🗽 Learn English With News: Advanced English Vocabulary, Grammar, Pronunciation | Free English Lesson

268,527 views

2022-10-13 ・ JForrest English


New videos

🗽 Learn English With News: Advanced English Vocabulary, Grammar, Pronunciation | Free English Lesson

268,527 views ・ 2022-10-13

JForrest English


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
Today we're going to read a news article together and you're going to learn a lot of vocabulary,
0
60
8170
00:08
grammar and even pronunciation naturally by reading this article with me. This is an article
1
8230
7140
00:15
in the very popular online magazine Time Out New York and this article is about one of
2
15370
6640
00:22
the most iconic buildings in New York and in the world. The Statue of Liberty. Welcome
3
22010
7800
00:29
back to JForrest English training, of course I'm Jennifer and this is your place to become
4
29810
5230
00:35
a fluent confident English speaker. Let's get started. To read this article, we need
5
35040
9220
00:44
to go onto my computer. So let's go on to my computer now and start the lesson. Welcome
6
44260
5771
00:50
to my computer. As you can see our famous landmark, the Statue of Liberty. So let's
7
50031
6389
00:56
begin our article. The title is "You can finally climb on top of the crown of the Statue of
8
56420
8059
01:04
Liberty again". Now just in case you don't know what the crown is, here's our Statue
9
64479
8111
01:12
of Liberty. So the crown is this top part right here. And of course it looks like what
10
72590
7699
01:20
a king, queen, any royalty, what they wear on their head and that is the crown. So you
11
80289
8150
01:28
could climb, climb up to the crown. That would be pretty cool, wouldn't it? Why was the Statue
12
88439
7901
01:36
of Liberty crown closed until now? Let's find out. Following a two and a half year closure
13
96340
8639
01:44
caused by the COVID 19 pandemic, the Crown portion of the Statue of Liberty has officially
14
104979
7331
01:52
reopened to the public this week. So let's look right here, two and a half year. Now
15
112310
9339
02:01
two and a half, a half is of course point five right, so two and a half. That is 2.5.
16
121649
9041
02:10
But why does it say year? And why doesn't it say years? That's because right here, two
17
130690
10601
02:21
and a half, this is an adjective two and a half year. This whole thing is describing
18
141291
8209
02:29
what type of closure it was, okay? And that's why year does not have a plural, because adjectives
19
149500
10379
02:39
don't have singular and plurals. This will make more sense if you look at it like, I
20
159879
8541
02:48
took a 30 day vacation. Okay, so notice here, I took a vacation. This is grammatically correct.
21
168420
10760
02:59
What type of vacation, a short vacation a long vacation a relaxing vacation. All of
22
179180
5800
03:04
those are adjectives but I can also use a time period as an adjective. I took a 30 day
23
184980
7880
03:12
vacation a 30 month vacation a 30 minute vacation compared to I took a vacation or 30 days.
24
192860
11610
03:24
Now here is our noun 30 days, which means to be singular or plural. If it were one day
25
204470
10810
03:35
obviously singular. 30 more than one so days. That is why you don't have an S here. I hear
26
215280
8590
03:43
this mistake a lot from students. What else? Oh, let's look at this re opened when you
27
223870
7589
03:51
add re in front of a verb it means to do it again. Okay, so I could say I re watched the
28
231459
15451
04:06
movie. I can't think of a movie name. I really watched the movie. So this means I watched
29
246910
9169
04:16
the movie again. I watched the movie again. So this is my verb. Watch is just in the past
30
256079
10821
04:26
simple and I'm adding rate. You can add a dash there or you don't have to. It's optional.
31
266900
6850
04:33
In terms of spelling. I see it more commonly without the dash but as you can see here in
32
273750
6100
04:39
the article, they do have a dash, but your boss might say, hey, Julio, can you redo the
33
279850
8390
04:48
report? Can you redo the report? He's asking you how to do it again. Can you redo the report?
