hair almost, but they're within your your muscle, your

tissue fibers that then bulk up.

In the context of fibers or tissue or muscle, bulk up means to become larger.

So you see this a lot in the sports world.

If you're about to go to a sports competition, you would probably want to bulk up, which

means you would want your muscles to become larger.

Before your competition.

You would go to the gym and you would go to the gym a lot because you want to bulk up.

It's not just your arm muscles.

It could be muscles all over your body and you'll see advertisements on TV for take this

pill and it will help you bulk up, which means it will help your you and your muscles, your

body become larger.

So let me just write that to become larger, but in the context of your body, your muscles

to become larger body muscles.

I don't want to bulk up, but some people clearly do for different reasons.

Then bulk up to form muscle tissue.

Mosa Meat says that one tissue sample from a cow can yield enough muscle tissue to make

80,000 quarter Pounders.

Wow.

So yield means to produce in the sense of result in produce.

Result in produce.

Let me write this.

Produce result in.

So one tissue sample can yield, produce result in 80,000 burgers.

That's insane.

Quarter Pounder, if you didn't know, is a burger.

It's a burger that is made with a quarter pound of meat.

A burger made from a quarter pound of meat.

If you like burgers and if you eat at McDonald's, you'll know that a name of a burger at McDonald's

is 1/4 pounder.

You can order 1/4 pounder at McDonald's.

That is a lot of burgers.

Wow, a number of the startups, I think they used this before.

I didn't mention it.

You probably know this.

It's very common term these days, but a startup is a company that has recently been established.

It's a very young company, young in the sense of it's a new company.

So a company that has recently been established, a number of the startups say they expect to

have products for sale within the next few years.

Now to be honest, this article is quite old.

I think it's from 2018.

So the next few years could be any day now, this year, next year.

So this is going to be coming to your grocery stores.

What do you think?

Would you buy lab grown meat knowing that it could reduce environmental damage and it

could reduce harm to animals?

Is that something that you would want to support?

That's an interesting question.

Share your comments about lab grown meat if you would want to to eat it or not in the

comments, but clean meat?

Remember this was an alternative name to lab grown meat.

But clean meat will have to overcome a number of barriers if it is to be commercially viable.

So if something is commercially viable, viable is another way of seeing successful.

And how is something commercially successful?

Well, it has to be profitable.

In order for a company to be viable.

Successful.

They need to make enough money to cover their expenses, which means profitable.

So although they're saying commercially viable, it's just another way of really saying profitable,

because that is what a commercially viable company is.

Profitable.

But clean meat will have to overcome a number of barriers.

A barrier is something that prevents you from getting somewhere.

You might be driving down the road and then you get to a bridge and they're doing repairs

to the bridge.

So they put a barrier in front of the bridge, which could be pylons or just a piece of of

wood across the the bridge, but it prevents you from going any further.

It's a barrier so you will encounter barriers when you're commuting, you're driving, and

you can also count encounter barriers in terms of problems, difficulties or challenges because

they prevent you from from progressing.

From going further and overcome is another way of seeing solve.

So you solve, eliminate, overcome, solve, eliminate, get rid of overcome.

You find the solution too.

Let's continue on.

To.

Our cost?

And taste two to what you always have to think about what you've read before.

And they were just talking about a number of barriers.

So now they're telling us about two of these barriers.

So you could absolutely say two of these barriers are cost and taste.

In 2013 when a burger made from lab grown meat was presented to journalists, the Patty.

This is just another way of saying burger, the burger Patty, the burger generally.

Think of McDonald's or any fast food restaurant.

When you get a burger, it has the bun, the Patty and things like ketchup, mustard, onions,

Pickles, cheese.

So all of that together forms a complete burger.

And then the meat in the burger is referred to a Patty, the burger Patty.

So that's the piece of meat in a burger.

Let me just write that for you burger Patty, the piece of meat in a burger.

Because remember, a burger is not just the meat, it's the bun and all the other toppings

as well.

The Patty costs more than $300,000.

Oh, that's one expensive burger to produce.

And.

Was overly dry.

Ah, here we have that adjective.

What's the opposite of dry?

Good test.

You learned this at the beginning.

The opposite of dry is juicy.

And what did I say?

Is dry a positive thing or a negative thing?

To describe a burger as dry, it's a negative thing.

It's a criticism of that burger.

It means it didn't taste very good, and by saying overly, overly means too much than

you wanted.

So overly more than you wanted or needed.

You could say the meeting was long and this is more just stating a fact.

The meeting was long.

That doesn't necessarily tell you if that's a positive thing or a negative thing.

It's just more of a factual thing.

But if you say the meeting was overly long, now this is negative because overly means

more than you wanted or needed.

Let's continue to receive market approval.

Clean meat will have to be proved safe.

To eat.

So market approval means it's approved to sell at the grocery store.

The government says yes, you can sell this product at the grocery store.

That would be market approval.

Meanwhile, traditional meat producers are pushing back.

When you push back on something, generally a rule, a policy, a decision, it means you're

saying no, I don't want that or you're saying no, we shouldn't do that.

You're pushing back.

So you're voicing an opposing opinion to push back, Voicing an opposing opinion or view

or option.

So maybe your boss wants everyone to work an hour later, every single day.

That's his new idea.

Hey team, I have this great idea we're all going to work an extra hour every single day.

But everyone said no, I'm not doing that.

I don't want to do that.

We shouldn't do that.

That is pushing back.

So the the employees push back.

They said no, I don't want to do that, we shouldn't do that.

That's a bad idea.

That would be pushing back.

So the traditional meat producers, the farmers are pushing back arguing that the lab generated

products are not meat at all and should not be labeled as such.

So when you go to the grocery store and you buy a burger, they shouldn't say it's meat

if it was grown in a lab.

What do you think?

Do you agree with that?

Despite these challenges, the clean meat companies are foraging ahead.

So to forge ahead means that they are.

Continuing or progressing despite difficulties.

So continue progress despite difficulties.

So in English learning context, you could say phrase learning phrasal verbs is very

difficult, but I'm going to forge ahead, which means you're not going to quit, you're going

to continue studying, continue learning phrasal verbs, continue using phrasal verbs, even

though there are difficulties involved if they can succeed in creating authentic tasting

products.

So that would be a burger Patty that actually tastes like a burger.

It's juicy.

It has the flavor, the texture that would be authentic, authentic tasting products that

are also affordable.

Remember how expensive it was?

Clean meat could make our daily eating habits more ethical and environmentally sustainable.

And remember, they're again using that modal could because at this point when this article

was written, clean meat was not available in the public.

So this is just a possibility.

Possibility or potential clean meat could make our daily eating habits more ethical

and environmentally sustainable.

I personally think this is a very interesting topic, so I hope you enjoyed the article in

learning about this.

So now what I'll do is I'll go to the top and I'll read the article from start to finish

and this time you can focus on my pronunciation.

Lab grown meat beef for dinner without killing animals or the environment.

Imagine biting into a juicy burger that was produced without killing animals.

Meat grown in a laboratory from cultured cells is turning that vision into a reality.

Several start-ups are developing lab grown beef, pork, poultry and seafood.

If widely adopted, lab grown meat, also called clean meat, could eliminate much of the cruel,

unethical Treatment of Animals raised for food.

It could also reduce the considerable environmental cost of meat production.

The meat is made by first taking a muscle sample from an animal.

Technicians collect stem cells from the tissue, multiply them dramatically and allow them

to differentiate into primitive fibers that then bulk up to form muscle tissue.

Most the meat says that one tissue sample from a cow can yield enough muscle tissue

to make 80,000 Quarter Pounders.

A number of the start-ups say they expect to have products for sale within the next

few years, but clean meat will have to overcome a number of barriers if it is to be commercially

viable.

2 are cost and taste.

In 2013, when a burger made from lab grown meat was presented to journalists, the Patty

cost more than $300,000 to produce and was overly dry to receive market approval.

Clean meat will.

Have to be proved safe to eat.

Meanwhile, traditional meat producers are pushing back, arguing that the lab generated

products are not meat at all and should not be labeled as such.

Despite these challenges, the clean meat companies are forging ahead if they can succeed in creating

authentic tasting products that are also affordable.

Clean meat can make our daily eating habits more ethical and environmentally sustainable.

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