34
288240
9810
04:58
So that's a very useful word to put in front of a verb notice the pronunciation re re redo
35
298050
8280
05:06
rewatch reopen, remake. If you've been trying to visit the destination since March of 2020,
36
306330
10160
05:16
though, you might have to wait a tad bit longer. Tickets to access the crowd are basically
37
316490
6060
05:22
sold out through October. Make sure to reserve your past for a future date. Right here. So
38
322550
6560
05:29
you can reserve your past if you'd like. Okay, notice here What verb tense is this? The present
39
329110
6970
05:36
perfect continuous have or has depending on the subject you have is just a contraction.
40
336080
9330
05:45
B E. So this is you have you have equals you as a contraction, then we have been and then
41
345410
11670
05:57
we have our verb in ING so that's the present perfect continuous and we use this for an
42
357080
5750
06:02
action that started in the past, but continues until now and we want to stress the continuation
43
362830
8380
06:11
of the action. That's the i n g. I've been trying to book my ticket since March since
44
371210
10640
06:21
2020 cents this morning. Now you could also say for two hours for two years for five days.
45
381850
18680
06:40
So when we have a period of time we use for and then we use sent with a specific date.
46
400530
6849
06:47
I like this one a tad bit a tad bit. This is a very natural vocabulary choice and it
47
407379
9061
06:56
means a little bit a little bit a tad. So you might say I was a tad late today, through
48
416440
11050
07:07
here. I was late today. How late were you? Just a little right so you could say I was
49
427490
8200
07:15
a little that's very common. You probably know it. Here's a new fun natural expression
50
435690
5629
07:21
that's very common. I was a tad late today. You need this article. Ah, you might say I'm
51
441319
8401
07:29
a tad tired today. So this is saying I'm a little tired or she's tired. hungry right
52
449720
10410
07:40
now. Right now she's a tad a little tad. Tad don't forget that article. Let's move on.
53
460130
11039
07:51
According to CNN, the National Park Service, which manages the landmark was attempting
54
471169
6240
07:57
to hold a soft reopening without too much advertisement in late October to celebrate
55
477409
6171
08:03
the 136th anniversary of the statues dedication in 1886. Okay, so here we have reopening again,
56
483580
11799
08:15
here we had re open. Now we're having re opening. So they're opening it again, opening it again.
57
495379
10991
08:26
Re opening I don't think there's anything else I want to teach you here. If you have
58
506370
5490
08:31
comments about any of this just put your comments in the chat and I will try to answer them
59
511860
5150
08:37
or record a future video. This is a good one. I hope you already use this in your vocabulary.
60
517010
7750
08:44
But according to someone or something. This is a very professional formal business vocabulary.
61
524760
8920
08:53
The CNN is a newspaper Media Group, so that is considered a something but you could have
62
533680
9180
09:02
a someone according to Brad, Brad, the reporter with The CNN according to Brad according to
63
542860
8280
09:11
my mom agreeing to my boss according to the news report, so it can be a someone or something.
64
551140
10860
09:22
Don't forget this too. And don't forget it's an i n g according to. Alas, folks got so
65
562000
8161
09:30
excited about the announcement that those in charge had no choice but to work on a full
66
570161
6639
09:36
fledged opening this month. You're probably wondering what this alas means. This is an
67
576800
8289
09:45
adverb. It's a little bit outdated. To be honest. I don't think you'll hear it that
68
585089
5691
09:50
often. But it is interesting. You might hear it in movies more so it's an advert to express
69
590780
8809
09:59
disappoint disappointment, basically disappointment. So I might say I wanted to go to the party.
70
599589
10081
10:09
But alas, I had to work. So here is the sentence is correct without it was not necessary. But
71
609670
9020
10:18
I had to work. I wanted to go to the party but I had to work. You don't know what my
72
618690
5610
10:24
tone is. And am I upset that I missed the party? Am I relieved that I missed the party?
73
624300
7190
10:31
If I add a last? You know, I'm upset because it's used to express disappointment. I want
74
631490
7719
10:39
it to go to the party. But alas, I had to work. Alas, alas But alas, I had to work.
75
639209
10451
10:49
We had to hire people to get them up to speed to effectively run Crown corporations. Gerri
76
649660
7179
10:56
Willis, a spokesperson for Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island said to
77
656839
6701
11:03
CNN, okay, we had to hire people when you hire someone, it means you bring them into
78
663540
9489
11:13
your company as an employee, as a worker, you give someone a job, right? So it's a very
79
673029
8081
11:21
useful verb. This is a verb to give someone a job to hire someone. Now, to get someone
80
681110
13370
11:34
up to speed to get someone up to speed. This is a great expression this means to get someone
81
694480
12690
11:47
up to speed okay? This means to give someone the information that they need to do the job
82
707170
12180
11:59
or do the task. So if you were just hired to manage a project, but the project was already
83
719350
9849
12:09
in progress, you need to know a lot of different things about that project. What is the timeline?
84
729199
7700
12:16
What's the budget who's doing what who is in charge of what what has already been accomplished?
85
736899
8081
12:24
So if I share all that information with you, I'm doing it because I want to bring you up
86
744980
6000
12:30
to speed. So this is the information you need to have. And this is the information you have.
87
750980
6979
12:37
So I want you to I want to bring you up to speed which means to make sure your knowledge
88
757959
7130
12:45
is where it needs to be. Now, this is very commonly used with two verbs to get someone
89
765089
7131
12:52
up to speed or to bring someone up to speed I think I use to bring someone up to speed
90
772220
5690
12:57
and some of my examples because that's the one I use more frequently. But I also here
91
777910
6700
13:04
get someone up to speed. Both of these verbs are acceptable and they both have the same
92
784610
6640
13:11
meaning. So this is an excellent expression. To bring to bring someone up to speed Okay,
93
791250
9430
13:20
to give someone the information they need to complete a task. Now that task might be
94
800680
9920
13:30
a job. It could be something more casual as well. Why was the Statue of Liberty crown
95
810600
6420
13:37
close? Great question. On March 16 2020, the National Park Service shuttered all operations
96
817020
7939
13:44
at the Statue of Liberty in reaction to the pandemic this is only used in a business context
97
824959
9861
13:54
the verb is to shutter and this means to permanently close to permanently close. So when a company
98
834820
11060
14:05
or a business permanently closes, you can say the board shuttered that company. The
99
845880
9101
14:14
board closed the company. The government shuttered that company. This could also be used in the
100
854981
6139
14:21
passive. The company was shuttered. But again, this is very specifically a business verb.
101
861120
10649
14:31
You won't use it outside of this context. Although portions of the monument started
102
871769
7981
14:39
welcoming visitors once more. The pedestal deck, for example, has been operating since
103
879750
6120
14:45
July of 2021. The crown itself remained closed. I don't think there's anything there I need
104
885870
7079
14:52
to teach you. Willis told CNN that a variety of factors contributed to the delayed reopening,
105
892949
8640
15:01
including state and federal pandemic restrictions and dealing with a record low hiring pool.
106
901589
8381
15:09
This is a useful expression. Low, record low. So of course you can have highs and lows.
107
909970
8669
15:18
So let's say the average low is about here. Let's use the weather so let's say in winter,
108
918639
8060
15:26
in your city, the temperature is 10 degrees Celsius. But and that's the average temperature
109
926699
7591
15:34
but then one year your city had a record low so it went down to five degrees Celsius or
110
934290
9590
15:43
three degrees Celsius. So that means it was a record it was a new accomplishment and note
111
943880
9310
15:53
worthy of that. So a record low means lower than average, lower than normally it is now
112
953190
10600
16:03
hiring pool. A hiring pool describes the amount of people available to be hired. And remember,
113
963790
10250
16:14
we already learned what that meant up here. When you hire someone, you give them a job.
114
974040
6969
16:21
So if I want to be hired, it means I want to receive a job. So to be hired. This is
115
981009
11431
16:32
when you receive a job, to be higher to receive a job to hire someone is to give someone a
116
992440
15209
16:47
job. These are two must know verbs and make sure you don't confuse them because I could
117
1007649
8300
16:55
say, I was hired by the company. The company hired me. So passive I'm receiving the job.
118
1015949
13691
17:09
Active the company is giving the job. And remember hiring pool is just the availability
119
1029640
9380
17:19
of people able to be hired. So maybe there are 100 people in the hiring pool. 100 people.
120
1039020
12710
17:31
But it could also be a million people. It could be five people. The number could be
121
1051730
5720
17:37
any number at all. So we'll just say 500 people. How do I get to the Statue of Liberty crown?
122
1057450
9020
17:46
Great question. Would be visitors need to buy tickets in advance, which include a round
123
1066470
6690
17:53
trip ferry ride to Liberty Island and usually a pitstop at the Ellis Island National Museum
124
1073160
7570
18:00
of Immigration as well. Certainly a must see in of itself. All right. There's some great
125
1080730
8750
18:09
vocabulary here for travel vocabulary, round trip, round trip. So a round trip means you
126
1089480
8460
18:17
go and you return a one way trip is you go that's it. So of course you need a round trip
127
1097940
9690
18:27
because you need to come back. It's an island. You can't be stuck on the island, right? So
128
1107630
7170
18:34
it makes sense that it's a round trip, but you might commonly purchase a one way ticket
129
1114800
8370
18:43
to Spain, because you want to stay in Spain for a longer period of time or after that
130
1123170
7380
18:50
you might go to another country, but you don't necessarily want to go to Spain and come back
131
1130550
6780
18:57
if you do then that's our round trip. Ticket to Spain. Up hit stop. This is when you go
132
1137330
15250
19:12
from destination A to B but you need to do something in the middle. So maybe I'm going
133
1152580
9010
19:21
from my house to my office. But I need to make up pitstop at the bank and take out some
134
1161590
9530
19:31
money or deposit some money or I need to make a pit stop at the grocery store and buy some
135
1171120
8330
19:39
milk or I need to make a pit stop at the mall and buy a new pair of shoes. So you're going
136
1179450
8550
19:48
from A to B but then you stopped somewhere before so a pit stop. Pit is an adjective
137
1188000
9690
19:57
is just describing what type of stop a pit stop a temporary stop when going from point
138
1197690
13400
20:11
A to B and is a temporary stop for a specific purpose, such as to buy milk or to purchase
139
1211090
15220
20:26
something else or to drop something off the pastor's will also grant you access to
140
1226310
11100
20:37
the Liberty National Monument, the pedestal and the crown of the monument. The Statue
141
1237410
6340
20:43
of Liberty museum with its three interactive galleries and the grounds of Liberty Island
142
1243750
5410
20:49
and Ellis Island. Once on premise, you will have to climb in stories. There's 215 stairs
143
1249160
10370
20:59
to be precise, to reach the statues pedestal and another one 162 stairs to actually get
144
1259530
8900
21:08
to the crown. In case you were wondering, there is an elevator but it peaks out the
145
1268430
6910
21:15
pedestal portion of the monument. Needless to say the extra workout to climb all the
146
1275340
7550
21:22
way to the top is absolutely worth it. All right. This is a Muslim expression right here
147
1282890
8960
21:31
to be worth it. Do you see the verb to be? Is right here to be worth it. So you could
148
1291850
8670
21:40
say climbing to the top is worth it. So this is our something. This is commonly used as
149
1300520
14770
21:55
a gerund expression. Notice here climbing to the top I might say visiting the top that
150
1315290
9480
22:04
that would be a good gerund verb visiting the top what happened to the rest of mine?
151
1324770
5510
22:10
I don't know where the rest of the text went. Sorry about that. Visiting the top is worth
152
1330280
9240
22:19
it. Seeing the top climbing to the top. So a gerund verb going to the top. Taking pictures
153
1339520
8770
22:28
at the top is worth it. Now you could also say it is it it's worth it to climb to the
154
1348290
13120
22:41
top. So you can absolutely see this and it's grammatically correct. We're starting with
155
1361410
4870
22:46
our subject are ever worth it. And then to climb to the top this is grammatically correct.
156
1366280
10220
22:56
This I would say is more common. So the exact translation would be climbing to the top is
157
1376500
8420
23:04
worth it. And this gives you the chance to use a more advanced structure and use a gerund
158
1384920
5000
23:09
verb and let's look at right here as well. Needless to say, this is all very advanced
159
1389920
8750
23:18
expression it will help you sound professional. Needless to say. This is an expression that
160
1398670
7231
23:25
means information isn't surprising. So it's expected. Needless to say the extra workout
161
1405901
11429
23:37
to climb all the way to the top is absolutely worth it. So this is a way of saying climbing
162
1417330
7580
23:44
to the top is worth it. But that's not surprising, right? Because let's look at the top. If you
163
1424910
8020
23:52
came all the way to New York, and you visited the Statue of Liberty, why would you stay
164
1432930
9470
24:02
down here at the bottom, when you can go to the top? Wouldn't it be worth it to go to
165
1442400
12470
24:14
the top? Of course it would. Needless to say it's not surprising. It's expected that I
166
1454870
8350
24:23
would say it's worth it. And of course you wouldn't do that right? I would totally want
167
1463220
5200
24:28
to go to the top. In fact, I've been to New York many times. I've been to the Statue of
168
1468420
5380
24:33
Liberty and I'm embarrassed to say I didn't even know you could go to the top. So I'm
169
1473800
6760
24:40
a little bit embarrassed about that. And now I want to go to the top. What about you? Have
170
1480560
4821
24:45
you seen the Statue of Liberty in person? Did you know you could go to the top? Okay,
171
1485381
6349
24:51
needless to say, I might say let's say it's been a very, very busy week at work extremely
172
1491730
11550
25:03
busy. Our record breaking busy week. Now I might say tomorrow is Friday and needless
173
1503280
15370
25:18
to say, we all need a break. So it's Friday, which means it's the weekend. It's time for
174
1518650
8510
25:27
you to relax and recover from the busy, busy busy week. And of course I'm saying we need
175
1527160
7610
25:34
a break but that's expected it's obvious we need a break because we just had a very busy
176
1534770
6080
25:40
week. Needless to say. Needless to say, I might even say something like needless to
177
1540850
10080
25:50
say as a language learner, it's important to expand your vocabulary. So my sentences
178
1550930
13310
26:04
as a language learner, it's important to expand your vocabulary, but I'm adding this expression
179
1564240
4920
26:09
to let you know well this isn't very surprising is it? Do you know this expected needless
180
1569160
8510
26:17
to say an excellent expression to add to your vocabulary. And that is the end of our article.
181
1577670
8390
26:26
Amazing job today. Think of all the natural grammar, vocabulary and even pronunciation
182
1586060
5830
26:31
that you learned in this very interactive way in this very natural way. If you found
183
1591890
6590
26:38
this video helpful, please hit the like button, share it with your friends and of course subscribe.
184
1598480
4800
26:43
And this is the first video I've created in this style. So please I love to hear your
185
1603280
7020
26:50
feedback. Did you like this style of lesson did you find it useful? Is there anything
186
1610300
5760
26:56
I can do to improve this style of lesson would you like to see more lessons like this in
187
1616060
6270
27:02
the future? Share your feedback any feedback positive or negative in the comments below
188
1622330
5890
27:08
so I can keep making the best content possible for you. And before you go, make sure you
189
1628220
5790
27:14
head on over to my website JForrestEnglish.com and download your free speaking guide. In
190
1634010
5620
27:19
this guide I shared six tips on how to speak English fluently and confidently and until
191
1639630
5460
27:25
next time to be studying up
192
1645090
1530
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7